It’s All Greek to Me

You know you’re an engineer when you recognize Greek letters on fraternities because you’ve seen them in your classes, not the other way around. When you get that deep into math and science, sometimes English just doesn’t cut it, but if the whole point was to increase the number of possible variables, why does each Greek letter stand for five different things? See below, with notes on which fields you’d commonly find each definition in.

Γ – gamma function (math), Poynting factor (thermodynamics)
Δ – change (math)
Θ – wavefunction (math, quantum mechanics)
Λ – deBroglie wavelength (thermodynamics)
Ξ – one of the thermodynamic ensembles (thermodynamics)
Π – product (math)
Σ – summation (math)
Φ – dissipation (heat and mass transfer, fluids)
Ψ – wavefunction (math, quantum mechanics)

Ω – domain of integration (math), angular velocity (general science), thermodynamic 

       ensemble (thermodynamics)

Not used (they look like their English counterparts): Α, Β, Ε, Ζ, Η, Ι, Κ, Μ, Ν, Ο, Ρ, Τ, Υ, Χ

Here's where things get real fun:
α – kinetic energy correction factor (fluids), angle (math), heat diffusivity (heat and mass
      transfer)
β – angle (math), coldness (=1/k_bT; thermodynamics)
γ – specific weight (general science), activity coefficient (heat and mass transfer,
      thermodynamics), heat capacity ratio (thermodynamics, chemistry)
δ – distance (general science), delta function (math), Kronecker delta (δ_ij) (fluids, heat and
      mass transfer, quantum mechanics)
ε – molar absorptivity (chemistry), electromotive force (physics), electron charge (also
      physics, general science), permittivity of free space (hey, look, physics again), strain
      (fluids), permutation tensor (ε_ijk) (math, fluids), energy (general science), effectiveness
      (thermodynamics)
ζ – dimensionless breakage time (fluids)
η – dynamic viscosity (fluids), efficiency (thermodynamics)
θ – angle (math, general science)
κ – bulk modulus (fluids)
λ – wavelength (physics, general science), eigenvalue (math), distance (general science),
      mean free path (thermodynamics)
μ – dynamic viscosity (fluids), growth rate (biology), coefficient of friction (physics), chemical
      potential (thermodynamics), moment (physics), shear modulus (fluids), reduced mass
      (chemistry)
ν – kinematic viscosity (fluids), frequency (thermodynamics), stoichiometric coefficient
      (chemistry), microstate (thermodynamics), frequency factor (chemistry)
ξ – extent of reaction (chemistry), complex function (math), mesh size (fluids),
      nondimensional length (probably fluids)
π – 3.1415926535897932384626 (life), Henry’s law coefficient (thermodynamics, chemistry),
      dimensionless group (ChemE)
ρ – density (general science), mass concentration (heat and mass transfer)
σ – surface tension (fluids), standard deviation (math), stress tensor (fluids), stress (fluids),
      particle diameter (chemistry, kinetics), symmetry number (kinetics), Steffan Boltzmann
      constant (heat and mass transfer), resistivity (physics)
τ – torque (fluids), time (general science), deviatoric stress (fluids)
φ – probability function (math), characteristic function (math), polar angle (math), volume
      fraction (general science), benzene group (chemistry), fugacity coefficient
      (thermodynamics)
χ – mole fraction (ChemE)
ψ – wavefunction (math, quantum mechanics)
ω – angular velocity (general science), degeneracy of microstates (thermodynamics)
Not used: ι (looks like i), ο (looks like o), υ (no idea what this is)

ε and σ win for most definitions off the top of my head (8 each), with μ coming in second with 7 and φ in third with 6. Totally not confusing at all.

Semester in Review [Fall 2014]

Sailing – I continued taking PE classes for fun, and I liked the exposure to sailing, which I've wanted to try, but sailing is extremely weather dependent and my class happened to get awful weather. It took a month of classes before we finally got out on the water. We sailed small boats (420s, I think, or something very similar), though we went out in larger boats a couple times when the winds were too high. The class was good, but it felt rushed whenever we did manage to go out in the small boats, maybe because we had so much bad weather. I would have liked to have more time just getting used to the boat and sailing in general.

Creative Writing – Not only did this class qualify as a liberal studies class, but it was also 2000-level, and my passing grade means that I have just two liberal studies classes left to complete. As a side benefit, I was hoping that being forced to produce a certain number of pages would inspire me to keep writing, but . . . nope. We split our time between workshopping peoples’ writing and discussing assigned readings. Overall, this ranks as one of the better liberal studies classes I've taken.

