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Ask HN: I'm a 14yo HS student. How can I improve my situation?
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm a 14yo HS student. How can I improve my situation?
#22As a soon to graduate high school senior and someone who seems to have the same interests as you, here are some of my thoughts: 1. Stay on the ball with your school work. I regret doing this myself. Freshman and sophomore year I had a decent average (85-90%), however, junior year I just got lazy. Most of my classes went down into the 70s and I was not enjoying myself. I'm in my final semester now, I have been accepte…
About science fairs: I used to spend my summers working on my science fair project, then in the US (MA) win local and regional fairs to eventually get to the State Science Fair, where you could win $1k-3k in cash 'scholarships'. Better than a summer job, and looks good for college.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a 14yo HS student. How can I improve my situation?
#23Go to community college. I just walked in asked nicely and they let me in. Drop out of HS if you can. Transfer straight to college. Don't tell any CC students about your situation because it can make things awkward.
Don't listen to counselors or even parents on this: no one will care about a HS diploma, especially if you go into development. No one will even ask.
If it ever comes up, casually don't mention you didn't graduate. Just say I went to Such-and-such HS.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a 14yo HS student. How can I improve my situation?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also: http://www.reddit.com/r/csbooks http://www.reddit.com/r/mathbooks http://www.reddit.com/r/eebooks http://www.reddit.com/r/econbooks http://www.reddit.com/r/physicsbooks And not just books, but there is a tremendous amount of useful technical informaation, tutorials, articles, etc. on the web that are free. Heck, you could spend a lifetime just reading papers from Citeseer or ArXiv.org. OP: it might help if you…
I tried to ask them but there's always so many blocks. I have to explain so much just to get them to do something. It's like an inefficient bureaucracy with lots of red tape. I can't really contact any of my relatives because they are in another country. I think they're hostile to the idea because my grades have been low (although they are improving) ever since we moved to a new state over winter. They are also worri…
I tried to ask them but there's always so many blocks. I have to explain so much just to get them to do something. It's like an inefficient bureaucracy with lots of red tape. I can't really contact any of my relatives because they are in another country. I think they're hostile to the idea because my grades have been low (although they are improving) ever since we moved to a new state over winter. They are also worried about my vision...
Understood. Another option would be to setup some sort of online "donation box" thing (like some open source projects do) and just put the word out "help a high-school kid get a VPS / domain / books" and see if you can raise a few dollars. I know I'd chip in a few bucks to such a cause myself.
And, as others have mentioned, a summer job is an option. But it doesn't necessarily have to be mowing lawns or whatever. You already have some coding skills, and apparently have a computer and a 'net connection... maybe you can find a scenario where somebody will pay you to build them a basic app or website or whatever. Unfortunately you probably can't use ODesk or anything due to your age, but you might be able to set up an "under the table" deal and get paid via Paypal or something. Hmm... not sure if you can have a PayPal account if you're < 18, but maybe your parents would be willing to help make that happen, if there's an age limit?
Re: Ask HN: I'm a 14yo HS student. How can I improve my situation?
#25Where are you located? You want books, I have books. You could also find more value than programming in being plugged in to your high school social activities. By being in touch with what the cool kids and upcoming hipsters are doing you may have insight into a market that lots of companies would pay good money for.
BTW, if you had a server and a domain name do you even know what you would do with it? Not in a technical manner but what problems are you going to solve with the software you write. Learn how to recognize problems in a market and offer valuable solutions.