I had the luxury of having a great lecturer during final year at college. Apparently, I need a recommendation letter from one of my lecturers so that I can prove to my employer how good I was during my college time. Not that I was among the best students anyway, but for sure that I was around the middle range and that gotta count for something. In return, she asked me to write a letter of sharing experiences to those fresh intake students. I felt it was an honored so I agreed. Writing an essay seems really troublesome and time consuming, it happened to me too. Eventually, I finished off the letter which consists of 2 A4 pages. I do not know whether it was enough or not but who could write that long anyway?
Note: my letter will be posted in the blog, hopefully it is the college’s blog.
THE EXPERIENCES AT RMIT PROGRAMME
First of all, I would like to say congratulation to all of you and welcome to Taylors College. I believe that college orientation can be very intimidating event for new students. However, it is also a proof, a turning point for you to realize that high school life has passed and time to put some serious thoughts into how you like to become in the future and set out your career path.
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Hoang Anh Vu (Rick), I am a Vietnamese. I was undertaking RMIT Program majoring Information Technology hosted by Taylors College for 3 years from 2005 to 2008 and just had my graduation in February 2009. Been there done that, RMIT program is a great program whereby you can learn and practice at the same time. The program is designed in such a way that encourages students to work in team and use your ability to finish the assignments on time.
The reason I write this letter is to share to everyone my experience when studied at Taylors College. Time spent in Malaysia in general and at Taylors in particular can be described in two words: Fun and Stressful. It is fun because here I came to know quite a number of friends who then become my great companions during my time study here. It is stressful because as university students, we are expected to self update and self learn. Therefore, only few days of slacking off can really slow me down in the study process.
One of the most popular words that I often heard here was assignments. RMIT assignments are generally difficult and hard to chew. Saying this does not mean they are totally obsolete, as the matter of fact, it is the other way around. One of the best ways to do revision and prepare for exams is to work hard on the assignments handed by the lecturers and finish them well. As I have experienced this in my first year as a fresh student, I did not consider seriously the value of getting the assignments done on time; I was then suffered later in the exams and ultimately failed one of the four subjects taken that year. Regret is only too late for that. From that time on, I learned that if I can do assignments by myself, the chances of me getting high grades in the subjects are guaranteed.
Other matter that I was told from time to time by the lecturers is plagiarism. I strongly believe that this term is really familiar to all of us. As students, we are taught to obey the rules and from time to time, we tend to do the opposite. It is acceptable in common sense as a human being. However in Taylors College as a student, plagiarism is strictly prohibited and will be carried out professionally. During my time of study here, the temptation of copying someone’s works is unbearable even though I knew it would get me penalized severely. In order to avoid having to copy, paying attention in class and try to finish up all the tutorials and lab exercises are the only ways. The more I tried to self learn, the more confident I became and in the end assignments were not difficult after all.
Making friend is another factor that I consider to be most important aspect of my life as an international computing student. I had the luxury of meeting a lot international students from our neighboring countries. As there was a saying:”It is not the matter who you are, it is who you know”, being friendly and social are key factors to be successful in this line of work. Friend relationship in college can be complicated due to the differences in nationalities and multicultural environment that we have at Taylors College. Having a buddy alongside you will be a great advantage. A friend can help you explain stuff that you do not understand from lectures; a friend can team up with you and get along well, no quarrels whatsoever. Therefore, in order to get along well, you have to mix well; lower down your ego a few knots is proven to be very wise and useful in the long run. By saying this, I do not mean using friends as a tool to proceed in life. In fact, fewer quarrels mean more works done and a friendlier environment. Imagine if you are hated by everyone in your course because of your attitude, your behavior, and your life would not be so enjoyable at Taylors. I tried to remind me from time to time that my objective here is to accomplish my duty as a student and graduate proudly which eventually I did.
Personally, I was not among the best students in my badge. Therefore, self motivation and discipline are really important to me. RMIT program can be really fun but also really challenging. Subjects provided by RMIT are somehow linked to each other from basic to advance. If there was one subject that I did not grab its core, then I knew there would be problem for me in the next semester. One thing I have realized after 3 years studying at Taylors is that computing knowledge is glued together like a chain and if a part of it is cut off then that would mean the whole chain will be destroyed. Therefore, focus at the beginning is crucial fact which will then contribute to your success in the future.
Programming skill in computing is considered to be most important skill so far that I know. It will only help you in doing your assignments and satisfying the most demanding employers. Java and C are the two programming languages that I found useful due to their popularity in the job hunting market. If this skill is polished nicely at the beginning, you will find the RMIT program is really enjoyable since most of it is based on programming, the other bit is on web and database.
Finally, to conclude this letter, I would like to say that even though time spent at Taylors is stressful and challenging, I found it meaningful and paid off well. The experiences that I have obtained during my time here are proven useful in my job hunting task. Good luck to all of you, you have made right choice, now it is up to you to make a difference in your life. Farewell.