Organic Chemistry – So that I could jam creative writing into the middle of my schedule (so that I had seven hours of class and pep band rehearsal on Mondays – bad idea; I wouldn't do it again if I had other options), I took an organic chemistry class that met at 8 am and attempted to cover two semesters of material in one semester. I liked the topics we covered – nomenclature, stereochemistry, transformation of functional groups, mechanisms, synthesis, but there was just too much material. I didn't particularly agree with the professor’s teaching style and with four other academic classes, I couldn't spend the amount of time it would have taken to do really well (i.e. better than I did) in the class.

Organic Chemistry Lab – In addition to learning about orgo, I actually had to do it. My lab technique can be described as questionable at best, and it’s definitely not at its best under a time constraint. Fortunately, the only time orgo lab grades on yield and purity is during the practical, so as long as you do halfway decent on the practical, your lab reports and final can earn you a high grade. Besides being the source of dozens of stories about lab mishaps, I enjoyed this class.

Heat and Mass Transfer/(ChemE) Thermodynamics – Generally, I liked both of the ChemE classes I took over the past semester, but there was more than a little frustration at times. Lectures were good; recitations, problem sets, exams, and office hours tended to vary. A lot.

Up next semester: lots more ChemE classes, a liberal studies class, another PE class for fun, plus pep band, work, and that other stuff on the side like sleeping and eating.

Two Years

I realized recently* that I've been writing this blog for two years now. This will be my 161^st post in twenty-four months, for an average of 6.71 posts per month. That average, however, is brought up by a spring semester freshman year in which I only took four classes - Intro to Microeconomics, a first year writing seminar, MATLAB, and differential equations. Econ was less than two hours of work a week and I did all my essays for my writing seminar the morning night before they were due, so I was essentially taking two classes. Maybe two and a half.

With my relative abundance of free time, I went to every pep band event, went rock climbing two or three times a week, and blogged. I averaged 13.5 posts a month during that semester, and without those numbers, I averaged 5.35 posts a month over the past two years, which is slightly high compared to this year’s average (3.83; 9.33 in 2013). Here’s a graph, because I like graphs:

Particular months to note: this April I only wrote once because of the impending doom known as finals while having fluids and pchem problem sets due every Friday, with the additional possibility of also having bio problem sets due on – guess – Fridays. The only month in which I wrote more this year than last was July, due to the fact that I spent this summer in Ithaca with what was essentially a 9 to 5 job. Instead of having classes from 9 to 5 and then working on problem sets for another six hours, I worked from 9 to 5 and then was done for the day.

This past semester while I was trying to pass two ChemE classes, two chem classes, and a liberal studies class that actually took time all at once, I wrote less in the entire semester than I did during a single month of spring semester freshman year.

So in the past two years, I've survived four semesters of college, living in an apartment with my cooking for three months, and affiliation with Chemical Engineering, and written tens of thousands of words about my questionable decisions good life choices, adventures, and epic quests. Next semester I have four ChemE classes, a liberal studies class, and a ChemE seminar. It’s going to be interesting.

*Actually recently, not I-meant-to-post-this-three-weeks-ago-and-didn't-edit-it-recently.

Much Excitement

After using column chromatography to separate a mixture of two chemicals, I turned in two solids that appeared to be different in my orgo lab practical. I recovered 0.064 grams of my original 0.17 gram sample for an overall percent yield of 37.6%. I’ve done worse.

My bruise is fading. From the center out, but hey, it only took two weeks. I suspect it was from rock climbing but I don’t recall hitting anything hard enough to cause the subsequent explosion of purple and red on my kneecap.

It’s hockey season. The women’s team is 0 and 3, and they’re already playing ECAC games, which is concerning. I haven’t seen them play because they were away last weekend and their game yesterday was at 3 pm. I have class until 4:30 pm. On a Friday. It sucks* is suboptimal. The men’s team opened with a pair of 3-2 wins in exhibition games last weekend, then tied the University of Nebraska Omaha 1-1 last night. Rematch is tonight. Things might get violent.
*Not a Lynah approved word

Surprise package:

I have a thing about penguins. And also applesauce, peanut butter, and hats. And also against tight pants, half naked Halloween costumes, and finely chopped celery.

This is happening.

