Inspirit AI Review from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Student
Andy Qiao is currently an undergraduate student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying Computer Science and Advertising. Before getting admitted to UIUC, Andy 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?
Andy Qiao’s Inspirit AI Alum Profile
How did the AI Scholars program impact your preparation for college and your academic journey?
“The AI Scholars program provided me with hands-on experience and practical skills in the field of CS, which was valuable in preparing me for college coursework and research. The program also helped open doors to various opportunities, including other programs and research positions.”
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?
Andy applied to highly selected colleges, including University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 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. Andy 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 Andy, his project helped solidify his interest in AI.
“One of the notable outcomes of my involvement in the AI Scholars program was the chance to engage in a research program. The knowledge and skills acquired during the program sparked my interested in exploring AI and what the field holds. My interest for AI was sparked by the Inspirit AI program, which also let me join a number of clubs, meet cool people, and narrow down my area of interest in computer science.”
What advice do you have for high school students applying to their dream colleges?
“Be yourself, don't mold yourself into someone you aren't, and be passionate about your major.”
For Andy, 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.
