As I wrote before, I have started studying and already "survived" the first month of those all-nighters and deadlines. This post will tell you about my first impression about the second year at Jacobs.
First of all, let me tell you about the curriculum in this university. Differing from other universities, here you get your bachelor's degree in 3 years. Thus, you don't have that first year, when you study "everything" and decide the field you want to study in. You should tighten your interests and decide on what you may want to study before coming to this university. In your first year, you choose 3 core modules and study them through your first year (in my case, they were: CS (Computer Science), ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering,) and IMS (Intelligent Mobile Systems) ). The next 2 years you continue with only one of them and get your bachelor's degree in that major.
My first year : From the first days, my plan was to study Electrical Engineering and nothing else (which is understandable, assuming my only-physics background). Since you need to choose 2 more modules, I had to take something else as well. After talking to my academic advisor (who is a computer science professor) I took CS and IMS. I was quite afraid of taking CS (which is again understandable, assuming my zero background in this field). I guess this was one of the most important decisions in my life so far. After one month of studying, I had new hobby, new goals and new plans. I became a Computer Science guy. During that year, I was slowly falling in love with this world of codes, which was completely undiscovered by me before.
Although I completely lost my passion to study EE anymore, I had to study it until the end of the year according to the university policies. It wasn't that big of a problem in the beginning, but the workload was becoming bigger and the study material harder from week to week. But let me skip all those details and just say that I survived that year. And here comes my second year, which I was a bit scared of after the horror stories told by former second year students. After getting familiar with courses and teachers, I could again see a lot of hard work coming. Now, after one month I can say that the workload is even bigger than in the first year. So, what is the difference between the first and the second years, that I can feel so far?
The major difference is that all the courses I'm taking in the second year are from CS module, which means: no more undesirable work. Even if I have to stay awake until the early morning to finish the assignment, I enjoy it (of course this may not be true later, when harder stuff will come :P ). But for now, I even don't have any stress for studying through the nights and not understanding the lectures (well, I don't enjoy not understanding lectures, but the self-study I do afterwards). I enjoy my second year studies even more than writing blog posts :D. So now, I need to go take something to eat, to get some energy to finish this post and let you to read it. (Okay, now I feel much better).
Let me tell you about my situation around 2 years ago. I was just about to apply to universities and the question: "What do I want to do in the future?" wasn't leaving me alone even for a second. I was good at Physics and that is what everyone else was expecting me to choose. But I knew it wasn't mine. I didn't have any dream job and the quotes like "Do the work that you enjoy and you'll never have to work again" were just some unreal quotes from the motivating movies. I just didn't know anything, that I would do with the great enthusiasm (I wanted to become an actor, but I thought I won't succeed in that field a lot). Then I decided to do just what I can and applied for the Electrical Engineering at Jacobs University. And you already know what happened next.
Comparing the two conditions (now and then), I feel just thankful, that I discovered my own world of joy. I found the way to work hard and play hard at the same time.
With best regards,
Tima
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