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Text Your Way to College

nytimes.com

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Re: Text Your Way to College

#51

Post by stale2002 »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #26
sremani wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not an expert, but #1. You are average of 5 peers you hang out with (a good thumb rule). #2. There is a huge valley between Software Engineering vs Computer Science (what is your goal here.) For #1. meet-ups and getting programmer mentor is good idea. If you really want to do pure CS, there is no alternative to college, but for Software Gig, a good programmer mentor gives better direction than College/University…

Yet none of that matters if top companies don't interview at your school for internships...which they don't for the most part.

Top company internships certainly HELP, but you are really aren't that far behind if you don't get them.

Getting a job right out of college is hard. Everyone is looking for a year of experience.

But once you get that FIRST job, things are smooth sailing. I never got recruitment message in college, but after I had graduated, and was working for a year, I starting getting multiple every week.

Top company jobs, are of course awesome. But if you don't get them right out of college, you can pretty easily do it after a year or 2 of working in the industry in SF.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#52

Post by stale2002 »

nether wrote: post #21
OJFord wrote: post #10

I realise in a sense this is not a particularly nice thought, but: > Colleges and universities need to join forces to encourage poor, high-achieving students to attend top-flight schools and nudge accepted students to enroll. Doing the right thing for students has never been so cheap. Do they? Competition is so high, however cheap it is, I can't see any upside for the university other than image. And that image is un…

A while back, the Economist said, "a dumb rich kid has a much better chance at attending an elite school than a brilliant poor kid." If a university is to maintain the goal of admitting smart students, then this would be a step toward that.

Sure, but that costs money. The goal of a university is to pay the bills.

I am sure that any university would be willing to accept that brilliant poor kid, as long as someone was paying that 50k a year tuition price tag.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#53

Post by Spooky23 »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #20

On one hand, I hear breathless reassurances from people like Frank Bruni (also at the Times) that "school doesn't matter" and "college is what you make it". At the same time, we get articles like these. Now, as someone pursuing CS at a second or maybe even third tier institution - which is it?

You're not going to work for big brand companies in Silicon Valley, because they use alma mater as one of the few legal mass filters.

That's not the end of the world. Learn, enjoy, don't be an asshole, build bridges to other people, and work hard and you'll be fine.

There's a saying/proverb that I'll butcher... a lily is an incredibly beautiful flower, but it only grows in the muck at the edge of the lake. Be the lily.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#54

Post by bjacobel »

My girlfriend worked in college access with low-income students last year and used the same service used in the referenced UVA study [1] to advise and connect with students. SignalVine seems to have a big head start in this space, although both deployments I know about were in the Boston area - maybe there are other regional competitors (I wasn't able to find any through Googling, though).

Naiively, the application looks to me like just a nice web frontend with auth and scheduling features, with an SMS provider for a backend (Twilio or similar). Seems like some enterprising hacker could break into this space with a cheaper product - SignalVine is pricey, especially for small nonprofits on tight budgets.

[1]: https://www.signalvine.com/

Re: Text Your Way to College

#55

Post by craftandhustle »

blooooo wrote: post #43

I'm from a family in the bottom income bracket, and I went to Stanford. It's as alien and daunting as the article makes it sound. I would never have thought to apply if it weren't for a suggestion from my aunt who married rich. My high school guidance counselor was completely unhelpful, and she actively discouraged all of my peers who I wanted to apply with me (because "Stanford wants 1s and 2s," not people ranked 5t…

Your comment is spot on and resonates profoundly with me. I'm also from a family in the bottom income bracket - my family were migrant farm laborers ever since we emigrated to the US when I was two. My outlook for college was dim and I didn't know anyone that had gone past a year or two at a local community college, certainly not in my family. It didn't help that I was raised in a tiny farming town of ~1500 people, devoid of many educational resources, with a similar background.

I also applied to and had interest from an elite school in the east coast but faced the financial burden (fees, traveling to a major city for face-to-face interview, etc) and lack of mentorship/guidance in HS to successfully pursue it. I was very fortunate however to earn a full ride scholarship to any in-state public university through a new program that was targeting students like myself, otherwise the financial aspect alone would have made it impossible. Not to mention the obstacles "navigating college" that you articulated so well.

