Today I updated my personal homepage. Since I have finished applying for graduate school, I removed those contents and links in support of my application. However, some may be useful to other applicants in the future. I feel it is appropriate to log them here.
Statement of Purpose
http://chiangsong.googlepages.com/statementofpurpose
Letter of Recommendation
http://chiangsong.googlepages.com/recommendations3
Curriculum Vitae
http://chiangsong.googlepages.com/application
Showing posts with label application. Show all posts
Showing posts with label application. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I Choose What I Love vs. I Love What I Choose
Finally I decided to go to USC. During the last few days before April 15, I contacted several faculties at the Joint CMU-Pitt Program in Computational Biology. The responses were rather disencouraging: three of them had no funds and two did not responded at all. When Prof. Sun, the chair of USC Computational Biology Program, called me on Apr. 14th evening, saying I should not play game, I realized I cannot wait any more. I sent the acceptance letter on Apr. 15 morning, Prof. Sun replied soon and asked me why I insisted on waiting for CMU's offers. I told him my idea frankly.
Sentimentality makes no use. I pretended to be as determinant as possible, sending back paper files, asking classmates at USC to arrange room, planning for my study at USC and telling my family the news. I would like to thank uncle, sister and mama for their encouraging congratulations. If nothing else had not happened, I would have gradually recovered from the heartbroken feeling of missing CMU opportunity and leisurely enjoy Hefei's spring.
Ironically, I received three mails in a line yesterday, one from McGill and two from CMU/Pitt program, asking whether I am still interested in their program. Just imagine that: when you are pursuing a pretty proud girl, she rejects you; you first feel heart-broken and then try to forget her and gradually you decide to love another girl; but now the previous girl comes back and ask whether you still love her, and she is so lovely. That is my feeling now.
If I choose what I love, I hurt USC's heart and I will feel guilt forever; If I love what I choose, I will definitely regret to miss such a pretty CMU. I hate such choices!
I have been fascinated with supercomputing since I got in touch with computer in high school. CMU's reputation in computer architecture and high performance computation has been haunting in my mind since then. Especially, Prof. Joel R. Stiles at CMU are heading the Center for Quantitative Biological Simulation in Pittsburg Supercomputing Center. It is a long-lasting idea in my mind to model live organisms in computer and study their behavior. I should honestly admit that my understanding of biological simulation is limited, but the love for it is something that cannot be explained with logicI should be happy that the time-consuming and tedious application is over, but I felt hurt and disappointed. I used to believe that I am among the few potentially being able to do something really wonderful in biological simulation. And all faculties I contacted consider me competitive. Finally I could not choose what I love.
Sentimentality makes no use. I pretended to be as determinant as possible, sending back paper files, asking classmates at USC to arrange room, planning for my study at USC and telling my family the news. I would like to thank uncle, sister and mama for their encouraging congratulations. If nothing else had not happened, I would have gradually recovered from the heartbroken feeling of missing CMU opportunity and leisurely enjoy Hefei's spring.
Ironically, I received three mails in a line yesterday, one from McGill and two from CMU/Pitt program, asking whether I am still interested in their program. Just imagine that: when you are pursuing a pretty proud girl, she rejects you; you first feel heart-broken and then try to forget her and gradually you decide to love another girl; but now the previous girl comes back and ask whether you still love her, and she is so lovely. That is my feeling now.
If I choose what I love, I hurt USC's heart and I will feel guilt forever; If I love what I choose, I will definitely regret to miss such a pretty CMU. I hate such choices!
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Offer of USC
When I am preparing the application material of USC, I had an intuitive feeling that they would accept me. The somewhat comic interview with Prof. Xianghong Zhou intensified my feeling. Even during the hard time when some classmates received offer of USC, I still believed that USC would not disregard me. And now, it comes. Congratulations to myself.
I felt that if you have put enough effort into something, you will never be disappointed at last. The saying that "No pains, no gains" tells some truth, but is a little passive, because it implies the situation that you may gain nothing though you worked, e.g "Pains, Still No Gains". God will not be so injustice. I would like to revise it to "Pains, Gains".
I still have a strong feeling that CMU will accept me. I hope my intuition will come true again.
Related previous post:
Interview with Prof. Xianghong Zhou
面试USC
I felt that if you have put enough effort into something, you will never be disappointed at last. The saying that "No pains, no gains" tells some truth, but is a little passive, because it implies the situation that you may gain nothing though you worked, e.g "Pains, Still No Gains". God will not be so injustice. I would like to revise it to "Pains, Gains".
I still have a strong feeling that CMU will accept me. I hope my intuition will come true again.
Related previous post:
Interview with Prof. Xianghong Zhou
面试USC
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Ade, Cornell University!
Bad news, really bad news.
This morning I received a letter from Tri-institutional program in computational biology. They cannot offered me admission to their program. I was disappointed though I have prepared myself to face the worst result. I intend to study signal transduction network in The Tri-I program, but I am in fact not familiar with and intrigued in this field. My personal statement may seem not so persuasive.
I lost a good chance to enter an esteemed university, but also avoid entering an filed in which I show little passion. Keep confident. When we choose to open a door, we have to close another door. Hope is still there.
Ade, Cornell!
This morning I received a letter from Tri-institutional program in computational biology. They cannot offered me admission to their program. I was disappointed though I have prepared myself to face the worst result. I intend to study signal transduction network in The Tri-I program, but I am in fact not familiar with and intrigued in this field. My personal statement may seem not so persuasive.
