Transferring into Turing
During my first year at UT, I transferred into the Turing Scholars CS honors program. I wanted to join the program so that I could challenge myself more and try doing research. I started my journey the week before my first semester at UT by filling out the online honors class request form and submitting an academic summary to the CS advisors. A few days later, Dr. Lin, the professor for 314H, emailed me to set up an interview. I interviewed with Dr. Lin a few days before school started. During the interview, he asked me some questions about my background and a few interview-style technical questions.
In retrospect, it’s a bit baffling why I, a graduate from a fairly average high school with an almost nonexistent computer science background, was so sure that I belonged in a program with some of the highest achieving students in CS. Even more baffling, then, would be Calvin Lin’s decision to let me take 314H. In a room with TAMS graduates and former UIL Computer Science champions, it was easy to feel underqualified and out of place. For a lot of the semester, it felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. I found myself putting a lot of faith in the hope that Dr. Lin did know what he was doing when he decided that I, somehow, belonged there. I ended up learning a lot in the class and really enjoying it. One of my favorite memories class is writing the report for the last project in 314H and reflecting on the semester, on where I’d started and how much I’d grown. At the end of the semester, I reapplied to Turing with encouragement from Dr. Lin by completing an online form with some short-response questions, putting down a couple of people as references, and submitting my resume. On February 2nd, 2018, I woke up to an email telling me I had been accepted.
I can’t say for sure what Dr. Lin saw in me during that first interview, but if I had to guess, I’d say he saw that I genuinely love computer science and solving problems. The defining trait of a Turing Scholar isn’t being a genius or coding 12 hours a day or having 10 years of programming experience; it’s true enjoyment of computer science and the desire to challenge oneself. The requirements to graduate in the program are basically to (1) take 5 or so upper-division honors courses and (2) complete an undergraduate thesis. I would encourage anyone who is excited about computer science as a subject to apply, even if they aren’t sure they’re “good enough” or that there is a “reason” they should be in honors. If you’re here, you are good enough, and the only reason you need is the desire to be the best you can be and the belief that the challenge of an honors program will help you get there.
Of course, Turing isn’t for everyone, and plenty of brilliant and accomplished students choose different paths to their undergraduate degrees. Everyone, however, should consider applying to take an honors class when an interesting one comes up. It’s difficult to say what makes a class an honors class because they vary a lot, but I can say for sure “honors” doesn’t mean you have to be a prodigy or put in a crazy amount of work to do well. If you’re not sure about taking an honors class, you can always talk to the professor or ask if anyone has taken it at the WiCS registration review (more info on that soon!).
No matter how you decide to spend your college years, try not to shy away from failure. It’s normal to feel dejected and discouraged when things don’t go your way, whether it’s in academics, extracurriculars, or employment. Every computer science student I know can name plenty of times they have failed. Failure in all but inevitable; what matters is where you go from there.