I eventually earned my BFA and feel pretty fortunate to be in the position that I'm currently in. In the last few months, I reached out to the foundation that provided my scholarship and have started volunteering my time and story with students facing similar situations. I had always been very hesitant because I felt that there wasn't much I could offer, but the more I talk with students I'm reminded of what it was like when I was in their situation - just looking for someone that could provide a little bit of guidance and/or clarity.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#56

Post by Ayraa »

blooooo wrote: post #43

I'm from a family in the bottom income bracket, and I went to Stanford. It's as alien and daunting as the article makes it sound. I would never have thought to apply if it weren't for a suggestion from my aunt who married rich. My high school guidance counselor was completely unhelpful, and she actively discouraged all of my peers who I wanted to apply with me (because "Stanford wants 1s and 2s," not people ranked 5t…

Your story really resonated with me. I think one of the biggest issue education / society has not adequately addressed is, even with a curious mind, as a teenager, you don't get too many chances to learn what is out there and what is possible. You have to know it exists to start looking. Unless you grew up in a certain household (generally higher income, educated) / environment / peer group that exposed you.

For example, I started coding in my early teens but I never really knew all the career paths it opened up until my twenties. My parents never showed me. My school never showed me. I ended up studying something unrelated in university.

I think it would be a huge boon to our collective future if schools focused more on showing students all the possibilities out there and supporting them to explore it, so they can discover their passions earlier and better maximize their potentials.

From 'shadow an employee' programs, counselling assistance, co-ed programs to extracurricular programs. Instead of letting them decide their future career paths (at least postsecondary choices) based on the limited subjects and materials they're learning in classrooms and what their parents and peers showed them (and did not show them) is possible.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#57

Post by danso »

blooooo wrote: post #43

I'm from a family in the bottom income bracket, and I went to Stanford. It's as alien and daunting as the article makes it sound. I would never have thought to apply if it weren't for a suggestion from my aunt who married rich. My high school guidance counselor was completely unhelpful, and she actively discouraged all of my peers who I wanted to apply with me (because "Stanford wants 1s and 2s," not people ranked 5t…

Just wanted to say that I really appreciated this story. I was lower middle income but being from a war refugee family, public school was where we went to, and then to state college. I loved it but had no idea what private school life was like. Now I work at Stanford, and am constantly impressed by the high-achieving students.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#58

Post by remar »

blooooo wrote: post #43

I'm from a family in the bottom income bracket, and I went to Stanford. It's as alien and daunting as the article makes it sound. I would never have thought to apply if it weren't for a suggestion from my aunt who married rich. My high school guidance counselor was completely unhelpful, and she actively discouraged all of my peers who I wanted to apply with me (because "Stanford wants 1s and 2s," not people ranked 5t…

Question for HN: (sorry to piggy back off of this comment)

I've also gone down a similar path to what OP described and I feel like I really want to help those growing up in similar environments (e.g. 1st generation college students, poor family, lack of guidance growing up, etc) but I'm not sure where to start.

I live in the Seattle area and I've heard about TEALS as an initiative to mentor high school level students and prepare them for computer science in college, but I'm not sure if this would be the best place to focus my efforts (main concern being whether I'll just be mentoring kids at the more well off high schools vs the schools that really need it).

Re: Text Your Way to College

#59

Post by dxhdr »

blooooo wrote: post #32
hrehhf wrote: post #25

Going to an Ivy League school does not help the student earn more money compared to going to a non-Ivy, except for students from certain disadvantaged backgrounds. "students, who were accepted into elite schools, but went to less selective institutions, earned salaries just as high as Ivy League grads." http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2...

The exceptions are students who are black, Latino, low-income, or first-generation college attendees. I understand that these populations are a minority in the Ivy League, but they easily combine to be a majority of the country. So we could more accurately say that Ivies help students earn higher salaries, except for students from certain privileged backgrounds.

Minor tangent: how strongly does the minority component factor into this, versus the low-income and first-generation components? In other words, does this still apply to high-income, second-generation black and Latino college attendees?

There is definitely quite a bit of overlap as minorities are more likely to be low-income, first-generation college students. When taking that into account it's not clear that those groups form a majority of the population.

Re: Text Your Way to College

#60

Post by uiri »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #26
sremani wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not an expert, but #1. You are average of 5 peers you hang out with (a good thumb rule). #2. There is a huge valley between Software Engineering vs Computer Science (what is your goal here.) For #1. meet-ups and getting programmer mentor is good idea. If you really want to do pure CS, there is no alternative to college, but for Software Gig, a good programmer mentor gives better direction than College/University…

Yet none of that matters if top companies don't interview at your school for internships...which they don't for the most part.

You can apply online to top companies. You won't go nearly as far if you passively wait for opportunity to come to you.
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