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Academis questions for Creep

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  • Pitchfork51Pitchfork51 Member Posts: 26,538
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    Agree with @FireCohen and @Pitchfork51 ... I would have been nervous if any of my kids were ballz to the wall sure they wanted to do "X" at 18 and then got into some narrow educational pursuit for it.

    One of the many reasons I'm a classic well-rounded education at undergrad guy. Travel light, keep your options open, get a good education that will enable you to move in a multitude of directions, and focus on it more toward the end of your undergrad rather than the beginning.

    This, of course, assumes you have a safety net. If you need to be making dollars day 1 after graduation, we have to have a different conversation.

    I believe in the idea of a well rounded education. I just think that in todays world its a scam and if you dont get a degree with some guaranteed earnings its a poor choice. If college were free, fine. But if it isn't then get the fuck out of that history classroom and into engineering or whatever.

    Obviously as we were discussing before if you are going to an ivy league school or something I guess the degree doesn't matter all that much. But at the same time would it have hurt to get a good one? No it can only help.

    Eh fuck it though. Most people are idiots and fags anyway and I hate anyone under 25.
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    whlinder said:

    So from my earlier posts on things like GaTech > UNC it's clear I value quant stuff over social sciences. Then Brown came up, as "well it's Brown and amazing, you can't turn it down". Humblebrag storie tim

    On my recruiting trip to Brown as a HS senior I went along with whichever rower was hosting me to a couple of classes, including freshman calculus. Get in there, hooray snooty Brown frosh, but I had taken AP Calc as a junior so I knew my shit. Professor asked some question which no one knew the answer to... except me, so I raised my hand and answered it. I was like "these are Ivy leaguers?"
    I applied there but didn't get in. Whatever.

    Good story. No question you need to have your quant chops before going to Ga. Tech. As an aside, it's interesting how these specialties are spread out. I've learned in recent months that NC State and Iowa State have pretty highly regarded math departments for PhD. Yeah, the undergrads there are nothing to write home about, but serious math people know those places. Minnesota is another one So is Illinois. In fact, the kid at Brown got into the PhD program at Minnesota, but wasn't sure what she wanted to do. My advice was, get the Masters at Brown, and then see. If you want to jump off the academia track, the Brown name will carry weight. If you want to stay on, it will carry weight to help you get into one of those PhD programs.

    I think as a general matter, the big big schools just have a natural leg up when it comes to that level of graduate school. Some middle sized schools can compete, but by and large getting your PhD is a research thing and that's better done at the bigs. Very general statement obviously, but you see it. These schools that people don't think of as super duper selective are often the names in the top 10 list. Minnesota, Wisky, Texas, Michigan, UW, etc. etc. It ain't just Cal and Michigan for sure.
  • haiehaie Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 20,350
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    haie said:

    Agree with @FireCohen and @Pitchfork51 ... I would have been nervous if any of my kids were ballz to the wall sure they wanted to do "X" at 18 and then got into some narrow educational pursuit for it.

    One of the many reasons I'm a classic well-rounded education at undergrad guy. Travel light, keep your options open, get a good education that will enable you to move in a multitude of directions, and focus on it more toward the end of your undergrad rather than the beginning.

    This, of course, assumes you have a safety net. If you need to be making dollars day 1 after graduation, we have to have a different conversation.

    I believe in the idea of a well rounded education. I just think that in todays world its a scam and if you dont get a degree with some guaranteed earnings its a poor choice. If college were free, fine. But if it isn't then get the fuck out of that history classroom and into engineering or whatever.

    Obviously as we were discussing before if you are going to an ivy league school or something I guess the degree doesn't matter all that much. But at the same time would it have hurt to get a good one? No it can only help.

    Eh fuck it though. Most people are idiots and fags anyway and I hate anyone under 25.
    Stem isn't for everyone, and there are tons of jobs that don't care about what your degree is. It's just that college kids are given terrible advice about what their options are or how they should market themselves.

    I think my focus with my son is going to be:

    Do not get addicted to video games and social media. Can't do drugs, just weed and beer.

    Must play sports in high school. It teaches you to deal with people's egos and work as a team, in a way much more valuable than other aspects of high school.

    Once in college:

    Start developing some skills outside of college classes on his own. Reach out to some local companies for free experience.

    Make relationships with professors. They will help you at UW.

    Start developing a portfolio site.

    Teach him communication skills and stuff that makes him relatable.

