During the final weeks of my internship, I decided to squeeze in ONE more graduate school visit -- this time to West Lafayette, Indiana to Purdue University. I was able to take Amtrak from Chicago Union Station directly to West Lafayette and spend Friday night to Tuesday morning at Purdue, graciously hosted by 2 fellow interns that I met at Kraft. Behold the benefits of networking!
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| Ross-Ade Stadium at Purdue University |
My first experience as a potential Boilermaker was attending the football game and tailgate for Purdue vs. Central Michigan in the giant football stadium. The cheers and general fan behavior reminded me a lot of football games at Aggie Stadium. I even approached the trombone section of the Purdue "All-American" Marching Band to ask them questions to find similarities to the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh.
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| Of course I toured the pilot plant! |
Earlier in the week, I contacted the Food Science Graduate Program Coordinator, Mitzi Barnett, and she was able to quickly and skillfully create a schedule for an official visit. The schedule included 30 minute meet and greets with 6 different professors of whom I expressed interest. I also received a tour of the department and went to lunch with some current graduate students! I met with Dr. Keener, Farkas, San Martin-Gonzalez, Liceaga, Yao, and Feruzzi to introduce myself, discuss their research, and ask about their future projects. I found a couple advisors with whom I really enjoyed conversing and I have been keeping in contact with them. The graduate students also gave me great advice for choosing an advisor, program, and university; the hierarchy of importance is the dynamic with advisor, the research, then the location/university. It is most critical for success to have an understanding with and to get along well with your professor so that your research project is completed on time. Additionally, I was taken on several tours of the department, into labs, classrooms, lounges, kitchens, and the pilot plant. What a great facility!
Besides experimenting with the radiant fryer with Dr. Keener and his graduate student, one of the coolest parts of my trip to West Lafayette was having dinner at Dr. Farkas' house (Department Head of Food Science). He has recently been appointed after Dr. Nielsen retired and has great rapport with the students. He invited the new freshmen and some seniors to have a catered dinner at his beautiful home to introduce himself and encourage the seniors to bestow advice to the underclassmen. It was a really fun dinner and I even got to give advice and speak about the program at UC Davis. I welcomed any questions about the graduate program and told the international students about California --it was awesome to be a representative to UC Davis Food Science!
I really, truly, totally enjoyed my visit to Purdue University and West Lafayette. The people are nice, the department is strong, the potential MS research programs are interesting, there is plenty of funding, and the Midwest is beautiful!! I would welcome the opportunity to attend this school for my graduate studies. Additionally, an interesting comparison was made: If West Lafayette : Davis, Indianapolis : Sacramento, and Chicago : San Francisco. I think that these parallels really stimulate Purdue as a choice for my future!! Time will tell, and a few other grad school visits.
Boiler UP!
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| The Amtrak station sunrise |
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