3 ms·

Short answer: money. Long answer: I had an ACT in the 30s and a GPA of 3.9 upon graduation from highschool, and I took a few AP courses (my school only offered

by jgg 16y ago

Short answer: money. Long answer: I had an ACT in the 30s and a GPA of 3.9 upon graduation from highschool, and I took a few AP courses (my school only offered 3, and in addition I took AP Physics over the internet (terrible idea)), got a 5 in the AP Calc test, etc. but past that I hadn't taken the SAT subject tests or anything, so I wasn't really competitive. My family and I don't have a lot of excess money just lying around, and basically my options were thus: get admitted to a couple upper-tier-but-not-Ivy-League schools and pay with money I didn't have, or go to a crappy state school with scholarships. I've had a job since 7th grade (but there are not a lot of tech companies in my area, so they haven't really been 'tech' jobs), but all of that was saved for buying my own vehicle, insurance, 'spare' money for college, etc. I remember getting excited when I received a ~$20K a year scholarship to a "Blah Blah Institute of Technology", only to find that it cost $50K a year to attend. Overall, I'm burnt on the education system. My goal now is to get out with a stupid degree before I completely crash, but I'm already coming dangerously close... EDIT: I was also in Duke's TIP program, which got me mail from Columbia and the like, but once again I couldn't really afford to go through with any of that. EDIT 2: Before this sounds like just a bunch of whining, a huge chunk of this was my fault. I could have had higher scores and grades and whatnot, but I really just didn't give a shit. I hated school, and wanted to do as little as possible. I've always loved learning though.

steveklabnik 16y ago
You pretty much sound exactly like me. You're not alone at all.
- jgg 16y ago
  I know it sounds corny, but it does feel good to hear someone say that. (-:
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    Good. That's why I said it. :) I had a 4.7 GPA in high school. (Yay honors classes and my school being more interested in making themselves look good than math.) By my sophomore year of college, I was completely burned out. If I love learning so much, why did I hate college? It was supposed to be different... I ended up not finishing my degree to get into the startup game. I feel much, much better now. I don't think I'm going back, even though I only need one or two classes to be done. Yeah, a piece of paper might be nice in the general sense... but I don't want to give those bastards another dime. I had to take out loans to pay for all of school, so I'm a solid 70k in the hole. Fun times.
    - jgg 16y ago
      >I had a 4.7 GPA in high school. Funny story: my school wouldn't allow you to score over a 4.0 on anything. This meant that if, for example, you blew off a stupid humanities class and got a 'B', you could never have a 4.0. This is great in theory, as most schools should ask for a "GPA out of a 4.0" number, and all would be grand. In practice, they didn't, so my official transcript from the school would always read '3.9', without giving any clue that the GPA's were capped!
      - steveklabnik 16y ago
        Craaazy. My school gave you + .125 for honors, and + .25 for AP courses. This would be added after the division... a 4.0 for an A and a 3.0 for a B, both AP, ends up as ((4 + 3) / 2) + (.25 + .25) = 4.0. Oh, and everyone over a 4.0 gets reported as valedictorian.
        sokoloff 16y ago
        The math can't possibly work out that way (or your school isn't attempting to report anything remotely useful as a GPA). Get straight Bs and take 4 AP classes or 8 honors classes over your 4-year career and get a 4.0? I call BS.
        steveklabnik 16y ago
        > (or your school isn't attempting to report anything remotely useful as a GPA) That is correct. > Get straight Bs and take 4 AP classes or 8 honors classes over your 4-year career and get a 4.0? I call BS. This is exactly what I did. I took all honors courses and did well in all of them. Oh, so I found my school handbook, if you'd like to see. Apparently they changed the addition to 0.06 and .12. It's on page 27: http://freeport.k12.pa.us/srhigh/FSD%20Student%20Handbook.pdf http://freeport.k12.pa.us/srhigh/FSD%20Student%20Handbook.pd...
        sokoloff 16y ago
        Wow. You are correct, and I apologize for calling BS on you. That system is appalling. I call BS on your school system... :)

by jgg 16y ago

steveklabnik 16y ago

You pretty much sound exactly like me. You're not alone at all.

jgg 16y ago
I know it sounds corny, but it does feel good to hear someone say that. (-:
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Good. That's why I said it. :) I had a 4.7 GPA in high school. (Yay honors classes and my school being more interested in making themselves look good than math.) By my sophomore year of college, I was completely burned out. If I love learning so much, why did I hate college? It was supposed to be different... I ended up not finishing my degree to get into the startup game. I feel much, much better now. I don't think I'm going back, even though I only need one or two classes to be done. Yeah, a piece of paper might be nice in the general sense... but I don't want to give those bastards another dime. I had to take out loans to pay for all of school, so I'm a solid 70k in the hole. Fun times.
  - jgg 16y ago
    >I had a 4.7 GPA in high school. Funny story: my school wouldn't allow you to score over a 4.0 on anything. This meant that if, for example, you blew off a stupid humanities class and got a 'B', you could never have a 4.0. This is great in theory, as most schools should ask for a "GPA out of a 4.0" number, and all would be grand. In practice, they didn't, so my official transcript from the school would always read '3.9', without giving any clue that the GPA's were capped!
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      Craaazy. My school gave you + .125 for honors, and + .25 for AP courses. This would be added after the division... a 4.0 for an A and a 3.0 for a B, both AP, ends up as ((4 + 3) / 2) + (.25 + .25) = 4.0. Oh, and everyone over a 4.0 gets reported as valedictorian.
      - sokoloff 16y ago
        The math can't possibly work out that way (or your school isn't attempting to report anything remotely useful as a GPA). Get straight Bs and take 4 AP classes or 8 honors classes over your 4-year career and get a 4.0? I call BS.
        steveklabnik 16y ago
        > (or your school isn't attempting to report anything remotely useful as a GPA) That is correct. > Get straight Bs and take 4 AP classes or 8 honors classes over your 4-year career and get a 4.0? I call BS. This is exactly what I did. I took all honors courses and did well in all of them. Oh, so I found my school handbook, if you'd like to see. Apparently they changed the addition to 0.06 and .12. It's on page 27: http://freeport.k12.pa.us/srhigh/FSD%20Student%20Handbook.pdf http://freeport.k12.pa.us/srhigh/FSD%20Student%20Handbook.pd...
        sokoloff 16y ago
        Wow. You are correct, and I apologize for calling BS on you. That system is appalling. I call BS on your school system... :)