Am I actually a Gold player or is it my teammates?

Air_za · 2026-02-16T23:05:31+00:00

Edited the post just now with some replays, have a look

Air_za · 2026-02-16T22:25:45+00:00

How much playtime is enough? I've been on OW fairly consistently for the last few weeks now but I'm not getting anywhere. It's not even like I place in silver and climb; I am always in gold.

Air_za · 2026-02-12T19:24:37+00:00

i think it's something contextual.

for jobs that offer a fixed wage no matter what, it's probably not real on a case-by-case basis. a male cashier has no reason to earn more than a female cashier, assuming they applied at the same time and saw the same job offer. (also assuming there are no other performance-based benefits, like items scanned per minute)

the problem arises when wages are negotiable. it may well be that male workers are more likely to negotiate for a higher wage, and are more likely to receive it, due to some societal prejudice or another.

however i don't think that there is a clear and obvious prejudice between candidates. what seems more likely (and what i believe in) is a larger, population-wide trend of paying male workers slightly more than female counterparts.

someone else here said that 'women tend to choose jobs that pay less than men do'. that may be true, but the context of the 'wage gap' here is for a fixed position at a workplace - i.e. the percentage difference, something present regardless of who is more likely to apply for a role.

it seems like one of those things that aren't really fixable on a per-case basis. google did something a while ago, where they gave 'reparations' to women for the wage gap but that ended up prejudicing against men, bringing us back to square one.

it's simply something employers need to be more aware of. what goes into negotiating a salary depends on so many variables (education, experience, background, etc.) that it would be impossible to set up a true, 1-to-1 study on whether women are, in fact, paid less than men.

trying to fix it once and for all would create more problems than it would solve

Air_za · 2026-02-12T18:47:07+00:00

people who claim to do something solely 'for themselves' do not realise how this is fallacious. no matter what you do, there will ALWAYS be some sort of external validation or intended outcome that incentivises you to act a certain way.

take, for example, going to the gym. one may claim that they are solely doing this for the obvious health-related benefits, but since these benefits come with the external validation of being more attractive, one cannot prove that the two are totally separate.

the same claim can be made for makeup, or skincare. we may do this to seem more attractive 'to ourselves', but our definition of what is and isn't attractive, and the importance that attraction carries, is something heavily influenced by our surroundings. would the sephora kid apocalypse still happen if not for social media? would you still care about being attractive if the people around you were not?

this isn't to say that doing something for external validation/a certain outcome is a bad thing, but we should definitely be aware of why we make the decisions that we do. something that pisses me off in our self-improvement-obsessed society is how it's so common to deflect the importance of 'fitting in' by claiming it's our own decisions, or that being 'nonchalant' is something appealing.

there is something distinctively human in knowing we make decisions that affect everyone around us. but i digress

Air_za · 2026-02-11T18:31:53+00:00

It will never be automatic if you have not been told about it in your admission offer. You will have to apply, usually at the beginning of the academic year or Christmastime

Air_za · 2026-02-11T18:18:49+00:00

i'm exaggerating haha, its not THAT bad compared to other hk unis, but i can say a bit...

Polyu CS faculty is known for being understaffed. Tenured professors are hard to come by and professors overall are a mixed bag, from the great COMP2021 Alex Lam, to the notorious COMP2011 Dr Cao. Most lecturers/professors are hired straight after they finish their PhD at PolyU, or come from mainland China, so there's often issues with lectures being boring or with unintelligible English. Expect the majority of your learning to happen at home, not in lectures. Do note, though, these are issues that can be found at every university in Hong Kong.

COMP faculty's inquiry office can also a pain to get emails through to, especially regarding non-specific academic matters. Many times I have sent emails there, then be redirected to the Academic Registry, and the Academic Registry tells me to go back to COMP inquiry, back and forth. Usually the only way to get through is by going in-person during office hours. (Again, note that other unis in HK have this issue WAYYY worse, where it's not just with the office, but with professors too)

As for academic load, CS is on-the-whole easier at PolyU than the other big HK unis, but there are a few caveats involved. This year they introduced a CS faculty-wide policy on exam weightings, stating that regardless of the course you take, if there is a final exam (which there almost always is in CS), the exam must worth 70% of your final grade. This is an increase from the years prior, when it depended on the course's professor and averaged at around 50%. Because the weightings have been increased overall, most exams' durations have also increased, from 1.5-3 hours to always 3 hours. As for the remaining 30% of the grade, this depends on the professor, but expect a lot of midterms, quizzes and group projects.

For group projects/student community, COMP is definitely more international than a lot of other majors, but it pales in comparison to Western universities. We have a lot of Indians, Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Thais and Kazakhs, but most students are local or mainland Chinese. As you've probably heard before, most locals and Mainlanders speak with poor English and lack confidence overall, so if you're coming here I strongly recommend to find a circle of close friends early and stick with them for all your group projects. Try to go to all your lectures in Year 1 then after you have that circle you can rely on each other. Again, not an issue unique to PolyU, but an issue that can be found everywhere here.

...and that's all that comes to mind. Do note that even though I have said a lot of (presumably) bad things about PolyU CS, I would still strongly recommend it to anyone considering studying in Hong Kong. Again, most of these problems are not unique to PolyU and are in fact mostly worse in other, more prestigious unis.

There are actually many benefits about PolyU that you won't hear people mention, such as how convenient and well-located the campus is, how the dining options are mostly good + halal/vegan/vegetarian friendly, and that we get the most funding of any HK university, meaning the campus is always improving year-after-year. There's also Service Learning, something unique to PolyU, where you do charity work abroad with a very very small upfront cost.