I lost a good chance to enter an esteemed university, but also avoid entering an filed in which I show little passion. Keep confident. When we choose to open a door, we have to close another door. Hope is still there.
Ade, Cornell!
Saturday, February 03, 2007
No News is Good News
NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS
After last interview with Prof. Xiangzhong Zhou, I have been nervously wait for futther news, however, a whole week has passed, there still are not any news. I read the above sentence from a letter in BBS, no news is good news because they are still processing my application. Comfort me.
Enjoy your leisure time!
After last interview with Prof. Xiangzhong Zhou, I have been nervously wait for futther news, however, a whole week has passed, there still are not any news. I read the above sentence from a letter in BBS, no news is good news because they are still processing my application. Comfort me.
Enjoy your leisure time!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Hurray! Interview Invitations from USC
After nearly a week's nervous waiting, I received my first interview invitation from USC yesterday. Prof. Xianghong Zhou wrote me the email, and it is possibly she will interview me. I visited her lab's website when I chose schools. She is a Chinese, assistant professor, with a sweet smile. Hopefully she will not be too strict with me in interview.
Well, know yourself and know your enemy, you will never be beaten even in a hundred of battles. I plan to read her papers in the next two days. Her research is centered around methodological study of integrating cross-platform microarray datasets. I have just read her paper of Gene Aging Nexus. She may has a rigorous requirement of statistics. (My disadvantage is my rather limited mathematical vocabulary!) I feel confident in my computer knowledge and programming ability.
Go on! Fighting!
Comments on Zhou's papers:
1. Gene Aging Nexus: A Web Database and Data Mining Platform for Microarray Data on Aging
keywords:
meta-analysis: by first extracting expression patterns form individual microarray datasets and then identifying recurrent signals, these approaches may enhance signal-noise separation.
differential expression analysis:
co-expression analysis: Zhou proposed a new method to mine regulatory modules in previous papers Mining dense subgraphs across massive biological networks for functional discovery.
no major biological breakthrough.
2. Integrative missing value estimation for microarray data
Question Answered:
Due to the inherent noise and the limitation of experimental systems, a microarray dataset on average has more than 5% missing values, affecting more than 60% of the genes. Such missing values made some subsequent analysis methods inapplicable or greatly decrease their performance. Thus the question of missing value estimation.
Basic Idea:
How to choose neighboring genes when not enough information is available in internal microarray dataset. Intuitively, if a set of genes frequently show expression similarity to the target gene over multiple data sets, they constitute a robust neighborhood which tend to show expression co-variations with the target gene.
other concepts:
LLS Local Least Square
Bayesian principle component analysis
singular value decomposition
support vector machines
Well, know yourself and know your enemy, you will never be beaten even in a hundred of battles. I plan to read her papers in the next two days. Her research is centered around methodological study of integrating cross-platform microarray datasets. I have just read her paper of Gene Aging Nexus. She may has a rigorous requirement of statistics. (My disadvantage is my rather limited mathematical vocabulary!) I feel confident in my computer knowledge and programming ability.
Go on! Fighting!
Comments on Zhou's papers:
1. Gene Aging Nexus: A Web Database and Data Mining Platform for Microarray Data on Aging
keywords:
meta-analysis: by first extracting expression patterns form individual microarray datasets and then identifying recurrent signals, these approaches may enhance signal-noise separation.
differential expression analysis:
co-expression analysis: Zhou proposed a new method to mine regulatory modules in previous papers Mining dense subgraphs across massive biological networks for functional discovery.
no major biological breakthrough.
2. Integrative missing value estimation for microarray data
Question Answered:
Due to the inherent noise and the limitation of experimental systems, a microarray dataset on average has more than 5% missing values, affecting more than 60% of the genes. Such missing values made some subsequent analysis methods inapplicable or greatly decrease their performance. Thus the question of missing value estimation.
Basic Idea:
How to choose neighboring genes when not enough information is available in internal microarray dataset. Intuitively, if a set of genes frequently show expression similarity to the target gene over multiple data sets, they constitute a robust neighborhood which tend to show expression co-variations with the target gene.
other concepts:
LLS Local Least Square
Bayesian principle component analysis
singular value decomposition
support vector machines
Thursday, August 31, 2006
I am playing gample
These days I have been spending hours surfing the websites of Graduate school in order to find a right school in the meaning that I will be proud of entering it and it will be satisfactory of accepting me. There are so many schools and so many mentors that I can not make a choice. I am just playing a gamble.
When I decided to enter an university three years ago, I didn't have such a tough time because my family helped me and the universities are in China. But this time, I am going to study in America which I have never been and is unfamiliar with. It is said America has many good schools and more opportunities. Like the people on the boat of Mayflower, I cherish this dream and take the risk to pursue it.
This morning, my roommates, who is also preparing to study overseas, told me he dreamed that I reveived many offers last night. I hope it is a good signal to me.
When I decided to enter an university three years ago, I didn't have such a tough time because my family helped me and the universities are in China. But this time, I am going to study in America which I have never been and is unfamiliar with. It is said America has many good schools and more opportunities. Like the people on the boat of Mayflower, I cherish this dream and take the risk to pursue it.
This morning, my roommates, who is also preparing to study overseas, told me he dreamed that I reveived many offers last night. I hope it is a good signal to me.
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