What did happen to our most recent University Medal Finalists anyway?

Colleges & Universities University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>The prior thread ‘the University Medal is a shame’ sparked the related question: what exactly did happen to our most recent (i.e. in the 2000’s) Medal Finalists anyway? That would go some way towards answering the question of whether the Medal (or at least the Finalist status) really is a sham, and what one can expect from being one of Berkeley’s (ostensibly) very best graduates. </p>

<p>I therefore started to compile a list of some of recent Finalists, along with what they did after graduation and what they are doing currently. I hope others can add additional information as they find it. Note, please don’t just rely solely on the purported career plans that the finalists may have mentioned within Berkeley’s finalists announcement news, although if that is the best you can do, you may include that. What is preferred is actual documentable evidence of where they might be now, such as a graduate student public directory listing, or a publicly posted CV/resume/linkedin-profile/company ‘About us’ blurb, or mention in any news article. </p>

<p>Also note, I am not interested in invading anybody’s privacy. If somebody happens to know private information about the whereabouts of any of the finalists, that probably should not be included. But I consider any publicly listed information to be fair game. </p>

<p>Medal winners, as opposed to Medal Finalists, are noted in bold</p>

<p>2004
Patrick McGowan - MArch at Yale, now an architect</p>

<p>2005-</p>

<p>Nate Singer - Bain, then fund management, now MBA student at Harvard Business School
David Sontag - MS/PhD in EECS at MIT, postdoc at Microsoft, joining CS faculty at NYU
Tanguy Chau - MS/PhD and MBA student at MIT. Founded his own startup
Denise Grab - Yale Law, was associate at Bingham McCutchen (not sure where she is now)
Kelly Fong - Archaeology PhD student at UCLA
**Alejandra Dubcosvky ** - History PhD student at Berkeley</p>

<p>2006</p>

<p>Lane Rettig - software developer in Hong Kong at DE Shaw
Laurel MacKenzie - Linguistics Phd Student at UPenn
Siu-Ting Mak - ?</p>

<p>2007
Amar Kishan - MD/PhD student, Harvard/MIT
Elaine Castillo - ? (probably an author)
Joel Portillo - ?
Betty Sousa - ?
Adrian Down - Ecology PhD student, Duke</p>

<p>2008
Cheung-Lei Sheu - ?
Matthew Johnson - EECS PhD student at MIT
Anitha Sivasankaran - Economics Phd Student, Harvard
Sam Pittman - MFA student, UPitt
Angelica Zen - ?
Julia Malkina - Yale Law</p>

<p>2009
** Emma Shaw Crane ** - Fulbright scholar in Colombia
Jordan Anaya - MD/PhD student a UVirginia
Sonia Fleury - ?
Lara Palanjian - UCLA Law
Zoe Silverman - Teach for America
William Vega - ?</p>

<p>2010
Pamela Krayenbuhl - ?
Josh Biddle - UCSF Med
Erik Petigura - Astro Phd student, Berkeley
Pedro Spivakovsky-Gonzalez - probably working for the Federal government
Reid Zimmerman - CEE phd student, Berkeley</p>

2

<p>2006:
Alexis Ashot - ?
Brian Loo - ?
Nicole Swann - Neuroscience PhD student, UCSD</p>

3

<p>Thanks for putting this up and helping dismiss any suspicions on their competency.</p>

4

<p>This one’s a little further back, but Ankur Luthra (the one I remember most from when I was considering Berkeley) is that absurdly amazing guy who did business and EECS, got the University Medal in 2002, went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and got an MS in CS, and then got an MBA from Harvard. His LinkedIn profile says he’s currently an “Investment Professional at Ziff Brothers Investments.”</p>

5

<p>i am not impressed by their performance</p>

6

<p>I have to agree with MechRocket…</p>

7

<p>Not impressed. I thought it would be more extraordinary…but I guess not.</p>

8

<p>

</p>

<p>you have to think carefully about this, mechie.</p>

<p>the “big picture” here is that this is the best we can possible do.
try not to come back to this thread in a couple years and read your post with a bitter taste in your mouth when you look back at your post-college career, just saying… </p>

<p>not everyone is a super star (who is your favorite superstar whose performance does impress you?).</p>

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<p>And I guess we don’t know what the PhD students are doing exactly…it’s possible that they could be doing some incredible things.</p>

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<p>Another reason to feel less pressured about trying so hard at undergrad to go to grad school…</p>

11

<p>2008
Cheung-Lei Sheu - UCSF SOM</p>

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<p>I’m quite impressed. You can probably find people in their classes who have accomplished more, but they’re on a strong trajectory.</p>

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<p>@cs91: calm down brah, i was throwing a GSP soundbite out there.</p>

<p>[YouTube</a> - ‪GSP Is Not Impressed (Office)‬‏](<a href=“GSP Is Not Impressed (Office) - YouTube”>GSP Is Not Impressed (Office) - YouTube)</p>

<p>[YouTube</a> - ‪GSP is not impressed‬‏](<a href=“GSP is not impressed - YouTube”>GSP is not impressed - YouTube)</p>

<p>the truth is, i just don’t really care, LOL. i suppose the field medal nominees/winners are impressive, dunno, dont care.</p>

14

<p>Don’t mean to sound anything other than calm, was just throwing it out there. They aren’t too impressive to be honest, I agree, but I don’t expect many people to be interested in succeeding to the level I perceive “impressive.” to each their own: some people get off on lab research, some raising a small family and educating their kids, some chilling in the VIP suite; so be it. if it were up to me, I don’t think anyone would win the stupid medal. But alas, it serves its purpose as a cute PR stunt, for what it’s worth. Whatever milks dollar signs out of the alumni, i guess. I’m looking at you, you stingy cal grad CC-ers… </p>

<p>jk</p>

<p>ish</p>

15

<p>The only way these don’t seem impressive is if you think that having a high GPA in college necessarily means that you’re amazing, and therefore you’re most likely doing something amazing. It’s not that big an accomplishment. But two other points: 1) compare these to their entire class, and it’s clear how impressive these groups are (that many at elite med schools and grad schools is a big deal); and 2) this is only 5-6 years down the road. Wait another few years and you’ll likely see lots of professors, business leaders, etc. When you look at Berkeley’s list of most well-known/successful alumni, these were often the sorts of things they were doing 5-6 years after graduating.</p>

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<p>I can’t wait until I get out of the world of academia!</p>

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<p>2004: Margaret Chow, winner, JD from Yale May 2007</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.american.edu/uploads/docs/Muratore-Kath-CV1.pdf[/url]”>http://www.american.edu/uploads/docs/Muratore-Kath-CV1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pub/margaret-chow/b/972/5b5[/url]”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pub/margaret-chow/b/972/5b5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Associate General Counsel at Usablenet</p>