Iâd say itâs only slightly aligned with improving AI risk research abilities, but itâs moderate-to-highly aligned with career success in general.
The main benefit to a very high GPA (top 5-10%) is as a signal that youâre smart and diligent. If youâre going to a non-brand-name school, that can be useful for putting you within the same league as the applicants from brand-name schools for internships and job opportunities, including for AI risk research.
A secondary benefit is exercising the muscle of diligence and hard work. However, there are other ways you can do this which are more direct aligned with AI risk work, for example independent research, taking AI risk courses, etc.
The benefit to your relevant research abilities would only come from courses with practically relevant course material, like applied ML. I would definitely encourage you to give it your all on those courses. However, while theoretical CS is super cool, knowing it wonât matter for AI risk work. But as Tomasik and others write, college is deeply inefficient for learning, and with the proper effort you can easily learn way more than your undergrad degree will teach you by diligently gathering knowledge available online for free.
Edit: Iâd also consider trying to graduate a year or two early if possible. Youâll learn way more by actually working in AI risk, itâs better on shorter timelines, youâll get paid for time you otherwise would have spent paying for irrelevant courses, and itâs an even stronger signal of intelligence and diligence.
Hello Ariel: Thanks very much for your response, itâs very helpful.
However, for my situation itâs a bit different: If I double major in dentistry and CS(Iâll probably do them in different colleges, the below is just discussing on the CS part). I could choose a top college in Taiwan. However, in the top college Iâd have to invest like much more time in order to get a top 10-20% GPA(like 3.8). In applying master in USA, it seems GPA matters much more than your college name(especially because they donât know how big the difference of students intelligence is between the top-teir and mid-teir school in Taiwan.) Therefore, thereâs a case for choosing mid-teir school in order to spend less time and maintain high GPA.
So the choice may be like: 1.spend 1000 hours extra on chasing GPA, and get a 3.2 GPA in a top-tier school 2.spend 1000 hours extra on chasing GPA, get a 3.8 GPA in a mid-tier school 3.spend 2000 hours extra on chasing GPA, get a 3.8 GPA in a top-tier school. It seems obvious that 1 is the worst for applying master degree in USA, so the choice is between 2 and 3, whether itâs worth investing like 1000 hours to improve your âcollege school nameâ on the resume. What do you think?
(And of course, there are still other advantages of choosing a top-tier school, like better peers and research environment.)
Happy to help! I agree with your framing of the problem.
I asked Claude which Taiwanese universities US mastersâ programs are most likely to have heard of. Claude says NTU has the strongest name recognition, followed by NCKU, NTHU, NCTU. Others arenât as well known internationally. If thatâs accurate, that tells me that if the top option youâre considering is not one of those four, (2) mid tier + high GPA would be the best option.
If youâre planning on working on AI risk, my understanding is that most of these companies are US or Europe-based. These companies will have even lower knowledge of the distinctions between Taiwanese universities. Unless your hiring manager or interviewer is Asian, youâll likely only get a boost from NTU and probably no benefit from NCKU, NTHU, NCTU. That leans me more in favor of (2). (Speaking as someone who interviews candidates and contributes to hiring decisions, I had dim recognition of NTU and no recognition of NCKU, NTHU, NCTU prior to writing this comment, but I expect my Asian colleagues would.)
Based on this, unless your top option is NTU, (2) mid tier + high GPA is likely best. But do your own research and donât just take my word for it :)
Iâd say itâs only slightly aligned with improving AI risk research abilities, but itâs moderate-to-highly aligned with career success in general.
The main benefit to a very high GPA (top 5-10%) is as a signal that youâre smart and diligent. If youâre going to a non-brand-name school, that can be useful for putting you within the same league as the applicants from brand-name schools for internships and job opportunities, including for AI risk research.
A secondary benefit is exercising the muscle of diligence and hard work. However, there are other ways you can do this which are more direct aligned with AI risk work, for example independent research, taking AI risk courses, etc.
The benefit to your relevant research abilities would only come from courses with practically relevant course material, like applied ML. I would definitely encourage you to give it your all on those courses. However, while theoretical CS is super cool, knowing it wonât matter for AI risk work. But as Tomasik and others write, college is deeply inefficient for learning, and with the proper effort you can easily learn way more than your undergrad degree will teach you by diligently gathering knowledge available online for free.
Edit: Iâd also consider trying to graduate a year or two early if possible. Youâll learn way more by actually working in AI risk, itâs better on shorter timelines, youâll get paid for time you otherwise would have spent paying for irrelevant courses, and itâs an even stronger signal of intelligence and diligence.
Hello Ariel: Thanks very much for your response, itâs very helpful.
However, for my situation itâs a bit different: If I double major in dentistry and CS(Iâll probably do them in different colleges, the below is just discussing on the CS part). I could choose a top college in Taiwan. However, in the top college Iâd have to invest like much more time in order to get a top 10-20% GPA(like 3.8). In applying master in USA, it seems GPA matters much more than your college name(especially because they donât know how big the difference of students intelligence is between the top-teir and mid-teir school in Taiwan.) Therefore, thereâs a case for choosing mid-teir school in order to spend less time and maintain high GPA.
So the choice may be like: 1.spend 1000 hours extra on chasing GPA, and get a 3.2 GPA in a top-tier school 2.spend 1000 hours extra on chasing GPA, get a 3.8 GPA in a mid-tier school 3.spend 2000 hours extra on chasing GPA, get a 3.8 GPA in a top-tier school. It seems obvious that 1 is the worst for applying master degree in USA, so the choice is between 2 and 3, whether itâs worth investing like 1000 hours to improve your âcollege school nameâ on the resume. What do you think?
(And of course, there are still other advantages of choosing a top-tier school, like better peers and research environment.)
Happy to help! I agree with your framing of the problem.
I asked Claude which Taiwanese universities US mastersâ programs are most likely to have heard of. Claude says NTU has the strongest name recognition, followed by NCKU, NTHU, NCTU. Others arenât as well known internationally. If thatâs accurate, that tells me that if the top option youâre considering is not one of those four, (2) mid tier + high GPA would be the best option.
If youâre planning on working on AI risk, my understanding is that most of these companies are US or Europe-based. These companies will have even lower knowledge of the distinctions between Taiwanese universities. Unless your hiring manager or interviewer is Asian, youâll likely only get a boost from NTU and probably no benefit from NCKU, NTHU, NCTU. That leans me more in favor of (2). (Speaking as someone who interviews candidates and contributes to hiring decisions, I had dim recognition of NTU and no recognition of NCKU, NTHU, NCTU prior to writing this comment, but I expect my Asian colleagues would.)
Based on this, unless your top option is NTU, (2) mid tier + high GPA is likely best. But do your own research and donât just take my word for it :)