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I was a "high achiever" in high school, got into the top public university in my state (top-15-20 overall depending on your rankings), then got into a top 14 la
by the_watcher 13y ago
I was a "high achiever" in high school, got into the top public university in my state (top-15-20 overall depending on your rankings), then got into a top 14 law school. By all traditional metrics, school worked for me. However, I now have dropped out of law school and am doing very well professionally in a field entirely unrelated to my undergrad degree, and everything I use at work (it's number and data analysis heavy) are things I learned on my own because I was interested. I wish I'd had time to do this stuff while I was younger.
- digitalsushi 13y agoIs 14 a common cutoff for classifying academic institutions? Because I am interpreting this as 'the 14th best law school' and it seems that I shouldn't just assume this. It's an odd manner of delimiting a set and I am curious if there is some sort of legacy/esoteric set that I am oblivious to. Thanks.
- cmsmith 13y agoIt appears to be specific to law schools http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_school_rankings_in_the_United_States#Schools_that_rank_in_the_top_14_.28aka_.22T14.22.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_school_rankings_in_the_Unit...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- tokenadult 13y agoBecause lists differ, I have often referred to my having graduated from "one of the forty top-twenty law schools." The other reply just posted at this level appears to correctly explain why the person to whom you are replying chose "top 14," but anyway I don't always take strictly rank-ordered lists of higher education institutions very seriously. Rankings are debatable.
- the_watcher 13y agoAgreed. It's just the standard top-X list for law schools. The point of referencing it wasn't to give them credibility.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- the_watcher 13y agoTop 14 is specific to law schools. It is extremely arbitrary, but it's the equivalent of a "top 10 list" in basically every other situation you'd rank things in. I don't like rankings, the only reason I quote them is to demonstrate that I did well in "school."
- sliverstorm 13y agoI wish I'd had time to do this stuff while I was younger I try not to fret about this sort of thing. There's just too many possible paths in life to lament & regret that you didn't pick your favorite one ten years earlier, because how would you have known?
- the_watcher 13y agoAgreed. I generally don't worry about it and focus on the future. But reading this article made me reflect a bit.
- Dewie 13y agoThe amount of different things you can do with your life is staggering, even overwhelming. I have used computers since I was maybe around 12, but it wasn't before I started university that I found out that I like programming. If something that was under my nose for so long eluded my attention, how about all the other things that I've never even been in the vicinity of? Maybe we as humans are just very adaptable, and I adapted to an education which involved a lot of programming-related subjects.
- sliverstorm 13y agoPrecisely. I'll brush up against something every now and again that I enjoy and have a reasonable aptitude for, and wonder about what it might have been like had I discovered it sooner. Racing is an easy example. I like to kart and race in amateur events. Of course, most all men like to think they could be star racers, but I like to think the times I post speak for themselves. Anyway, I can't be a professional- it's much too late for that- but what if I had? I personally figure there's lots of things each individual could have done. Many paths are built on very fundamental skills, like social ability, abstract reasoning, or spatial reasoning, and strength in any category should translate well to many very different walks in life that depend on that strength.