Hear from Taha and his journey of utilizing online resources to become a successful graduate school applicant!
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I had a 3.0 CGPA at the end of my freshman year in college and a grade of C+ in my introduction to computer science class and was heavily dejected at the possibility of not being able to pursue my major simply because I could not meet the requirements. I did not respond well enough to the learning environment at my university and the transition from highschool to university was massive for me. To be completely candid, I did have a chronic procrastination problem. While I could manage that in highschool by cramming up the syllabus right before examinations and doing a few past papers to understand patterns, this attitude could not succeed in university. This is something I learned the hard way. Everything was fast paced and we had to learn several courses in less than 5 months. This required regular and consistent effort. Half of my second semester was spent online due to COVID. Upon semester completion I utilized the golden opportunity offered by online learning platforms on Coursera with discounted rates to relearn whatever I had studied in my first year. I started with Harvard CS50, an introductory computer science course, and ended up taking complete specializations in niches like cybersecurity, databases and algorithms. Supplementing my university learning with online courses allowed me to gain a very in depth understanding of key concepts and allowed me to ask deeper questions and investigate and understand things more than the average student in my class. I made a habit of learning online prior to lectures to gain an upper hand in what was taught in class. This practice enabled me to secure a 3.7 CGPA by graduation and allowed me to secure a fully funded master’s in my dream program.
I want to shed further light on exploring opportunities beyond what your university has to offer. Gathering extra skills online significantly boosted my confidence and filled up the skills section of my resume. This allowed me to compete with international students for highly valued opportunities like Research Programs for Undergraduates at prestigious universities. Getting a letter of recommendation from these programs allowed me to demonstrate my caliber as a researcher and significantly aided my applications. I encourage all prospective applicants to explore online resources and talk to as many people as they can who have made it into their target programs to better understand which profiles stand a solid chance at admission and then utilize these learnings to build their own profile.
