My Checkered Academic Past

     Truth be told, I haven't been a good student since high school. I don't take notes in class, I don't study for exams, and I generally don't do the assigned reading in text books. Although I do apply myself with great diligence to my homework assignments (and whatever study is necessary to complete them), my grades have always tended to suffer from the deficiencies in my learning style. The usual pattern is for me to survive a class with a B, ruminate upon the material for several years, and then discover I have a good understanding of it the next time it comes up. Another problem is that I switch fields a little too often. After sticking with chemistry for awhile at Caltech, my grades improved. Then I switched to materials science... and now I'm pretending to be an electrical engineer. My transcripts tell the story:

UNDERGRADUATE TRANSCRIPT

Ay 1        Introduction to Astronomy       P
Ch 1abc  General Chemistry      P P P
Ch 3a      Fundamental Techniques of Experimental Chemistry      P
Ge 1        Introduction to Earth and Planetary Sciences      P
Ge 4        Introduction to the Solar System      P
Hum 2ab  Europe: The Roman Empire Through The Renaissance      P P
Ma 1abc  One-Variable Calculus, Sequences and Series      P P P
PE 44abc Shotokan Karate      P P P
Ph 1abc   Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism      P P P
Ph 3        Error Analysis       P
PS 12      Introduction to Political Science       P

Ch 4ab     Synthesis and Analysis of Inorganic and Organic Compounds      B C+
Ch 41abc Chemistry of Covalent Compounds      B- B C+
CS 1         Introduction to Sequential Programming      P
L 106ab    Elementary Japanese      A- B
Ma 2abc   Multi-Variable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics      B- B- B+
Ph 2b       Quantum Mechanics      B
Ph 5         Analog Electronics       A-

Ch 5a       Advanced Techniques of Chemical Synthesis and Analysis      A
Ch 6ab     Application of Physical Methods to Chemical Problems      A B+
Ch 14       Chemical Equilibrium and Analysis       B
Ch 21abc  Physical Description of Chemical Systems       B A B
Ch 90       Technical Presentation      P
Ch 130      Laser Spectroscopy      A+
Ch 143      Basic NMR Spectroscopy      A-
H 109       Protestant, Catholic, Jew       A+
H 118       Britain and Her Empire       A+
H 131       History on Film      A+
Ph 2a       Waves      A-
PS 121    Congressional Policy Formation and Legislative Process      A

An 22           Introduction to Anthropology      B
APh 114abc Solid State Physics       B C- B
APh 125a     Quantum Mechanics      C+
Ch 122a       X-Ray Crystallography      B
Ch 126         Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure Determination      A-
Ch 228         Dynamics of the Chemical Bond      A+
H 113           The Great War: 1914-1945      A-
Lit 108c        Seminar on Creative Writing      A
PS 123         Fiscal Federalism      A-

     The net result was a cumulative GPA of 3.3, which put me more-or-less in the middle of my class.

GRADUATE TRANSCRIPT

Matrl 201      Thermodynamics and Phase Equilibria       B
Matrl 206ab  Solid State Physics      A- B
Matrl 211a    Quantum Mechanics      B+
Matrl 215abc Semiconductor Device Processing      A- B+ B+
Matrl 216b     Defects in Semiconductors       A
Matrl 218      Introduction to Inorganic Materials       A

ECE 144ab    Fields and Waves      A A
ECE 227a     Semiconductor Lasers       B
Matrl 213      Crystal Growth      B+
Matrl 217      Molecular Beam Epitaxy       A-

ECE 227bc    Semiconductor Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits      B+ B

ECE 132      Semiconductor Device Physics       A+
Ph 141         Optics       B

     I graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.46.

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