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I asked the girl to ball. But I’m tired right now, and the answer was non-definitive so you’ll have to wait on that.
So yeah. I have options. :D I am still waiting for the UCLA application on Friday, but I am satisfied enough with my current options that if I get denied, I will not be too awful bothered. Unfortunately, my parents have just over 80k of income per year. My mom could work, but isn’t. I’m currently trying to find a job, and generally it’s been frustrating because I need to have surgery over the summer, so they don’t want to hire. And a few didn’t want to hire me because I’m overqualified :| Anyways, it’s looking unlikely I get a job. Darn.
Anyways, I just got my financial aid offers from Davis and UCR. Furthermore, I didn’t get one from UCSD because my dad intelligently forgot to put it on my FAFSA form. I volunteered to fill it out, but they were convinced I was too incompetent to do so o.O I just sent something to the UCs explaining my inability to get a job to help pay for college (due to fact I will be in hospital for a month at beginning of summer and will have major physical limitations for two months after)
Basically, my family has a ton of assets, and we arent’ getting dit in grants from UC. UCs said "you need like 9k in financial aid. We'll give you 2k, you can take out a 7k loan." Which is depressing because we have a lot of assets but not income. Which puts more pressure to attend a school I get a full ride at for national merit. But I’m really torn. Will the employment gap be worth it. Will the college experience be worth it? I know that experience shouldn’t take precedent by itself, but it should certainly be a factor that should be considered. Mom got pissed that I might want to go to San Diego, which is sorta reasonable. However then we calculated northeastern cost, and it’s roughly 22k/year even with full tuition. UCSD is around 29-30k/year, which is almost 30k more cumulative, but still, potentially better career options might compensate me, but not my parents. It’s just tough, weighing cost vs prestige and experience. I still have around five weeks, so there is time. And an admission from Rice or Stanford or Princeton throws half this stuff out the window. Heck, UCLA might.
In other positive news, I ordered a 550D + kit lens + SD/charger etc for $500.It is used, but I think that’s an excellent deal. I will be taking tons of pictures. I love photography, just never really had the camera to get serious :D I’ve wanted one for like 4 years, but I finally just sucked it up and payed.
 
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School loans are just the worst. I'm doing pre-med now and I know by the time I'm done with med school I'll be swimming in debt.
My best bet, is just pick the school that you think you'll be happiest at and enjoy the most.
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Probably true. Plus, I'm a CS major so generally grad work is like MBA payed for by an employer. Correct me if I'm wrong.  I won't take out loans, parents will pay, but won't help at all with grad if they do.
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if you move out of the u.s, you don't have to pay the debt back right? because that's the case in australia.
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No, you're still bound to pay debt.
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Basically the money question just comes down to your personal values. How much is 'experience' worth to you? How long are you willing to have debt? How much are you willing to ask your parents for? Etc.
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Yeah. It's just quantifying all of that :|
And I sleep.
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So, when you say "I asked the girl to ball"....what do you mean exactly?
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Undergrad CS, doesn't really matter that much. Unless one of these schools is CMU, Berkeley, MIT, Cal Tech, or Stanford, just go with the one with the most financial aid. Undergrad CS matters more about how much math you take, how much time you put into it, how much grad lab slave labor research you do, how many internships you do, and how many grad classes you take (while in undergrad).
Don't sweat the prestige of your school that much. It doesn't matter for CS (compared to something like business). All that time you spend worrying about the quality of your school is time you spend not learning. Stop worrying, start studying. Pick up a copy of Knuth. Do well enough in undergrad CS, regardless of the Uni, and you can get a good job or go to grad school.
Seriously the US does not graduate enough CS majors to fill all the jobs there are right now. We don't even have enough H1B visas to fill the gaps.
(I have a CS degree from a 'non-prestigious' Uni. Basically 100% of my graduating class is employed)
Also, invest in prime lenses. If you have the eye for manual focus, you can even get the older film slr primes, which are typically cheaper. Unless you have a Pentax the image stabilization won't work, but it's no problem with a tripod.
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On March 21 2012 22:04 Zorkmid wrote:
So, when you say "I asked the girl to ball"....what do you mean exactly?
I love how we are more focused on his girl issue than the main point of his last two blogs (college acceptances + camera). BUT yes I am also waiting on the details. TL is a demanding place, I know =D
Oh, and as for where you should go for your future - I don't know a lot about American universities (never actually applied to them), but in broader perspective, go where you won't regret the decision and try not to think about the costs. You're going to live at least 4 years there and you want it to be a rewarding and fun experience. Debt can be paid off later, and job prospects don't matter too much on which university you attend. It matters mostly on what kind of personal connections you make through summer internships / part-time research opportunities. However, if you are thinking of graduate school or something like a Ph.D, then you may want to choose the most "prestigious" or the highest-ranked university for it.
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Like, I might get into Berkeley. But the difficulty... not sure if I'd actually attend berkeley if admitted. Proabbly won't get admitted for EECS as it is...
I guess I ought to go somewhere that i enjoy.
In terms of college experience. Meh. It does matter a lot, but I'm not entirely sure.
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I don't particularly think the difficulty should pose too much of a problem.
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No, but I have friends who do so and I've taken some brief looks at their practice midterms and finals for some of their math and science classes. It's not that hard and I'm confident you would be able to handle it if you worked industriously.
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EPT