From MLSsoccer.com:

The Best and the Brightest

As an Ivy League Institution, Cornell attracts some of the greatest young minds. Case in point:

1) The other day, I was going to eat breakfast in the dining hall in my dorm. I live on the fifth floor, so I have quite a few stairs to descend to get to the dining room, which I access by crossing over to the other side of the building on the second floor. On my way down, I caught myself passing the second floor landing and figured I just wasn't fully awake yet. One day later, I was returning from dinner and going up the stairs when I walked past the fifth floor and started up the flight to the (locked) roof. Stairs are hard.

2) When the weather could still be considered nice out, I was periodically going for bike rides. The other week, I biked out to the Arboretum and back just for the fun of it. As I was wrestling my bike back into the bike room, I shifted a gear. It’s not good for the bike to shift gears without pedaling, but I didn't want to wrangle my bike outside to pedal for fifteen or twenty feet, then have to get it back inside, so naturally I tried pedaling in the eight feet I had in the bike room. I’m sure it looked absolutely ridiculous, but I did eventually get my gear to shift to where it was supposed to be.

3) A couple weeks ago in lab, I showed off my impeccable lab skillz. Part of the procedure was to preweigh a round bottom flask, so I massed it and recorded the result in my lab notebook. After evaporating a solvent in the flask, leaving a white powdery product, I reweighed the flask and product. The total mass was less than the initial mass of the flask. I made negative mass! Not really. When I first weighed the flask, it was slightly wet. I thought that a little water wouldn't matter. Then I found out that the maximum amount of product I could make was 0.032 grams. That little water? Mattered. But it doesn't end there. I then ran my product and a standard solution on a chromatography plate. The general idea is to use a liquid to carry the two samples distances up the plate. My product moved. The standard did not.

Things Engineers Don’t Say

Rise and shine; 8 am classes are the best!
I get too much sleep.
It was really hard to choose my classes this semester because I had so many choices.
I should take more classes next semester.
Fugacity is my favorite physical chemistry topic.
I love everything about statistical mechanics.

Let’s name all our variables η.  That’s not confusing at all.

We should go faster in class. I understand everything.
Could you write messier? I can read your handwriting.
Taking notes on my computer is really easy. Especially the equations.
Poetry analysis? My favorite.
My essay is too long. I wish it could be single instead of double spaced.
I don’t know why I scheduled a lunch break. Having seven lectures in a row is great.
All labs should be windowless basement rooms lit by flickering light bulbs.
My lab technique is flawless.
I am so ready for the prelim tonight.
The textbook readings were super interesting this week.
I bought all five of my textbooks new and spent less than a hundred dollars.
I read three hundred pages of ancient Greek texts last night in an hour, no problem.
All my problem sets this week were easy and short.
Office hours? I never need office hours to get my problem sets done.
I don’t spend enough time working on my problem sets.
No class on Fridays or Mondays. Four day weekend!
My professor cancelled class. Again.
I have nothing to do tonight. Let’s go to a party.

Study Less, Get Better Grades

First off, the answers to my St. Patrick’s Day math problems. 1) The probability that the leprechaun has drunk a gallon of beer is 1. The numbers on opposite sides of a normal six-sided die always sum to seven. 2) No leprechauns go home sober. The probability of flipping an infinite number of heads with a fair coin is zero. (1/2)^infinity = 0. 3) The game theoretically never ends because with a coefficient of restitution of zero, the ball doesn’t bounce. In actuality, the game ends when the leprechauns pass out, so the answer to the last question is “very drunk.”

Next up, my latest very scientific analysis definitively proving that studying makes your grades worse. I meant to put this up after my first round of prelims, but I was busy with f*****. [Note for anyone who clicked the link and was expecting something very different: 1) Count the number of asterisks again. 2) Get your mind out of the gutter.]

My first round of prelims was scheduled such that I had three prelims in seven days. I still can’t decide whether I prefer having that happen or having one prelim every week for the majority of the semester, which I did last semester. Anyway, the fluid mechanics (fluids) prelim was a Thursday, so I spent the weekend before the prelim getting ahead on homework for other classes (I admit I also worked a shift for Cornell Productions on Friday night and went to pep band for all of Saturday afternoon/night). I started studying for fluids on Monday. In between going to class, doing other homework, and other mostly necessary things like eating and sleeping, I got in almost five hours of studying for fluids.

After the two and a half hour fluids prelim, I had to go and finish my physical chemistry homework. I just had a few things to wrap up, so it only took two hours. I took Friday off, did other homework on Saturday morning, went to pep band on Saturday afternoon/night, and studied for p-chem mostly on Sunday and Monday. I ended up getting in about four hours of studying for p-chem.

