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Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

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Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#21

Post by stevep001 »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #13
hazz99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-American here -- what is wrong with UMN? I visited once, and it seemed like a decent university.

I'm sure it's fine, but it's not Harvard or Stanford or MIT - it has a 45% acceptance rate similar to my school (~45-51%). AFAIK it's not even considered a public Ivy like UMich or UW or UNC.

Might be true for the university as a whole, but many of the colleges at Minnesota are quite selective. The College of Science and Engineering is one example, accepting 1177 out of 14,000 applications for 2017.

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#22

Post by cobookman »

unexpected wrote: post #14
hazz99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-American here -- what is wrong with UMN? I visited once, and it seemed like a decent university.

nothing is wrong with UMN - OP is making a joke based on the common refrain that Google only hires Stanford/Harvard kids.

Being at Google it's pretty rare to see a Stanford or Harvard new college grad.

It's more common to hear large public Engineering universities & technical institutes.

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#23

Post by Xeronate »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #13
hazz99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-American here -- what is wrong with UMN? I visited once, and it seemed like a decent university.

I'm sure it's fine, but it's not Harvard or Stanford or MIT - it has a 45% acceptance rate similar to my school (~45-51%). AFAIK it's not even considered a public Ivy like UMich or UW or UNC.

Does being a public Ivy really mean anything? I went to Miami Universiry and it didn't really seem like anything special.

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#24

Post by puzzle »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #13
hazz99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-American here -- what is wrong with UMN? I visited once, and it seemed like a decent university.

I'm sure it's fine, but it's not Harvard or Stanford or MIT - it has a 45% acceptance rate similar to my school (~45-51%). AFAIK it's not even considered a public Ivy like UMich or UW or UNC.

That's funny. Cray came out of UMN. He basically made CDC and Cray Research, which of course made the history of computing.

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#26

Post by tdb7893 »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #10

It's really impressive that Jeff accomplished so much despite going to UMN for undergrad.

The flagship university in each state actually always has some very very bright students. The very elite schools don't accept many students and the admissions criteria are far from perfect so a ton of students who would be good enough for top tier schools end up going to state schools. I know a couple different people who were top of their high school class and within a question or two of perfect on their SATs that happily went to state schools.

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#27

Post by kevan »

stevep001 wrote: post #21
akhilcacharya wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it's fine, but it's not Harvard or Stanford or MIT - it has a 45% acceptance rate similar to my school (~45-51%). AFAIK it's not even considered a public Ivy like UMich or UW or UNC.

Might be true for the university as a whole, but many of the colleges at Minnesota are quite selective. The College of Science and Engineering is one example, accepting 1177 out of 14,000 applications for 2017.

More context on the big differences in selectivity between colleges: Minnesota used to have "General College"[1] which, by design, admitted every student regardless of qualifications. That was changed in 2005, but the legacy of inclusion over selectivity lives on in some places.

I can say that CSE was very selective when I was there, and getting into upper division was even harder. But overall I don't think acceptance rate is a very useful statistic because program size affects it so much.

[1] http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/06/10_ap...

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#29

Post by [deleted] »

Xeronate wrote: post #23
akhilcacharya wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it's fine, but it's not Harvard or Stanford or MIT - it has a 45% acceptance rate similar to my school (~45-51%). AFAIK it's not even considered a public Ivy like UMich or UW or UNC.

Does being a public Ivy really mean anything? I went to Miami Universiry and it didn't really seem like anything special.

[deleted]

Re: Google’s Jeff Dean’s undergrad senior thesis on neural networks (1990) [pdf]

#30

Post by GuiA »

halflings wrote: post #3

As always, Jeff Dean doesn't fail to inspire respect. Tackling a complex problem (still relevant today) at an early age, getting great results and describing the solution clearly/concisely. My master thesis was ~60 pages long, and was probably about 1/1000 as useful as this one.

I put a lot of effort in my undergraduate thesis, but none of the professors on my committee had much interest in advising me; and after my defense, the only professor who really gave me his undivided attention came to me and said “I’m glad you’re not staying here for grad school; you’re way too good for this place”.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comparing your journey to others’ is pointless.

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