Thomas Koster is a UIC graduate of the class of 2010. He graduated with BA in mathematics and minor in chemistry. In college he was so unsure of his major that he switched back and forth from chemistry and mathematics. Thomas admits that some science courses were difficult like the organic chemistry class due to the memorization involved which was not easy for him. Math classes like calculus were a lot easier for him because math has to do with patterns. In high school he was on the math team. He was always interested in math because he likes to work with patterns instead of trying to memorize facts.
In college he was apart of peer mentor. He really liked helping college students. He said, “I liked getting to know people and working with new students.” He was helping students with classes. He would like to do it again because he enjoyed working with college students. He liked working with college students because they are there because they want to be.
Thomas was also editor chief of Red Shoes, which is a literary magazine at UIC. He got involved because he was part of the honors program in college. He wanted to be involved with Red Shoes because it was something fun that was not related to science or math. He wanted to have a creative outlet.
He was involved with a lot of organizations but currently goes to conferences and seminars now that he is in Grad School. He is going to the University of Indiana at Bloomington where he is majoring in Computer Science. He said he picked his major because he has real interest for patterns and working with computers. Before grad school he took a year off because he didn’t know what he wanted to do. He went to University of Indiana because he likes their program. It was cutting edge and has top technicians.
After getting his masters degree, he wants to work at a research firm. He says he still wants to get his PhD but is still undecided in what area. He likes to do research on both a big or small scale. He likes to do research because he likes forming new ideas. In one of his classes, he is doing an independent stem project. He likes putting patterns together when researching. He looks for certain patterns, such as whether you get more Spam during the holidays or more Spam during rest of the year. He said that projects like these depend on sponsors in order for them to occur.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UIC chapter.