Student Stories
Velin K. Tzanov ’06
Sofia, Bulgaria
Major: Computer science and electrical engineering (S.B. and M.Eng.)
I was born and raised in the beautiful country of Bulgaria, on the eastern end of the Balkan peninsula. The forcible communist regime (up to 1989) and the difficult years following it left my country in complete economic devastation. This not only ruined the Bulgarian institutions of higher learning, but also impoverished Bulgarian parents to the extent that they could no afford to pay for their children’s education abroad. The average salary in the country at the time of my high school graduation was below $1,500 annually. My parents, both artists, were not an exception. Clearly, the above circumstances would have rendered my MIT education impossible, had it not been for my scholarship and other forms of financial aid I have received over the years.
I can certainly say that my MIT education made a huge difference in my life. Coming to MIT, I had an excellent record in competitions in mathematics and informatics, but I had little idea how to apply my skills to the real world and which areas to concentrate in. MIT offered me arguably the best computer science department in the world and gave me that badly needed breadth of knowledge about the applications of computer science. My MIT experience gave me a very good understanding of what my ideal job would look like and also gave me the necessary skills and background to receive an offer for such a job. This summer I’ll start my career at D.E. Shaw & Co., applying my mathematical and computer science skills to the applications of statistical decision theory and machine learning.
| Financial aid package | |
| MIT scholarship and federal grants | $39,100 |
| Student loans | $2,934 |
| Term-time MIT work | $1,500 |
| Total aid package | $43,534 |
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