The p-chem and macroeconomics prelims were scheduled for the same time, so I took the makeup exam for macroecon on Wednesday. That meant that after the p-chem prelim I went back to my room and studied for econ. By which I mean I reviewed a previous prelim for 40 minutes. Then on Wednesday I went to my six hours of class, followed by dinner, followed by the prelim. Notice I did not have time to study for econ on Wednesday. Notice that the only time I mention studying for econ is for 40 minutes on Tuesday night.

This is what happened when I got my grades back.

Note the trend of grades decreasing as more time is spent studying. Ignore that there are only three points on the graph. Also ignore the fact that each prelim was taken for a different class. Further ignore the fact that a lot of the macroeconomics material was a review of microeconomics, which I took last year. In addition, ignore the fact that each class has a different curve. The takeaway lesson is that studying obviously makes grades worse. According to the best fit line, I should study about -1 hour to get a hundred on my next prelim. It’s too late for fluids, but I still have p-chem and macroecon coming up after the break (in the same week . . . again).

Third Down, Five to Go

It’s third down, five to go. Do you
a) Try and run the ball. It’s only five yards and you might be able to get the ball through.
b) Attempt a pass. Again, since it’s only five yards you just need a short pass.
c) Give up and punt.
d) Change the unit of measurement to semesters and transition into talking about college.

Answer: d. I have survived yet another semester at Cornell. Not that I had much say in it, but here’s what I thought of the classes I was told to take this semester.

Honors Physical Chemistry I: Mainly, I enjoyed complaining about Mathematica and the Schrodinger equation. Other than that, it was interesting to approach chemistry from a more mathematical standpoint. We modeled chemical bonds as harmonic oscillators, discovered that orbitals are a lie, and complained some more about Mathematica.

Mass and Energy Balances: I didn’t want to dislike this class. I don’t think anybody goes into a class wanting to hate it. Though I didn't end up hating this class, I didn't love it either. I’d seen a lot of the material in Intro to ChemE last fall, but I didn’t mind that. Without going into too much detail, the class wasn’t structured in a way that let people learn and figure things out for themselves. Other than that, the material was interesting, and I thought the homework problems and projects were good. [Minus the due dates for the projects. The first project was due the morning after a p-chem prelim. The second project was scheduled such that my group ended up working on it for seven hours straight on a weekend. The final project was due during study break. By the time we thought to question whether that was even allowed, we’d been working for five or six hours and were “almost done.”]

Linear Algebra for Engineers: Out of the three math courses I’ve taken, I think this was the easiest. Part of it was due to the professor; he allowed prelim corrections and his prelims were very straightforward. It turns out that linear algebra and p-chem share a fair amount in common, to the dismay of the chemical engineers. Once was enough.

History of Science in Europe I: As it turns out, my liberal studies class required me to both read a lot and write essays. But I stuck with it because it fit in my schedule and I was actually interested in the topic. The class provided background information for how modern science (all the things I use in my other classes) developed. More work than I expected/was looking for in a liberal studies class, but I consider it worth it in the end. Though I don’t think I’ll be taking History of Science in Europe II. My excuse: it doesn't fit in my schedule.

Day Hiking: After nine years of mostly suffering through public school physical education, I can say that PE in college is much, much better. I took hiking just to get off campus once a week and tramp through mud, get bitten by bugs, and scratched by branches.

Business as Usual

Happy December. Cornell has started to look like this more often:

It’s cold.

In the next three days, I have a 1500 word essay due and two finals (for physical chemistry and linear algebra). I also had a project due yesterday. It was supposed to be study break, but my group ended up working on the project for eight hours on Sunday and two more yesterday. Therefore, I have gotten exactly no studying done.

So it’s business as usual around here. During the semester I had a mass and energy balances problem set due on Tuesday, a linear algebra problem set due Thursday, and a physical chemistry problem set due Friday. My liberal studies class had between thirty to fifty pages of reading a week. As there were no numbers, these readings tended to be dense and massively confusing. I also worked for Cornell Productions about once a week, and had pep band two to three times a week.  I spent most of the semester behind on . . . everything, and I thought I’d finally get a break during finals week, but apparently not. We’ve just replaced problem sets with final assignments that only determine thirty to forty percent of our final grades.

There were two points I wanted to make. 1) The past two weeks are the reason I haven’t gotten to write anything about Thanksgiving. 2) I’m now taking suggestions for a new major.

Any person, any study, right?

