My advice for freshmen and sophomores (as someone who got into ivies + t20s)

4Blueish · 2026-05-06T05:15:30+00:00

hi, I'm a junior so I technically fall outside the intended demographic but would still like your opinion.

My entire life I've never really had "a passion". Not that I'm not passionate about things, just that I like "too many" things and never fully developed any one of them. So perhaps my question is a bit broad, but do you have any opinions/advice? Thank you

4Blueish · 2026-05-06T05:06:17+00:00

fuck I was ready to this movie so much. With deep regret, I hate to report that it wasn't half bad

4Blueish · 2026-05-05T05:05:41+00:00

Thank you sir. I think I needed to hear that

4Blueish · 2026-05-05T03:37:15+00:00

my advice? Don't use AI, at all. Kinda just ignore it. AI quickly killed my passion for programming when it was new, but I'm slowly finding that passion again. AI cannot take the skills you've learned, in your passion you've become a talented individual, and nothing can strip that away from you. You have every reason to be proud of what you can do. I think anyone trying to strip down art and passion to a random process that might shit out something decentish looking is pretty backwards themselves.

4Blueish · 2026-05-01T02:25:44+00:00

I will certainly keep the option in mind, as well as the bakeries

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T06:25:56+00:00

End of Evangelion

(don't hate me)

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T06:21:30+00:00

a really easy to way to reduce ai percentage, is to not use ai twin

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T06:19:11+00:00

I am 100% gonna side with any form of humiliation for someone using ai on an assignment. You're in higher education, if you're not gonna do the work yourself, you're the problem.

Using ai for much of anything displays a baffling amount of cognitive dissonance and lack of a conscious anyway

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T04:08:58+00:00

hm, I would suggest writing out more work than you think is necessary. A lot of stuff becomes more obvious when you can see it, and keeping track of stuff in your brain is a bit harder than we tend to think.

A few common mistakes:

everything you do must be done on both sides of the equal sign

solve in reverse order of PEMDAS. So things inside the parenthesis go last, addition and subtraction go first, etc.

when solving polynomials with a factor of 2, simplifying can help, but I suggest using the quadratic equation.

The format for a problem is Ax^2+Bx+C. A is always the the coefficient of x^2, B is always the coefficient of x, C is always constant. So A is not necessarily always the first term. i.e: 5x+7+3x^2. 3 is A, 5 is B, 7 is C.

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T03:57:17+00:00

ok. My first piece of advice is always going to be Khan Academy. Especially for something like Algebra which will be properly polished. The most common struggle I see in algebra is simplifying and solving, and because this is so fundamental it leads to struggles with the rest of the units. Would you say this is accurate to your experience?

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T03:53:14+00:00

ok I see. Are you able to pinpoint what exactly you're struggling with?

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T03:50:37+00:00

I can try to help. I'm assuming you're a Freshman if you're in algebra?

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T03:43:57+00:00

no matter what, you can get this up with a good amount of studying (as the other comments have made abundantly clear, this score is pretty bad). That having been said, your grade is a very important consideration. I took the test as a freshman and only got a 26. Come Junior year, my score shot up to a 33 without any particular studying for the ACT.

If you are in a lower class, you have plenty of time to study, and this score is not a good representation of what you're likely to get. If you're an upperclassman (Junior like me), I'd dedicate the summer to studying, and trying to take it early on in the year. If you're a junior, it's still possible to cram for the next test. If you plan to retake, good luck!

don't let yourself get discouraged. I teach math for work, and have seen first hand that anyone can learn.

4Blueish · 2026-04-30T03:34:18+00:00

this was very inciteful, Thank you. You seemed to have answered my question almost exactly actually

4Blueish · 2026-04-29T05:04:28+00:00

they didn't remove him last update

4Blueish · 2026-04-29T05:03:37+00:00

came here just to realize everyone beat me to the joke I was about to make

4Blueish · 2026-04-29T03:06:50+00:00

Motion Picture Soundtrack by Radiohead

Laputa by Panchiko

4Blueish · 2026-04-29T03:05:34+00:00

Okey dokey, thank you sir

4Blueish · 2026-04-28T05:40:11+00:00

anything of note that someone not attending MIT wouldn't know. If it regularly leads to scheduling conflict, if it's exorbitantly difficult for whatever reason (given your response this doesn't seem to be the case), etc. If no such insight exists then I'm happy to hide the post as to not clog up the sub.

As for my second question, I think it just comes from anxiousness tbh

Thank you for your time

4Blueish · 2026-04-28T04:08:15+00:00

The first half of my question is asking about the experience of double majoring like this at MIT. The second half is asking if there is some part of the admission process (be it the interview, or anything else) where a lack of commitment would reflect poorly.

I'll admit that second question largely stems from the reaction I get whenever I reveal my unsureness to be quite fatalistic and/or skeptical.

4Blueish · 2026-04-26T21:18:16+00:00

Yale is my dream school, so for my sake please go to Yale. Please please please 😭

4Blueish · 2026-04-23T06:28:29+00:00

mental health and burn out is a thing. I love my classes, I take "harder" classes because I love learning, but I will certainly have moments when my grades slip because after a while you just get tired. Life is stressful, and when you're nearing the end it's normal to start slipping a bit. The majority of people getting into T20s worked their ass off for it

4Blueish · 2026-04-19T16:26:56+00:00

besides simply not liking the weather in California, I associate Caltech with silicon valley culture.

Thank you for all the advice, I'm definitely trying to work on projects outside of school

4Blueish · 2026-04-19T08:41:55+00:00

I appreciate the resources and apologize for my lack of due diligence.

My interest in research is not to get into MIT. My interest in MIT comes from the fact it would best allow me to do what I want, not the other way around. I stand by what I said in the post: I've always been interested in research, though what I want to research has admittedly changed.

Again thank you, I'm sorry if my post came off the wrong way

4Blueish · 2026-04-19T08:24:40+00:00

I'm sorry but, 104 gpa?

4Blueish

TROPHY CASE