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What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

tieshunroquerre.com

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Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#91

Post by webkike »

jayparth wrote: post #86
gavinray wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people do you think ARE financially able to go to MIT? The tuition cost is $53,450, with housing costing $10,430 and to my understanding living there is required the first year. Factor in books and food, and you're looking at $60,000-70,000/yr. That's $240,000-280,000 for a four year degree. I dropped out of highschool at 16, got my GED (thinking I'd be able to get a 2-year headstart on my degree without res…

I mean, if you get into MIT, you can definitely get student loans... lenders agree that your MIT degree is proof that you'll make significant income later in life and pay off that debt. Your situation sucks. It's not really applicable for top schools though. With a combination of financial assistance and debt, it's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations.

Getting student loans is not a solution, it just pushes the problem later down the road and can often times ruin your life later.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#92

Post by troquerre »

aroundtown wrote: post #61

What I learned from this article: 1. Privilege opens doors not available to others. 2. Those with privilege are often oblivious to the advantages they have.

Author here. I completely agree that privilege opens doors not available to others. But my intention was that it’s possible to break into Silicon Valley and succeed (to the extent you can consider going through YC success...) even without privilege.

I saw another comment saying that I went to MIT around the same time as YC. It was actually after — going through YC enabled me to apply to MIT and get in without a high school diploma. Privilege didn’t help me get into YC (persistence + timing + luck did) but afterwards the privilege of getting into YC helped me with my college applications.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#93

Post by iancmceachern »

jpxw wrote: post #76
sbisker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On another part of his homepage it says he went to MIT around the same time he did YC. As someone who interviewed for YC myself while attending MIT, I am not even going to pretend I got the interview entirely independent of my background and the opportunities it gave me - and indirectly, my ability and decision to finance a very expensive education, even after financial aid. Now, he obviously had talent to even get i…

How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable? I’m curious.

This explains it all:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/long-brewi...

Our prestigious higher education institutions have become hedge funds with small educational arms. Over the last decades billions of dollars has been transferred from middle class households to the hedge funds of these universities. If their goal was to maximize education they wouldn't artificially limit admissions so as to increase the rarity of their luxury brand.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#94

Post by troquerre »

sbisker wrote: post #69
exolymph wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Coming from a Boston suburb" was enough for you to dismiss his talent and effort as irrelevant? Geez.

On another part of his homepage it says he went to MIT around the same time he did YC. As someone who interviewed for YC myself while attending MIT, I am not even going to pretend I got the interview entirely independent of my background and the opportunities it gave me - and indirectly, my ability and decision to finance a very expensive education, even after financial aid. Now, he obviously had talent to even get i…

I was a high school dropout when I applied to YC — I got into MIT only after going through YC, so it’s the other way around. Going through YC definitely helped me get to MIT. There’s a meta lesson in that success begets success which is observable in the valley, but I think it’s possible for anyone to get the first seed of success to build upon.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#95

Post by troquerre »

JoblessWonder wrote: post #72
zach_garwood wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Pretty much every point needs to be followed up by "... if you're a white man." - No one cares about your background ... if you're a white man. - You don't need a lot of experience ... if you're a white man.

I mean, technically it looks like this guy (Tieshun Roquerre) is an asian man. (or possibly half-asian?)

I’m half Chinese half white. I’m impressed you could tell from photos!

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#96

Post by gavinray »

jayparth wrote: post #86
gavinray wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people do you think ARE financially able to go to MIT? The tuition cost is $53,450, with housing costing $10,430 and to my understanding living there is required the first year. Factor in books and food, and you're looking at $60,000-70,000/yr. That's $240,000-280,000 for a four year degree. I dropped out of highschool at 16, got my GED (thinking I'd be able to get a 2-year headstart on my degree without res…

I mean, if you get into MIT, you can definitely get student loans... lenders agree that your MIT degree is proof that you'll make significant income later in life and pay off that debt. Your situation sucks. It's not really applicable for top schools though. With a combination of financial assistance and debt, it's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations.

> It's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations.

I know this probably applies to almost nobody, but it's something I haven't seen discussed openly before:

If you're a completely average person in the US. Not a minority, coming from a middleclass family. But your family doesn't want to just hand you money -- you're kind of fucked.

There's something called "Expected Family Contribution". The country has decided that everyone's parents are just going to give away their money to their children.

> Eligibility for need-based financial aid is determined by a formula that subtracts the student’s expected family contribution (EFC) from a college’s total cost of attendance. This determines financial need. The equation looks like this: (cost of attendance – EFC = financial need).

So if your parents are say, by-your-bootstraps capitalists, and they go "Get a job bum, you want something, go work for it." then you're shit outta luck.

I applied for financial aid and I was denied.

"Your parents make too much money."

"Well, that's nice for them. I don't live with my parents and they have no interest in financially supporting me, so can't you calculate it from my $8/hr wage?"

"No, sorry. You can try waiting to go to college until you're no longer considered a dependent."

I'm not trying to make this out to be a sob story, but if you're a completely unremarkable individual without family contribution, your only way in is debt. And not even reasonable debt, that you could work a regular job and pay off in a few years, but obscene debt.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#97

Post by emit_time »

lordnacho wrote: post #8

It may be true that you don't need to have worked in a white shoe firm to be respected in SV, but I'm pretty sure there's certain characteristics that are advantageous: - Got into a top university. Good grades are popular, unsurprisingly. A proxy for intelligence and hard work. - Speaks English. How many YC folks don't? I'm sure there are a lot of smart people in the world who just didn't grow up with English and so…

He also went to an expensive private school.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#99

Post by emit_time »

troquerre wrote: post #92
aroundtown wrote: post #61

What I learned from this article: 1. Privilege opens doors not available to others. 2. Those with privilege are often oblivious to the advantages they have.

Author here. I completely agree that privilege opens doors not available to others. But my intention was that it’s possible to break into Silicon Valley and succeed (to the extent you can consider going through YC success...) even without privilege. I saw another comment saying that I went to MIT around the same time as YC. It was actually after — going through YC enabled me to apply to MIT and get in without a high…

You also went to an expensive private high school.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#100

Post by dang »

emit_time wrote: post #99
troquerre wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I completely agree that privilege opens doors not available to others. But my intention was that it’s possible to break into Silicon Valley and succeed (to the extent you can consider going through YC success...) even without privilege. I saw another comment saying that I went to MIT around the same time as YC. It was actually after — going through YC enabled me to apply to MIT and get in without a high…

You also went to an expensive private high school.

You posted this three times already. That's crossing into personal attack. Please don't hound fellow users like this on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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