    He could do women's studies at UW and stick somewhere with a mindset/habits like that.
    Totally agree. Those would be good metrics/advice to give any kid.

    Communication skills is pretty key. If you're going to make bank, eventually, you become the guy talking to the guys who are going to be doing the stuff. And talking to the other guys who talk to the guys who are doing stuff. And talking to the people who invest their money so the guys who are doing stuff get to keep doing stuff.

    Running shit instead of doing shit. Lawyers in particular take a long time to let go of the "doing it" part because we all come from law firms where smart lawyers get to do more and better legal stuff and charge more for it. So being good at the stuff is the product. The chump who takes the role of "managing lawyer" who runs the firms business isn't like a CEO. He's trusting the rest of us to take care of his practice (clients) while he takes his turn as the manager.

    You leave that professional services environment, and it's about what you get done by organizing and marshalling resources. As a lawyer, I spent too much time in-house showing off what I could do myself. Took me a while to see that they are impressed by how I can leverage resources to get LOTS of shit done and not do it myself.

    Communication skills are critical for that. Even if you're a technical guy in something hard like, say, comp. sci. or engineering, eventually, some young bucks are going to come in and do that and answer to you as you direct them in the how, what and why. If you're a closet case and can't connect with people and nobody wants to work with you and read your mind, you have a limited future.
    This particular post transcends law practice. I grapple/struggle with this stuff myself, every week.

    Cannot understate the value of this kind of advice.
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    Agree with @FireCohen and @Pitchfork51 ... I would have been nervous if any of my kids were ballz to the wall sure they wanted to do "X" at 18 and then got into some narrow educational pursuit for it.

    One of the many reasons I'm a classic well-rounded education at undergrad guy. Travel light, keep your options open, get a good education that will enable you to move in a multitude of directions, and focus on it more toward the end of your undergrad rather than the beginning.

    This, of course, assumes you have a safety net. If you need to be making dollars day 1 after graduation, we have to have a different conversation.

    I believe in the idea of a well rounded education. I just think that in todays world its a scam and if you dont get a degree with some guaranteed earnings its a poor choice. If college were free, fine. But if it isn't then get the fuck out of that history classroom and into engineering or whatever.

    Obviously as we were discussing before if you are going to an ivy league school or something I guess the degree doesn't matter all that much. But at the same time would it have hurt to get a good one? No it can only help.

    Eh fuck it though. Most people are idiots and fags anyway and I hate anyone under 25.
    There is a lot of merit to this view. I freely admit that the "classic view" of the role of undergraduate education is a privilege. That privilege, more and more is reserved for the very upper middle class to upper class. The cost for 4 years has become absurd.
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    whlinder said:

    So from my earlier posts on things like GaTech > UNC it's clear I value quant stuff over social sciences. Then Brown came up, as "well it's Brown and amazing, you can't turn it down". Humblebrag storie tim

    On my recruiting trip to Brown as a HS senior I went along with whichever rower was hosting me to a couple of classes, including freshman calculus. Get in there, hooray snooty Brown frosh, but I had taken AP Calc as a junior so I knew my shit. Professor asked some question which no one knew the answer to... except me, so I raised my hand and answered it. I was like "these are Ivy leaguers?"
    I applied there but didn't get in. Whatever.

    There is no doubt Ivy League and equivalent take the cake for selectivity. That said, I do often wonder why ... it seems like somebody just fucking NAILED a brilliant marketing campaign for those 8 schools like 100 years ago. Because kids kill to get in and they often don't really know why they want to be there.
  • Pitchfork51Pitchfork51 Member Posts: 26,538
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    haie said:

    Agree with @FireCohen and @Pitchfork51 ... I would have been nervous if any of my kids were ballz to the wall sure they wanted to do "X" at 18 and then got into some narrow educational pursuit for it.

    One of the many reasons I'm a classic well-rounded education at undergrad guy. Travel light, keep your options open, get a good education that will enable you to move in a multitude of directions, and focus on it more toward the end of your undergrad rather than the beginning.

    This, of course, assumes you have a safety net. If you need to be making dollars day 1 after graduation, we have to have a different conversation.

    I believe in the idea of a well rounded education. I just think that in todays world its a scam and if you dont get a degree with some guaranteed earnings its a poor choice. If college were free, fine. But if it isn't then get the fuck out of that history classroom and into engineering or whatever.

