71–80 of 121 posts
We've got to stop letting 18-22 year-olds make incredibly expensive life/career decisions with zero information.
The problem isn't the young age of these decisions, the problem is that childhood now lasts until your mid 20s, as opposed to ending in your late teens. When you have visibly aging people in their 30s saying stuff like "adulting is so hard gaiz!!", the problem is the culture.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean, they're not wrong. You will statistically be less likely to get into those schools. Once you're a transfer student, your acceptance rates go down significantly for prestigious private colleges. (And some public universities too) If your goal is to graduate fro…
I went to Utah Valley State College and was accepted into the Georgia Tech's ONLINE machine learning master's program-- But maybe that had to do with me being an Adobe employee and less about my less-than-impressive selection of college. Or maybe it was because it was the online program. Furthermore, I've never taken the SAT or ACT.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean, they're not wrong. You will statistically be less likely to get into those schools. Once you're a transfer student, your acceptance rates go down significantly for prestigious private colleges. (And some public universities too) If your goal is to graduate fro…
You have the option of going as a normal student. If you do, top-tier colleges usually look at college and AP courses taken at other institutions as a bonus towards admission. I went to Amherst College (#1 liberal arts college in the U.S. when I matriculated), having taken courses at Harvard Extension School, UMass Lowell, and Boston University as a high-schooler. They didn't give me credit for any of them, nor for t…
In your case, I don't think you were applying as a transfer student. You were also not going to your local CC. Those universities are a higher tier than your local CC.
In the case of "running start" the whole premise is that you have 2 years of college completed when you graduate. Not that you spent 2 years doing college courses to just restart from level 1. You can do that but I think it's a waste of resources and will unnecessarily crowd local community colleges. And it did where I went to community college. I had to deal with a bunch of 14-17 year old high school age kids. >=25% of the student body was high schoolers with some of my classes at 50%+. Gets kind of annoying when you have to constantly deal with those kids still being kids.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe they're pushing people to get the best school for their major. I think going to Stanford for CS will open more doors than going to Oregon State. There is a significant networking aspect to these top schools as well. I see it very clearly with my friends who went to CalTech and Stanford. It's probably not a coincidence that many (most?) of my peers in the bay area are people who graduated from top schools and/or…
> I think going to Stanford for CS will open more doors than going to Oregon State. This concept stops being applicable the minute you get out of the HYPS tier of colleges. If you're cut out to go to HYPS and want to work in finance or top-tier consulting, then you should go. I understand the situation is similar these days with FANG companies. Once you're outside that tiny range of schools, save your money and go to…
Turns out - some of these graduating classes from these prestigious colleges end up running a lot of the bay area. It's not a diverse educational background.
>Most satisfied: Those with science, technology, engineering and math majors, who are typically more likely to enjoy higher salaries, reported more satisfaction with their college degrees. About 42% of engineering grads and 35% of computer science grads said they had no regrets. >Most regrets: Humanities majors, who are least likely to earn higher pay post-graduation, were most likely to regret their college educatio…
If only 35% of computer science grads say they have no regrets does that not mean that 65% of them have regrets? That's pretty close to the 73%-75% for the "Most Regrets" group.
Thought that was interesting framing.
In WA, there is a program where you can finish the last two years of high school at a community college and graduate with a two year degree for free. It was probably the best decision of my life. I basically got to trial and error all of my interests for free much earlier and cheaper than everyone else. And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at g…
> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean, they're not wrong. You will statistically be less likely to get into those schools. Once you're a transfer student, your acceptance rates go down significantly for prestigious private colleges. (And some public universities too) If your goal is to graduate fro…
Texas has a program called TAMS where you take your 11th and 12th grade classes at the University of North Texas. While some students "transfer" at the end (I think to do an end run around UT Austin's 10% rule?), most apply to college as normal high school seniors.
Maybe they don't regret their degrees but their jobs. The current job market totally disregards the passions and aspirations of our generation. Maybe we should treat enrolment per degree as a sort of voting system and allocate financial resources accordingly. After all students are drown from the society, so their aspirations are society's aspirations. Unfortunately capital allocation decisions are made by managers w…
It's been that way for generations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems like a unique perspective to me. Can you elaborate on those experiences you found most valuable?
I don't know how to explain how the college experience is amazing without writing several paragraphs. I honestly thought my sentiments were near-universal. For several years I got to literally pick a topic out of thin air and then have seasoned professionals teach me all about it three days a week. I got to live independently and among bright people all in my age group and craft whatever life I wanted within the rela…
Moved from a small rural town to Chicago. Was surrounded by professors and industry professional instructors. Most of my non PhD instructors had decades of industry experience from the likes of Motorola, Comes or Bell labs/Lucent.
Classes at my school were generally pretty small, except for a few weeder classes in freshman/sophomore years.
I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering (got 2 B.S. degrees). All of the instructors in the EE department were extremely approachable and really cared about their students (at least about the students that cared for themselves and sought engagement). I had one professor that helped me move from a half tuition scholarship to a 3/4 tuition scholarship.
The school I went to also set me up well to succeed professionally. Not just theory, but leadership roles, independent projects, interprofessional projects, etc.
Not to mention the social aspects. I lived on campus my first 2 years, off campus my last 2 with a roommate. I got my internship end of my sophomore year as I replaced a graduating senior on my floor when I was an RA that year, and he referred me (he knew I was already dabbling in the tech stack he used). Spent 3 years working as an intern before I got my first salaried position in finance on a referral of my best friend from school. Spent 9 years at that job before moving on. Went from being a very junior dev in that role to owning several critical systems for trading at a hedge fund. Ive now spent 15 years in finance and have school to thank, though I never expected to be there. Hell, I wanted to design processors.
But, do I regret going to college? Not one bit. Sometimes, I wish I'd finished my masters, but I don't need it for more than resume fodder. My work experience amd the companies I've worked for open far more doors. I get at least 5-7 emails from recruiters per week.
In WA, there is a program where you can finish the last two years of high school at a community college and graduate with a two year degree for free. It was probably the best decision of my life. I basically got to trial and error all of my interests for free much earlier and cheaper than everyone else. And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at g…
> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean, they're not wrong. You will statistically be less likely to get into those schools. Once you're a transfer student, your acceptance rates go down significantly for prestigious private colleges. (And some public universities too) If your goal is to graduate fro…
Top % of students likely transfer less often than bottom %.
Therefore transfer pool often has students from lower %. And statistically the applicants are worse than from initial application.
However that doesn't mean ones ods are less doing a transfer. It might be better given the transfer peers overall worse applications.
(This is all conjecture. I have no actual stats.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OSU has quite a bit to offer that can jumpstart a CS career, like the OSU Open Source Lab: http://osuosl.org Meanwhile, not really sure I think of Stanford as a CS school, unlike MIT & similar.
Stanford CS is tied for #1 with Berkeley CMU and MIT
Stanford doesn't have that cache, despite what US News & World might say. US News & World rankings tend to be fairly subjective, look at their top 15 cities.
Edit: CS School Rankings for those interested: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...