A Few Pieces of Advice That Have Served Me Well
0
Posted by: Hopkins Insider | 
September 26 2011 | 
Comments (0)
Name: Akshay Krishnaswamy
Year: Class of 2012
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Area of Study: Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Management
*****************************************************************************************************
To those of you reading this entry, hello! My name is Akshay Krishnaswamy. I’m originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I’m currently a rising senior at Hopkins majoring in biomedical engineering. For my entry, I thought I’d simply run through a few pieces of advice that I’ve found useful during my time here, and how I’ve tried to apply them. So, without further delay:
#1: Try to use Orientation Week as a social springboard. There’s probably not going to be another time in your life quite like it. When I arrived at Hopkins I was, admittedly, a bit nervous; I had traveled around the world growing up, but I’d always lived comfortably in one place and with the same group of friends. After getting settled into my dorm and getting the chance to spend time with a handful of the people that were to be my classmates for the next four years, I remember not being so nervous anymore. The people weren’t just smart and qualified, but, (gasp) also interesting individuals that were a lot of fun to hang out with. To this day, my closest friends here are those that I met almost three years ago during the first couple days of orientation week. So, during that first week (or at any social gathering during your first few months), my advice is just simply to keep in mind that everyone around you is in the exact same boat; everyone’s feeling displaced and overwhelmed, but, above all, everyone’s looking to make new friends.
#2: In terms of coursework and major, know that it’s alright to bounce around a bit before you figure out where you want to settle. You’ve probably heard this a lot, and to varying degrees, but I think it’s particularly important to remember. I started off as a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major, but switched to Biomedical Engineering at the end of my freshman year. Both departments are great and full of interesting classes and research opportunities, but for me, BME turned out to be the better fit. It wasn’t immediately obvious, either; I made the choice after more than a semester of personal research. If you’re still thinking about what exactly you want to pursue, I say avoid rushing to decide, despite the desire to have a concrete major in place. Sometimes it really does help to first have proper exposure to the classes, professors, and opportunities that each field of study you’re considering has to offer. Changing majors is really simple here too. In my case, I just had to get a few forms signed and the registrar took care of the rest.
#3: Take the leap and try something new–you’ll still have plenty of time for school (I promise). Two of the opportunities I’ve been really fortunate to be a part of here at Hopkins are research and being a teaching assistant. Research could be a blog post in itself, but I’ll just say that working in Dr. Thakor’s lab with the brain-computer interface group has been absolutely awesome. If you’re at all interested in research, I’ll be the first to tell you to give it a shot.
I became a teaching assistant this past year, after taking Dr. Julie Reiser’s Oral Presentations course last summer. I really enjoyed the course, and decided that the TA position sounded like a fun job that I could manage alongside my other commitments during the year. It has definitely turned out to be more than just a nice job. The Center for Leadership Education (or CLE for short) is full of some of the friendliest, most down-to-earth people I’ve met at Hopkins. In terms of academics, whether it was Intro to Business with Professor Aronhime or Business Law with Professor Franceschini, the courses in the CLE have always managed to be both entertaining and practical. With just a few more courses this upcoming year, I’ll have an Entrepreneurship and Management minor. The CLE also plays a part an array of different student organizations and puts on a few notable events each year, like the annual Johns Hopkins Business Plan Competition. I was able to participate this past year in the business plan competition with my biomedical engineering design team. It was really fun, and hey, I even got a free dinner out of it.
Wrapping up, I’d just reiterate one thing: allow yourself to be flexible. College has turned out to be a pretty unpredictable experience so far (in good ways, mostly). If I had been particularly attached to the detailed mental plan I had going into freshman year, I probably wouldn’t have experienced any of the things I mentioned in this post. You’re going to naturally think up a master plan, or specific expectations of what you want out of your four years. I think it’s definitely beneficial to have those broad contours when mapping out your future, but don’t be afraid to take your time filling in the details. You have more time than you think. Explore, and enjoy.
