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- Hello. My name is Sam Ragadan.
I'm a freshman at Princeton University,
probably looking to major in computer science
and I'm from Sydney, Australia.
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So a typical day in my life at Princeton,
I normally wake up, have a shower,
get some breakfast and then
more often than not I'll have class in the morning.
Most of my days start at 10:00 or possibly at 11:00.
So my time table's pretty good most of the time,
my class is starting around 4:20, so then,
once that's done I usually...
There's always something to do,
so you know on Mondays I'll
have to work on pace that's due Tuesday and Thursday and
Thursday, I usually do my programing assignment for example.
And I try to balance it out with extracurriculars as well.
So I practice Mridangam which is the Indian drama class.
And I also play Squash.
You put that all together
and that pretty much fills up the day.
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So computer science is a very unique major at Princeton,
in that it's the only major
where you can take it either as A.B. or B.S.E.
So I'm probably going to be taking it as B.S.E.
To be completely honest,
this is a really flexible major.
So the characteristic of B.S.E,
is usually there's more course work,
but you don't have to deal with a senior thesis.
It's usually like how it works.
- So it's a trade.
- Yes.
I'll probably still be doing a lot of independent work,
but I mean that's just a decision I made.
Yeah so, for the first semester,
like what I'm doing right now,
B.S.E tracks are usually really generic
because you need to get started on
math, physics and chemistry requirements.
- Right.
- That is true for like any B.S.E student.
I took a placement test
to place out of the chemistry requirements.
So at the moment I'm taking a math course.
The first in the sequence of physics courses.
And I'm taking a computer science course
in algorithms and data structures.
And the fourth course I'm taking at the moment
is a writing seminar.
Which is used to
take care of the writing requirements at Princeton,
but I'm actually really liking it.
So the one I'm doing is on the post-humans so,
It's kind of about like a lot of technologies
that are coming forward at the moment,
like genetic engineering and AI
and it's kind of...
It's almost like what is the effect of that on
how we perceive what it means to be human.
- Wow.
- I mean it's awesome thinking about that.
It's awesome reading about that.
Writing about that.
And also interacting closely with
a professor in a smaller class.
I think is a really new experience that is worth having.
Later on there's like a few more
introductory computer science courses.
And you have to take some departmentals.
They want you to take a spread of them.
So two systems, two theories, two applications.
But almost 50% of the courses you take are most likely,
I mean you're not required to but most likely
going to be like non-computer science courses too,
which I also look forward to because I've
quite a range of interests, yeah.
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I think the residential college system
was actually only introduced recently,
with the aim of giving like new students
a strong sense of community
as to where they were.
And also like kind of immediately being able to
find a group of people to hang with.
So all freshman and sophomores definitely
live in residential colleges.
Upperclassmens, so juniors and seniors,
kind of get a choice.
So they can either choose to continue staying in college,
which is quite a popular option,
or I think equally popular is to
move out into what's known as upper class housing
which is further west on campus.
Or...
You can pretty much do anything in junior and senior year.
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- So tell me a little bit more
about what you're doing with the Squash team.
- To be honest, it's a pretty chill vibe.
I remember the first day we came,
it was just kind of
have a hit a round with people, get to meet people.
Now it started getting a bit more serious so,
over the weekend we had kind of try-outs
to place students on a ladder.
So students play within the ladder.
I think later on in the season
we actually play other club's Squash teams
from nearby schools, such as, I think,
we played against Yale, Drexel, NYU, schools like that.
Which is of course good fun.
And on top of that we also have
lots of really fun internal tournaments,
that aren't like conventional Squash tournaments.
I think they somehow tweak the scoring.
I don't know the details but yeah.
It's just kind of meet up three days a week
to have a hit, have some fun.
And there's some fun events along the way.
- Awesome.
And tell me a little bit about
the musical group your apart of.
- Yeah.
So Princeton Swara, I think,
before this year, was a actually like,
was a relativity kind of chill
performing group for Carnatic music.
And I think this year,
the focus has shifted in two ways,
which is really exciting.
So the first is that,
the people who currently run Swara have introduced
kind of a series of sessions where
the focus is not on performing,
but rather inviting people, often people
who haven't had much prior exposure to Carnatic music.
And actually,
sharing with them what there is to enjoy in Carnatic music,
like telling them kind of how to listen to Carnatic music,
because one of the things that
a lot of people who listen to our music say, is like,
it's so confusing, it's so different,
there's so much going on, what am I meant to look for?
So this is kind of about, you know,
at a very elementary level, what's going on.
And it's kind of targeted at the listener,
which I think is really exciting.
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- So why did you decide to study abroad?
In the US.
- Right, so I was actually,
maybe like one and a half years ago,
I was actually really uncertain as to what I wanted to do,
as to like,
whether I wanted to go overseas but...
the kind of event that turned it around was,
I actually went to the US Math Olympiad program,
at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Okay.
- And I was just floored by like,
the fact that you know,
for a month I was spending time with
the best math students in the USA.
And also some incredibly inspiring professors,
some real legends who came to lecture there,
and it kind of occurred to me at that point,
that if I came to study overseas,
that's the kind of environment I'd be in.
- Right.
- And so that was the turning point where I was like,
okay, I really want to study abroad.
- And have you found that
experience here at Princeton as well,
as sort of like you're surrounded by the best (mumbles)?
- Yeah! Absolutely.
I think one thing that was really drilled into us
during orientation is that,
you know a lot of the people who come here
are used to doing quite well in school,
but then, they come here and suddenly, you know,
you're no longer a big fish, right?
- Right.
- Because you're in it with everyone
and I think that actually leads to a great atmosphere,
because students really want to work together
and kind of draw in the best from each other.
If you want to have your tertiary education in that kind of
incredibly, amazing atmosphere,
then I would definitely recommend studying abroad.
As to which schools you apply to,
I think it's a more personal thing.
I think it's not necessarily the wisest thing to just
always shoot for the schools that are necessarily considered
you know the most prestigious or the highest ranked schools.
I think each school has a different fit for a student.
So, I mean while you can apply to as many as want,
and spend time on that application,
when it comes to deciding,
pick the school that's the right fit for you,
rather than the best,
rather than the school that has like the best name.
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