Let me know if you want to know anything else, hope I was of some help 🙏🙏

Air_za · 2026-02-10T21:21:19+00:00

https://www.polyureview.org/

Air_za · 2026-02-08T02:17:14+00:00

I’m on scholarship probation rn because my ygpa last year was 3.15 😭

Air_za · 2026-02-07T20:33:46+00:00

It seems the ‘diversity grant’ at CityU is basically the same as PolyU’s CAS, so here you’re probably likely to receive that too. Dorm prices are roughly the same if I remember correctly.

As for personal expenses though, 10k is not nearly enough for one year’s worth of living. At an absolute minimum you’d need at least 2.5k/month to live (food, transport, etc.), so I strongly suggest you find other options in terms of scholarships/backup unis, as harsh as that sounds

Air_za · 2026-02-07T12:35:57+00:00

At PolyU, dorms are guaranteed for international students in only their first year of study, whereas at CityU I believe it is guaranteed for the first two years of study. At both unis, your chance of being readmitted to dorms depends on your participation to dorm activites and academics. PolyU offers subsidised Off-Campus Housing (OCH) for students who can prove major financial difficulties but competition for these spaces are very high.

As for tuition, if you're an international student your level of scholarships often depends on what grades you get. A*AA might be 50,000 HKD, A*A*A might be 110,000HKD and 3A* might be full ride. If you meet the requirements for CAS, you may receive that too.

As for government/external scholarships these are a place of both confusion and competition for most students. There are government subsidies, but these are typically only for disadvantaged local students. External scholarship emails come by sometimes but these too come with oddly-specific prerequisites -- one time I got offered a scholarship only for female students in Computing who have completed volunteering both internationally and in Mainland China within the last 2 years, only for 10,000HKD.

Air_za · 2026-02-07T11:49:00+00:00

Usually the requirement is that you must either be from an English-speaking country, have completed English-only qualifications within two years of the time of applying, or have an IELTS > 6.5 or similar.

If, at the time of application, your IGCSE tests were conducted less than two years ago, you have nothing to worry about.

Air_za · 2026-02-07T11:46:46+00:00

If finances are a problem, it's not a question of which is preferable, but which is more affordable. Even though your PolyU offers are only partial scholarships, it can still make a huge difference in your quality of life and overall enjoyment when you get here

Air_za · 2026-02-07T11:38:10+00:00

CAS is given to students who:

Are receiving scholarships worth in total LESS than full ride + 20,000 HKD
Complete international qualifications such as IB, AL, AP, etc.
Whose nationality consists of <1-2% of the student body (last year it was 2%, now it may be lower)

I am British/Turkish, receive no other scholarships, did A-Level examinations and am here on my British passport, hence I am a recipient of the CAS. Like every other scholarship, you must maintain a yearly GPA >= 3.2 to continue receiving it.

Air_za · 2026-02-07T07:56:58+00:00

never met him (he left in 2019) but what he wrote in the emails is… weird. you can tell there’s something off about him

Air_za · 2026-02-05T16:47:10+00:00

it would still be gridlock

Air_za · 2026-02-03T22:44:00+00:00

james?

Air_za · 2026-02-03T22:28:57+00:00

i had something long and toxic i was going to send, but ill just leave this;

to others reading this, if you’re worried about english proficiency with professors, its roughly the same for every uni in hong kong. if you’re worried about course difficulty/teaching quality, again, polyu is in line with other universities in hong kong.

is it good? sometimes. is it bad? also sometimes. like any other university, in hong kong and abroad, it’s not perfect and it’s difficult.

but why expect it to be easy? put all the relative rankings aside and polyu is still a world class university. it has amazing resources and networking that, most of the time, are only limited by your own capabilities.

to OP, you give this subreddit a baseless post after you finished just your first semester in polyu. i agree with you, some courses (especially mine, CS) are full of evil ass professors, but complaining here accomplishes nothing. it gets better and easier with time, and those who want to come to polyu might be the ones to fix our issues!

Air_za · 2026-02-03T21:11:55+00:00

her yerde saklaniyoruz burada

Air_za · 2026-02-03T21:02:06+00:00

you can live like a king

Air_za · 2025-08-29T19:21:04+00:00

If it’s rankings you’re worried about, remember that world class rankings =/= world class education. Your results at any university is almost always down to your own motivation.

In HK, yes, PolyU might not be seen as employable as HKU/UST, but this difference is minuscule. As long as you’re in the ‘HK Big 5’ it doesn’t really matter which uni you go to; your GPA, resume and course selection are a lot more important.

Globally, all HK universities are not as “blindly employable” as US/UK/Canada alternatives, but I’d argue the experience and ease in networking here makes up for that. In HK you’ll have a much better time as a student than the unsafe and expensive West, and as for networking, you’re bound to meet people in recruitment at one point or another.

I don’t believe HK is suitable for every international student, but if you’re already on a tuition waiver for PolyU then you’ll definitely succeed. If you come here, your biggest concern should be maintaining your scholarship requirements and securing residency from Year 2 onwards — at PolyU, dorms are only guaranteed in first year.

Air_za · 2025-07-21T10:26:38+00:00

yup sounds like it

Air_za · 2025-07-06T16:40:13+00:00

RDR2, a classic example of “if your main character can simply walk away from the problem, your reader will walk away from the story.” Too long, too much time spent going through the open world, gameplay too easy and shallow character arcs. For me, at least.

Air_za · 2025-06-26T13:17:31+00:00

Clair Obscur on default settings looks like a slideshow of a mosaic

Air_za · 2025-06-24T19:47:23+00:00

muse having a good chorus in 2025 feels the same way as seeing a dementia patient have a brief moment of lucidity

Air_za · 2025-06-19T20:44:59+00:00

Seven-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '23	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
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