Who are you and in which double major are you?
I am a Mathematics and Computer Science student from Romania. I graduated from the top high school in Romania where I followed a Natural Sciences curriculum (which had as a main focus Physics, Chemistry, and Biology).
Why would you recommend the Bachelor Program?
The bachelor program is great from many points of view. Academically speaking, it is one of the most comprehensive and demanding program that I know of, which means that while you have to be dedicated and hard-working, you also graduate with knowledge well above the average bachelor degree. From a social point of view, the small class of the bachelor program really allows students to form strong bonds and to engage in the community early on. The bachelor community itself is very close, we all know each other really well and some of the best friendships were built throughout our time here. This is also an aspect that a lot of exchange students observe when coming to the bachelor program, and they are often surprised at how welcoming and warm the people here are. Finally, choosing a double major in the second year gives you the opportunity to make a well-informed decision. When joining the program, I was sure I was going to choose the Physics major, but I ended up developing a passion for Computer Science and choosing that instead.
What would be a great memory of your time in the Program that you would like to share with future students?
I would say that all my best memories are from events that brought the whole promotion together. There are quite a few each year, from barbecues by the lake to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners and even having lunch with the alumni association at Maison de Polytechniciens. I also really enjoy my group's tradition of celebrating birthdays with our coach: each person has a godmother/godfather in the group responsible for baking a cake and bringing a small gift, and on their birthday we all gather and find out who it is (and eat a lot of cake).
What would be a piece of advice that you would like to share with future students?
Work consistently and do not let yourself fall behind. We have a lot of work and it can sometimes get overwhelming if you do not keep yourself in check. That being said, remember to enjoy your time here, because it really is over in a blink of an eye.
Where have you been admitted so far and what do you intend to do after the Program? Any other general comment on the outcomes of the Bachelor Program at this stage?
So far, I have been admitted to every program I applied to, in schools such as Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania and Ecole Polytechnique. Because it was my first choice, I decided to accept the offer of Columbia University. I am interested in Visual Computing, and the Master's programs I applied for are all in this field of Computer Science. In the future, I see myself working in a gaming company, most probably in the Graphics department. I would say that the bachelor thesis was a valuable experience that really made my application stood out. Because we can choose our supervisor and subject, I worked with the graphics team of Polytechnique and developed a research project that I am really proud of and that was related to what I want to study at a graduate level. As a general comment, it seems that most of the bachelor students got accepted in excellent graduate schools, which really shows the quality of our program, as well as the efficiency of our advisors that helped us along the way.