Troll in the Heater

My life as an engineer has recently been busy, occasionally frustrating (I’m talking to you, Mathematica), but I can say that it’s never boring. Even so, I've been thinking that certain aspects of the classes I’m taking could use a little more fun.

First up, mass and energy balances. Say you have a heater that increases the temperature of a water stream from 50°C to 75°C. 125 kg of water enters the heater, but 117 kg of water exits. A mass balance (or basic math) tells you that 8 kg of water is missing. Well, at this point you could speculate that there’s a leak in the heater or that water is building up in the system. Or you could decide that neither of those explanations is that plausible and conclude that there must be a troll in the heater drinking the missing water.

Moving on to linear algebra: we learned how computers use 4x4 matrices to perform transformations on coordinates to make them look 3D from a viewer’s perspective. Our example was a falling building (“don’t worry; the building’s only three units high and you’re standing five units away”). Apparently, when viewed on a 2D screen, this building:

should look like this as it falls:

I know, you’re waiting for my first video game to come out, aren't you?

Then in physical chemistry, we’re dealing a lot with operators that do things to functions. For example, we have an operator that takes the derivative of a function and one that multiplies a function by x. So that we know they’re operators, they wear hats like this: . But those are boring hats. I like these better:

There are some special operators called Hermitian operators. They don’t like people and live alone in huts in the middle of nowhere. [Not really. They’re named after the French mathematician Hermite.]

Finally, if a band called Schrodinger’s Cats put out an album called Wanted Dead and Alive, wouldn't you want to listen to it too?

Double Trouble

I have come to the conclusion that although there are four academic classes listed in my Cornell student account, I’m really just taking the same class four times. [I am aware that the title of this post is “Double Trouble,” however, “Quadruple Trouble” doesn't rhyme, plus my liberal studies class is a little different. Mass and Energy Balances also has slightly different material, but I take it with all the same people as p-chem and linear algebra (to a lesser extent), so all three might as well be the same class.]

For example, we spent a good portion of the beginning of linear algebra talking about linear transformations because any linear transformation can be written as a matrix that’s multiplied by the vector or object to be transformed, and linear algebra is all about matrices. Meanwhile, in p-chem we were introduced to operators. Some operators are linear. Here’s how to tell if a transformation or operator is linear:

From linear algebra:

Definition: A linear transformation from Rⁿ to R^m is any function T(x) with two properties:

                1) T(u+v) = T(u) + T(v)

                2) T(cu) = cT(u)

From p-chem:

Linear operators

                Â[c₁f₁(x) + c₂f₂(x)] = c₁ Âf₁(x) + c₂ Âf₂(x)

Recently in linear algebra, we were thinking of functions as vectors in the context of inner products and related material.

Been there, done that.

Our linear algebra professor also made this note about inner products.

Don't forget the complex conjugate

And then last week we started our day off in physical chemistry learning about quantum spin and were introduced to the symmetrization and antisymmetrization operators. These operators have eigenvalues of 1 and -1 and work with the permutation operator to form the spin portion of the wavefunction for electrons. We went on to Mass and Energy Balances, had lunch, and ended the day in linear algebra, where the following happened:

We were writing quadratic functions as a vector x multiplied by a matrix A which was multiplied by x.  That’s not too difficult, but in order to apply a theorem we’d been working on, A needed to be symmetric.  Magically, if you call this symmetric matrix B and write B as (A+A^T)/2 + (A-A^T)/2, B will be symmetric.

The professor told us that the first matrix (A+A^T)/2 was symmetric, so naturally I made a comment to my friend about how (A-A^T)/2 should be called antisymmetric, in light of what we’d done earlier that morning in p-chem. I was completely kidding, but the next words out of the professor’s mouth were something along the lines of “and the second matrix is antisymmetric.” I’m not sure of his exact phrasing because all the ChemEs in linear algebra were too busy laughing, groaning, and/or crying in despair. ChemE is taking over our lives.

Rise and Shine, It’s Pre-enroll Time

My latest poetry anthology will be coming out next month decade never. Preordering can be done by sending cash or checks to

Pre-enrollment is always a fun time, because somehow, with the hundreds of classes Cornell has to offer, everybody wants the same three courses. Unless you’re an engineer, in which case, you get to enjoy popular classes like Stochastic Hydrology and Unconventional Natural Gas Development from Shale Formations. Meanwhile, in the hotel school: Introduction to Casino Operations.

Last week I made it through pre-enrollment and got almost everything I need to help me toward graduation. To keep moving toward fulfillment of my liberal studies requirements, I’ll be taking Intro to Macroeconomics. There were a couple other classes I was interested in, but none of them fit into my schedule. Macroeconomics it is.