    Obviously as we were discussing before if you are going to an ivy league school or something I guess the degree doesn't matter all that much. But at the same time would it have hurt to get a good one? No it can only help.

    Eh fuck it though. Most people are idiots and fags anyway and I hate anyone under 25.
    Stem isn't for everyone, and there are tons of jobs that don't care about what your degree is. It's just that college kids are given terrible advice about what their options are or how they should market themselves.

    I think my focus with my son is going to be:

    Do not get addicted to video games and social media. Can't do drugs, just weed and beer.

    Must play sports in high school. It teaches you to deal with people's egos and work as a team, in a way much more valuable than other aspects of high school.

    Once in college:

    Start developing some skills outside of college classes on his own. Reach out to some local companies for free experience.

    Make relationships with professors. They will help you at UW.

    Start developing a portfolio site.

    Teach him communication skills and stuff that makes him relatable.

    He could do women's studies at UW and stick somewhere with a mindset/habits like that.
    Very good stuff. I don't get the video game obsession. Every few months I bust out a game and hit it for like 10 hours then lose interest lol

    Social media is dumb
  • PurpleThrobberPurpleThrobber Member Posts: 41,658
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    edited January 2021
    Swaye said:

    Agree with @FireCohen and @Pitchfork51 ... I would have been nervous if any of my kids were ballz to the wall sure they wanted to do "X" at 18 and then got into some narrow educational pursuit for it.

    One of the many reasons I'm a classic well-rounded education at undergrad guy. Travel light, keep your options open, get a good education that will enable you to move in a multitude of directions, and focus on it more toward the end of your undergrad rather than the beginning.

    This, of course, assumes you have a safety net. If you need to be making dollars day 1 after graduation, we have to have a different conversation.

    I showed up at the UW and stayed drunk for 4 years. Figured it all out later. Worked for me!
    Same - but these threads depress me on all the schools I was accepted to back when I was young, impressionable and didn't care much beyond hot sorority girls and kegs as a school choice criteria.

  • RaceBannonRaceBannon Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 100,717
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    I hated college but loved crushing college grads in business. If I was in a nasty mood I let them know they lost to Oly High
  • SwayeSwaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,044
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    Founders Club

    I hated college but loved crushing college grads in business. If I was in a nasty mood I let them know they lost to Oly High


  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    Fishpo31 said:

    I went to college with the "plan" to be a Wall Street wiz, when my real plan was to get laid, get drunk, and play baseball. I had no idea what I wanted to study, or even if I wanted to study. I got a degree in a field I never worked a day in, and went to grad school for what I wanted to do, once I figured it out.

    What I got from my BA is general knowledge, life skills, and a track record after the fact, of the "system", how it functions, and how to function within it. I was able to do it with average grades, average effort, and great test scores. My grad advisor couldn't believe how much better my grades were in grad school, compared to undergrad. I found something I was passionate about.

    One daughter got a BS in Anthro, and got a MA in a completely different field, which she now works in. The other one is in grad school right now, after struggling to get traction with a BA. I told them both to find something they are passionate about, and follow it.

    There are a lot of people walking around that have degrees in something they thought they wanted to do at one time, and are now locked into jobs they hate. My goal was to not be that guy.

    @Fishpo31 , great post. I've always struggled to come up with a succinct way of articulating why you want a good, solid, and broad foundation at the undergrad level. And, to be clear, that also means some exposure to STEM. Whether you take a biology, genetics (I took the intro course at UW), maff, Stats (everybody should have some exposure to stats), etc.

    Anyway, your post captures it perfectly.
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    I hated college but loved crushing college grads in business. If I was in a nasty mood I let them know they lost to Oly High

    Take it to the Flooring Empire board old man!
  • YellowSnowYellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 33,796
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    Swaye's Wigwam

    I hated college but loved crushing college grads in business. If I was in a nasty mood I let them know they lost to Oly High

    Take it to the Flooring Empire board old man!
    I’m gonna need new floors soon.
  • RaceBannonRaceBannon Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 100,717
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    Swaye's Wigwam
    An Empire is an Empire
  • Fishpo31Fishpo31 Member Posts: 2,235
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    edited January 2021


    @creepycoug I hated math/science (my Pops was an engineer and math wiz with 1 semester of college, but got his education building landing strips in the South Pacific during WWII). When I got to grad school, (at age 24), I ate it up. There is no way I could have gone thru a math / science curriculum as an 18 year old...I wasn't mature enough to handle it.
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