Inspirit AI Review 2024 with a UC Davis Student
Anuj Bhandari is currently an undergraduate student at University of California, Davis studying Computer Science. Before getting admitted to UC Davis, Anuj was a student in the Inspirit AI Scholars program. He participated in the program in Summer 2021, and in this interview, he shares a review of his experience in the program, answering the question: Is Inspirit AI worth it?
Anuj Bhandari’s Inspirit AI Alum Profile
How did the AI Scholars program impact your preparation for college and your academic journey?
“The program provided me with a lot of diversity in the kind of work we did. During the program I was able to learn from a mentor, work with a team, apply the skills I learned to a project, and present our findings. It helped me gain both technical and soft skills that I use in college all the time.”
What project did you work on in the AI Scholars program?
AI + Algorithmic Trading
In this project, students use logistic regression, LSTMs, and BERT to analyze the sentiment of financial tweets. The ultimate goal is to predict long-term stock market trends, which can help people manage wealth and anticipate potential booms and busts.
Which colleges/universities did you apply to, and which did you get accepted to?
Anuj applied to highly selected colleges, including UC Davis, where he now currently attends. Take a look at his college admissions journey below.
In what ways did you feature your Inspirit AI experience on your college applications?
Many students will choose to showcase their AI project-building experience on their college application in a variety of ways. From including Inspirit AI on the activities section to writing an essay about their project, many students will highlight the work they completed as part of the AI Scholars program to help bolster their application. Anuj chose to showcase Inspirit AI on his application in the activities section, where he mentioned participating in the program, as well as his essays, where he wrote about his Inspirit AI project-building experience.
How has your AI Scholars project affected your career journey?
A student’s learning journey doesn’t end with AI Scholars—the Inspirit AI program can be a launching point for many students’ college and career journeys exploring computer science and artificial intelligence. For Anuj, his project helped solidify his interest in AI.
“The AI Scholars project sparked a keen interest in Machine Learning for me and has led to me taking multiple classes in the area of ML/AI. The project also helped me land a position as a Machine Learning Project Manager at the biggest AI club at my school. I get to teach other students about Machine Learning and AI while also learning new things myself.”
What has your college and career journey been like since you completed the AI Scholars program?
“I had a software engineering internship after my freshman year of college and currently work as a Machine Learning Project Manager at a school club. I hav taken many Computer Science classes including some related to ML/AI such as Intro to Machine Learning and Intro to AI.”
What advice do you have for high school students applying to their dream colleges?
“Explore different colleges and see what they have to offer. Take a look at different campuses, different majors, even consider studying abroad. During high school, don't miss things. Do a bunch of extracurriculars, whatever interests you.”
For Anuj, the Inspirit AI program was more than worth it, from showcasing AI Scholars on his college application to applying his learnings from the Inspirit AI course to his work as a college student. If you liked this Inspirit AI review, we encourage you to apply to the live online program here.
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
