meche

seriously, we're just talking about buying a computer. A while ago a chem teacher of mine was asked what he does when he cooks, if he meticulously measures everything out on a precision scale. He laughed and said he hadn't touched a measuring cup for years, because he was so tired of lab by the time he got home he just threw everything in a pan on the stove. So you can look up papers if you want, but I don't actually care that much. tl;dr: Q.E.D. but you're picking out the wrong factors. I didn't say anything about failure rate of hard drives specifically, although my guess is there are outliers (like a product release that's first on the market as soon as a new technology is developed) that will be statistically significant, and a study probably won't catch (since they probably pick one well established product line for each brand to examine) I stand by my statement that component failure in a dell is probably going to be higher on average (and definitely is compared to a workstation notebook like a thinkpad). but if you want to prove me wrong, go ahead and look up a study, I'd be surprised to hear that there's actually a good one looking at something like that.

all the major specs the average person will look at will be up to par (processor speed, hard drive size and maybe even RPM, ram size, etc.) but will cut corners on things like hard drive latency and ram speed, etc. this is true of some other laptops too, though. but more importantly cheaper components = more likely to fail prematurely.

*sigh*. already I'm having second thoughts about going to grad school. yep. pretty much. but this is the internets, after all. Also I totally know what I'm talking about - I'm quite well versed in making bad first impressions, case in point.

Dell's are terrible computers. Really cheap anywhere they don't expect people to look, and overall just shoddy. I have an old thinkpad that's served me well and is really robust, but I've had occasional problems and the quality has dropped quite a bit from what it used to be before Lenovo. The best engineered laptops on the market now are macbooks. You pay a premium, but I'd say it's worth it, and it's what I'm going to be getting next. If you really need windows, your school probably has a license for you for free, and you can dual boot. If you insist on not getting a mac, it's probably because you want a cheap computer, in which case don't go with windows either - it'll eat your resources. go with a netbook or other cheap laptop, and install ubuntu or fedora linux as others have said.

Exactly, the specifications will look the same. Dell makes sure every spec people are going to compare (processor architecture and speed, RAM size, graphics card model and memory, etc.) is up to par, but will cut corners EVERYWHERE possible that they don't think people will look. Dells just won't perform as well or last as long as other computers, period. Also, mechanically speaking Dell has historically had terrible products, but they may have gotten better - at least on the surface. If you want a good computer, Apple is the way to go. If you insist on "not a mac", thinkpads are the best you're going to find, but now that macs have intel processors and can dual boot, there's no reason to avoid them. If you want a cheaper computer, it's pretty much a wash between other lenovos, asus, acer, msi, toshiba, etc... just not Dell.

Re: "Hogwarts; culture; awkward?" yeah, your post about Hogwarts and culture is pretty awkward. I would worry less about the specific problem of answering where you've been accepted, and more about being social in a new situation in general and making first impressions. For one, laying off on the Harry Potter analogies is a good first step.

for engineering interviews: it ranges quite a bit. Where did you interview? 12 is really the upper limit of the range. I've had everything from a phone call with a job offer from my resume only, to a 2 day long interview with HR, individual engineers, and a presentation to a group of engineers, with a mix of many different technical questions. I also had 4 1-hour long interviews with one company, in which I never got a single technical question. The most common interview seems to be a stage 1 interview of half an hour, mostly resume screening and personality based, maybe one or two technical questions. If you pass it you'll have a 4-hour or so on-site interview with the team you'll be working with. almost all interviews ask you to explain a project you have worked on before. then the questions are split based on the company. some will mostly aim at determining your personality and motivation. others will look at how much specific knowledge of the field you have and ask for equations. others will try to see how good of an understanding you have of your field, and ask conceptual questions knowing you can just look up the equations if you know which ones to look up.

the industry in which a PhD will help you out *the most* versus a BS or MS is robotics. Both in finding a job, and actual work. Just intern at robotics companies if possible and make sure you study what you actually want to work on.

I applied to different grad programs and needed to pick an internship based on what grad school I was going to go to, but the internship deadlines came before the grad decisions. I e-mailed around quite a bit. all the professors will blow you off, and all the administrative people will send you a nice e-mail blowing you off. However, the profs just don't care and the administration has no weight in whether or not you're accepted, so it really makes no difference. Right now I'm at 50/50 accepted/rejected from the schools I contacted.

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter. I'm not antsy, I actually had a legitimate reason for asking for grad school decisions. I had to choose between two internships, product design and aero, before grad school decisions were out. All the schools I contacted replied and just said "we can't give you an early decision or move you up the list. you'll hear from us when you hear from us." That being said, it doesn't hurt. I picked the product design job because it felt like the right choice, got into a product design masters program, and got rejected from the (one) aero school I applied to. Only the administrative staff sees your request, not the people who make the decisions, and they're told basically to just blow you off in a nice way.

Dell's are terrible computers. Really cheap anywhere they don't expect people to look, and overall just shoddy. I have an old thinkpad that's served me well and is really robust, but I've had occasional problems and the quality has dropped quite a bit from what it used to be before Lenovo. The best engineered laptops on the market now are macbooks. You pay a premium, but I'd say it's worth it, and it's what I'm going to be getting next. If you really need windows, your school probably has a license for you for free, and you can dual boot.

Oh hey, I just signed up here and ran into this. I'm an undergrad at Caltech taking some aero grad classes. -the current students are wimps. -pretty much, although you can direct it as you want to a certain extent. -they aren't hand in hand, but I know some grad students doing research at/with JPL for their thesis. They're as close as you could expect a NASA site an a university to be. each department (Aero, materials, mech-e) only takes about 15-20 new students per year. The campus is ~1000 undergrads, ~1000 grads.

I'm graduating this year with a BSME. I was planning on heading to industry, and applied around to a few MS programs, planning on getting a masters while working. I got in to my top choice school but only got an internship from my top choice company - I decided to jump on it anyway. This means I have no funding though. Are there any good fellowships/grants/scholarships for which I can still apply? In the meantime I'm inquiring about TA positions, but it seems like most grad schools only give those to PhD candidates.