I have numerous choices when it comes to colleges.
I asked the girl to prom. The result was strange. I am in a sense still waiting on an answer. I was surprised this happened. The circumstances are strange. When it finalizes, I’ll give details. CLIFF HANGER
Anyways, some updates.
1) Waitlisted at Irvine. I certainly wasn’t expecting this, but somehow I got waitlisted. In any case, it wasn’t really on top of my list to begin with, but it was odd.
2) REJECTED from Rice. Although it’s an excellent school, I wasn’t terribly enthused about heading to Texas for college. Plus, my Bs and a C in math just don’t cut it there.
3) REJECTED from UCLA. Considering I have friends with 4.6 GPA, good extracurrics, and 2100+ SAT who also got rejected from engineering, I don’t feel too awful bad. Sort of sucks I didn’t get in, because I probably could have for letters and sciences, but unfortunately I didn’t get in as it is. I still have other options on the table…
Namely, these options are…
1) Attend UCSB. A small engineering program for a UC, the student to faculty ratio is excellent. A bit of a party school, but certainly on my list.
2) Attend UCSD. A much larger program, with significantly more prestige. Has reputation of being antisocial and “super srs” which seems to be somewhat deserved. I’m in revelle, which has negatives, and a few positives. Costs a bit less than UCSB. (lolwtf @ UCSB cost of living)
3) Attend Northeastern. It would be around 22-25k per year. It isn’t a terribly rigorous degree: I really would be weighing co-op and private school experience in Boston vs. academics elsewhere.
4) Attend full ride institution. ASU, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Idaho, Alabama, etc, all offer full rides (board and tuition, sometimes a stipend) for national merit finalists. Although none of them are quite on the level of UCSD, it would save around 120-130k. I could potentially get a masters with saved money.
5) Get into Stanford or Princeton, and lol heartily. Then attend.
I’ll be visiting the UCSD admitted student day on April 7. If anybody wants to talk, especially Revellians (or however you say that) it might be appreciated. Especially if you’re engineering major. Or CS
I’m still debating about UCSB. Many pros, many cons. Blargh. Anybody in engineering there? I ordered a 550d with a stock lens, and some random rather useless accessories. It cost $500 used, from a reputable resaler. (KEH) It was in “excellent” condition. The 550d/t2i isn’t a bad camera, and I’d like to start doing some more serious photography. What should I start with, and are there any good “guides” per se. Also, any other rather cheap but good class I should invest in. Would a 50mm F1.8 be worthwhile?
The camera should arrive Tuesday. Expect many pictures :D
Finally, I’d just like to state that as college admissions come to a close many people tend to assess the success of an individual based on their placement in college. I would contest that although this is a reasonable indicator, what happens from now on is way more important. While I have generally not worked hard throughout school, and my grades have suffered as a result of my relative apathy, I am in a reasonable position. While I have received criticism from my parents for my poor performance relative to my peers (those being who I associate with, two of them who got into Caltech…) I still maintain that I will receive a high quality education no matter where I go. From this point onwards how well I do can be entirely defined by my effort in class, in the real world, and my genuine enthusiasm for the material. College admissions cannot be changed, and cannot be revised, but my future is in no way determined by what I do at this stage.
Froadac, I'd advise you take a good look at option 4 as long as there's a program you're interested in. Especially if you're not going to get much help from your parents or bursaries. Carrying a large debt for a decade or more will put a real financial strain on you.
You can always switch schools later if you're planning on pursuing advanced degree, although that might be tough if you're going to do a research-based masters as the professors probably won't know you well enough to take you on.
I wouldn't make college decisions based on the money you lose or save... You will only get this shot once and you'll never get that 4 years of your life back. Pick the best college you can get into and worry about the money later.
If you can realistically get into Stanford or Princeton, then by all means do it.
I was accepted at U.C. Berkeley not too long ago and I'm willing to drop my job for it, though I was recently given a raise. Well, I'm quite confident with my job hunting skills... I was applying for jobs 7 months ago and I'm still receiving offers.
Win life, get bitches. Nothing is impossible if you believe in yourself. It's just a matter of how quickly you realize this and put your best effort in everything you do (somewhere around your 16-17s would be good).
If you're willing to take a year and improve your grades in a community college, and vastly improve your chances at your dream school, then there's that option.
option 4 is what my brother did (though not "full ride", but it is a good sum) and it seems to have worked out for him education wise.You can have good relations with professors (and although those are large state schools the engineering departments are much smaller, so it's kind of the same feel), and he had plenty of space to be able to take some grad courses in his end of undergrad. If you're interested in a masters check into any 5 year BS/MS type programs the schools may have and consider that.
remember that where you will be living is a big factor. while the full-ride universities are neat, do you really want to uproot and move to Indiana or wherever? If you really want to get out then that's important, otherwise (I'm assuming you're a californian), San Diego is one of the best cities to live in evar, imho. you should feel no shame in going to any of these universities. the education you'll receive is more than enough to achieve what you want.
Parents are actually helping a lot. Thryll pay in full for a uc so long as i try to get a, job. But if i get full ride they help,with grad. Chill,either cs or cheme.
If you got into UCSB Chem E, it's actually one of the best in the nation for grad students (though this may not mean much to you), and it's probably the best engineering department we have at the moment.
