Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (1996) [pdf]

Post by bsaul » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

sriram_malhar wrote: post #107

elteto wrote: post #96

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Wow that is a fantastic story! Kudos for completing your PhD! Would you mind expanding a bit more about your PhD? Which school did you go to? Did you find that your age made it more difficult to get in/stay in once accepted? How did you handle family commitments (if you had them)? Reason I ask is because I've been considering going back to school to get a PhD. Again, that is quite an achievement, so congrats!

Thank you much. Sorry for the wall of text, but you got me going! I had been living and working in California, and found myself at the crest of the dot-com wave of the late 90's and early '00s. But post-SICP, I _had_ to dig deeper. I didn't feel prepared for the schools I wanted to apply to: Berkeley & Stanford. I am totally self-taught, and not having taken an exam in any CS subjects, the subject GRE was a huge ment…

Post by sriram_malhar » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #121

sriram_malhar wrote: post #107

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Thank you much. Sorry for the wall of text, but you got me going! I had been living and working in California, and found myself at the crest of the dot-com wave of the late 90's and early '00s. But post-SICP, I _had_ to dig deeper. I didn't feel prepared for the schools I wanted to apply to: Berkeley & Stanford. I am totally self-taught, and not having taken an exam in any CS subjects, the subject GRE was a huge ment…

Wonderful narrative - thank you for writing this. It's close enough to my experience to ring many bells, but different enough that it was excellent to read. I did Part III in '83/84 and a PhD in DPMMS from '84 to '87, and having come in to the Cambridge system from outside, I was way out of my depth. The amount I learned was quite unbelievable. If you'd like to connect and share experiences, by contact details are in…

Post by sriram_malhar » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

bsaul wrote: post #131

sriram_malhar wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you much. Sorry for the wall of text, but you got me going! I had been living and working in California, and found myself at the crest of the dot-com wave of the late 90's and early '00s. But post-SICP, I _had_ to dig deeper. I didn't feel prepared for the schools I wanted to apply to: Berkeley & Stanford. I am totally self-taught, and not having taken an exam in any CS subjects, the subject GRE was a huge ment…

Your story should be more than a comment on HN. Write a blog about it. How was the first week ? What subject did you have to learn and were the hardest ? etc i think people here probably have hundreds of question.

Post by abecedarius » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

yumraj wrote: post #102

sn9 wrote: post #88

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How to Design Programs is probably the more appropriate choice: https://htdp.org/2019-02-24/

Thanks. How do SICP and HDP compare? I did a quick glance and HDP seems to use DrRacket, but is the material comparable, with HDP just more appropriate for beginners??

Post by oretoz » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 10:24 PM UTC

sriram_malhar wrote: post #114

oretoz wrote: post #112

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Such a detailed answer. Thank you. Unlike you, I registered for an MRes. (Masters in Research) degree at a UK but found that due to lack of taught courses I couldn’t plug the holes in my mathematical foundations. For the very few courses that were taught, quality of teaching was also an issue which presumably wouldn’t be the case at a university like Cambridge. Even though I finished with honours, I am still left wit…

Quality of teaching is a problem everywhere. Universities reward researchers, not teachers. There are very few who dedicate themselves to quality teaching. Also there didn't seem to be any courses at Cambridge geared towards grad studies (or remedial education, which is what I wanted, lol). The undergrad courses were themselves much tougher compared to their US counterparts and very math-oriented. I recall sitting th…