For my biology requirement, I’m currently enrolled in Biomolecular Engineering, which happens to be a ChemE class, taught by a ChemE professor. From what I've heard, this is a pretty interesting class.

I was told how to fill the remainder of my schedule by the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I’ll be taking Fluids and semester two of physical chemistry. If I never see the Schrodinger Equation again . . .

I’m also supposed to be taking a physical chemistry lab. Supposed to being the key words. There are currently around 170 students enrolled in Honors Physical Chemistry I. Presumably, most of them will be moving on to Honors Physical Chemistry II next semester. Strangely enough, there were only 120 lecture slots open in p-chem II. Even more strangely, there were only 90 slots open in p-chem lab, so I got the lecture, but not the lab. I think there’s a good reason the chemistry department does this. Just so long as I get the lab at some point, because I would like to graduate . . . eventually.

Ignoring the p-chem lab, pre-enroll went well. No one wants to take Fluids with the ChemEs for fun? Well, that’s a shocker.

What I've Learned at Cornell (Take Two)

No, this is still not a philosophical discussion about institutes of higher education, but this post will have a slightly more academic focus than the last one . . . make that a very slightly more academic focus.
In an attempt to sound vaguely serious about this, here goes:

1. Independent study in the lab (or: What to do when faced with beakers with questionable pasts, three funnels, and no test tube rack): General Chemistry lab drawers tend to be stocked with things like the test tube with the burnt sugar stuck to the bottom and the possibly cracked beaker, and sometimes we may have had a tendency to play musical lab equipment. Equipment notwithstanding, we were forced to do lab work without much guidance (don’t worry, we were still supervised). Sometimes we were given a goal and had to come up with our own procedures, which I guess was probably useful in preparing us for the future, when we’re not going to get step by step instructions for everything. In fact, we’re going to have to come up with our own goals as well. . . . The world should probably start preparing for me right about . . . now.

2. How to put your best foot forward (or: How to sell yourself): Good news; it doesn't end with college applications! At the start of spring semester, I decided I wanted to get a job and join the workforce of disgruntled, underpaid student employees at Cornell.* Job applications require you to again, present yourself in a positive way, but this time, instead of taking $50,000 of your money every year for four years, they give you minimum wage. I really don’t have any foolproof advice for getting a job (or getting into college), but don’t sell yourself short and also don’t try to be something you aren't. Especially if your potential employer is going to ask for a demonstration of backwards curling while riding a unicycle.

3. Thinking on your feet (or: Improvisational lighting; or: No one knew the band was coming . . . again): Between pep band and Cornell Productions, I had my share of going with the flow this year. Working at Cornell Productions, I learned a lot by doing. You’re not getting paid to know the theory and history of different types of lighting; you’re getting paid to set up lighting and haul around sound equipment, chairs, and risers. Similarly, for whatever reason, the pep band would occasionally show up to events only to have the person in charge have no idea that twenty-five people with large metal and plastic objects would be there. That usually meant we’d have to watch our conductor for once extra closely for emergency cutoffs, especially if the announcer started frantically gesturing at us.

4. Responsibility and independence (or: You should still eat and sleep): When you get to college, you soon realize you can do almost anything you want to (almost anything being anything legal and within reason). Ice cream for breakfast? Sure. Sleep through morning classes then play video games during afternoon classes? Go right ahead. On the other hand, you can also skip meals to study and stay up to four in the morning doing homework. Choose wisely. (And really, don’t forget to eat and sleep.)

5. Office hours (or: What is the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything?): When in doubt, guess three. And then go to office hours. This one depends on the TAs (and the professor), but if the TAs are good, and you have a few questions about the material no idea what the heck is going on in class, go to office hours. My intro to ChemE group and I spent a lot of time at office hours first semester. Mainly to comment on how confused we were, but we did also have a few legitimate questions. As an added bonus, if you stay long enough, the TAs will sometimes give away the answer to the ridiculous problem you've been assigned for homework. True story.

Bonus: Instrument maintenance (or: But actually, scrape out the yellow stuff in your clarinet mouthpiece): No, it was not mold. And yes, my clarinet magically plays a lot better now.

*So far, my work experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. I even make more than minimum wage. Also, this seems to be as good a time as any to say that besides returning to my job with Cornell Productions in the fall, I've also been accepted as a Cornell blogger. I know, you can’t wait for even more of my charming wit and intellect.