I'd be hard pressed to justify going to UCSB if you got a bunch of full rides from other equivalent schools though. Not sure how Alabama or the others fare.
On March 27 2012 08:43 FragKrag wrote: If you got into UCSB Chem E, it's actually one of the best in the nation for grad students (though this may not mean much to you), and it's probably the best engineering department we have at the moment.
I'd be hard pressed to justify going to UCSB if you got a bunch of full rides from other equivalent schools though. Not sure how Alabama or the others fare.
Naw, Compsci.
I mean, UCSB program is better than others, just not sure about HOW much better.
Full ride to ASU. Take out loans anyways and spend them on partying. 4.0 with relative ease compared to UC. Best 4 years ever. Try to make it 5 if you can.
On March 27 2012 09:18 decafchicken wrote: Full ride to ASU. Take out loans anyways and spend them on partying. 4.0 with relative ease compared to UC. Best 4 years ever. Try to make it 5 if you can.
Haha. When I saw you'd posted here I thought "he's gonna say go to ASU and party it up"
go for the full ride. 120k is a ton of money, and institutional pedigree is not worth that much unless it was something like MIT. networking is everywhere.
i heard ucsd dropped it's anti social atmosphere after i left in 2006. but i wouldn't know.
On March 26 2012 23:45 Froadac wrote:The 550d/t2i isn’t a bad camera, and I’d like to start doing some more serious photography. What should I start with, and are there any good “guides” per se. Also, any other rather cheap but good class I should invest in. Would a 50mm F1.8 be worthwhile?
what's your goal with photography? make money? impress other people? maybe you just like photos?
but other than that, start taking photos, get them critiqued and critique them yourself. take tons of photos. once you do that you can figure out which lenses you need, if you need any. too many people spend time debating about lenses and gear not enough time looking at or taking photos.
for me, i just like taking photos when i travel and that's pretty much the only time i work on it.
On March 27 2012 08:43 FragKrag wrote: If you got into UCSB Chem E, it's actually one of the best in the nation for grad students (though this may not mean much to you), and it's probably the best engineering department we have at the moment.
I'd be hard pressed to justify going to UCSB if you got a bunch of full rides from other equivalent schools though. Not sure how Alabama or the others fare.
Naw, Compsci.
I mean, UCSB program is better than others, just not sure about HOW much better.
Haven't seen you on AIM for ages T-T
CS here is... okay, unless you got into the Engineering BS CS, which is actually good.
While PhD rankings probably don't translate directly toward undergrad education, if the PhD program is top 5 in the world, you are guaranteed to at least have top notch faculty, and more research opportunities.
Yeah, I haven't been using AIM at all recently. Facebook and IRC have largely replaced it as my to-go chat programs
On March 27 2012 10:09 FragKrag wrote: If you want to do CS, I would recommend SD or another school, based purely on an academic perspective of course.
If you want to go to college, I suggest UCSB :p
Haha. Realistically the only reason academically SB is better is the program is 300 vs like 1200 :|
On March 26 2012 23:45 Froadac wrote: Although none of them are quite on the level of UCSD, it would save around 120-130k. I could potentially get a masters with saved money.
That is a significant amount of money you will be saving. In the long run, that may outweigh attending a university that you have to pay any amount of money for, regardless of prestige. If you have plans for going on and pursuing graduate school, it might make even more sense because where you go to grad school matters way more than where you went for undergrad. Just food for thought.
I ordered a 550d with a stock lens, and some random rather useless accessories. It cost $500 used, from a reputable resaler. (KEH) It was in “excellent” condition. The 550d/t2i isn’t a bad camera, and I’d like to start doing some more serious photography. What should I start with, and are there any good “guides” per se. Also, any other rather cheap but good class I should invest in. Would a 50mm F1.8 be worthwhile?
The camera should arrive Tuesday. Expect many pictures :D
50mm f/1.8 would be nice, and is generally advocated as something to get for photographers since the days of film, but keep in mind that on a crop sensor it will end up being a little tele and may be too tight of a field of view for what you might want. When you get your camera, put the kit zoom on and try out various common prime focal lengths (28mm, 30mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm) and see which one you can work with the most and then look for a good prime in that length. For me on a crop sensor, a 35mm prime most closely approximates what I feel to be 'normal.'
Other than that, read the manual for it and then go out and use the camera. Set it to a priority mode or even full manual and fiddle about until you start getting the hang of how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO come together in building an exposure.
You will also get an eye towards photographing certain kinds of subjects if you use the camera a lot at every opportunity. For instance, I found out that that I happen to like photographing nerds winning thousands of dollars. Much more exciting than pictures of trees and clouds, I think.
On March 27 2012 10:34 itsjustatank wrote: You will also get an eye towards photographing certain kinds of subjects if you use the camera a lot at every opportunity. For instance, I found out that that I happen to like photographing nerds winning thousands of dollars. Much more exciting than pictures of trees and clouds, I think.
i like trees and clouds (ooh, don't forget about mountains and water, and sometimes buildings) more than people, so really you need to find what you want to take photos of before moving forward with your gear. =) eye of the beholder and all that.
i learned a ton about focal length by shooting with the 50mm f/1.8 exclusively on a trip to japan. unfortunately it also meant a ton of weird pictures since i learned what you shouldn't use it for, but it was a good learning experience. you can accomplish the same thing with the kit lens though.
EPT
