Maybe he should just take a year off? Keep working on this or other cool projects and apply next year. Might be worth it if he lands a serious scholarship from an elite school. Speaking from experience, taking a gap year was the best decision I ever made.
Same here: he could do a killer program like this(which I did) and apply when he gets back: https://www.wheretherebedragons.com/
looks a bit more like 'where there be cash... to take kids on guided tours of exotic locales' :)
The sad thing is that if you were faculty, looking for a graduate student to supervise, you'd probably pick the one with straight A's and no hobbies, because you could get them to do whatever you wanted, without risk of them getting their own ideas or leaving.
Almost there, but you lost it in the end. The straight A student would win not because he is less proactive but because he is more versatile to handle any task. Someone who is deeply invested in a technology from an early age will have seen lesser challenges and diversifications than someone who takes all courses all around.
>The straight A student would win not because he is less proactive but because he is more versatile to handle any task.
The straight-A student is certainly able to put their minds to whatever they are told to, at least enough to get an A in each subject (and possibly no more).
This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."
Well, you can look at it this way, he would have never been well-served by the traditional society-determined path anyway. A project like this has the tendency to just blow away all other considerations. If you were hiring for a physics position, would you take the guy who got straight A's on his physics coursework, or the guy who built an effing nuclear reactor in his bedroom?
I could be wrong, but isn't this a situation where a university like CalTech would take a student like this?
Stuff like this always reminds me of this kid (adult now): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson
It's the same group, and probably very similar devices. the fusor.net website is a community for building these things and has loads of plans and tips.
Do you know of site that has a directory of such forums? I find these forums of experts very fascinating but not that easy to find.
I think this is overstating the risk a little bit. Looking at the video linked elsewhere, this was run in a bedroom on the second or even third floor of a single-family residence. He mentions not being able to detect x-rays more than 35ft from the device. I think a neighbor would have to be trying to get in range to be affected. Here's the video again, queued up to the view out the bedroom window: https://youtu.be/92…
One of the the few times where the inverse square law is helpful.
Is there something lesser about going to a state school? I didn't build a Farnsworth Fusor in high school but my school is ranked about the same as UCSC, hah.
Yes, pay. Note that the "public" schools on this list are service academys. http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors
But don't people say that "school doesn't matter" for Engineering?
I agree it does matter - that's just the argument that's used.
This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."
And at least from my experience, that is wrong wrong wrong. I was a solidly B student in high school, but I had some extracurriculars (not quite building fusion reactors) that I devoted an absurd amount of time to and excelled at. And I got into MIT.
You must have gone to a pretty good school district because the school district I was in was so bad many elite schools told us not to bother even if you were valedictorian. The quality of education couldn't be trusted to indicate possible future success at their institutions.
This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."
And at least from my experience, that is wrong wrong wrong. I was a solidly B student in high school, but I had some extracurriculars (not quite building fusion reactors) that I devoted an absurd amount of time to and excelled at. And I got into MIT.
Also, take a look at his writing ability. He makes a couple of long posts further down the thread where he describes how the thing works. It's really quite good writing by any standards, which tends to be quite important for (and, I suspect, highly valued by) colleges. I know my own writing ability was nowhere near that level when I was his age.
> Side note: the view of the hills and mountains from the reactor room is gorgeous. Agreed. The twins' fusor.net profile says the they live in Berkeley, CA, a suburb across the bay from San Francisco. At 1min into the video I'm fairly the shot is from Berkeley looking across the bay to San Francisco. The mountains in the background look like the ones just south of San Francisco. If you head a bit farther up the hill…
AFAICT, berkeley's nuclear free ordinance only covers weapons research and development.
The intent of the ordinance is also "to prohibit nuclear reactors." [1] No person shall operate or build a nuclear reactor the City of Berkeley, and that would probably include this project.
That's not to say I agree with it. Berkeley has long been a hub of unhealthy NIMBYism, and this law is a leftover from the Cold War. I'd like to see that change.