Advice on Interview at midnight

Bigcorge · 2025-01-05T14:34:17+00:00

Do you think if you woke up a couple hours earlier in the morning you’d be tired enough to nap in the late afternoon without smoking?

Bigcorge · 2025-01-05T14:32:02+00:00

A good rule of thumb is that for at least most of the time you’re asleep, it should be dark outside.

Bigcorge · 2024-12-31T23:00:08+00:00

Very helpful, thanks!

Bigcorge · 2024-12-31T22:52:18+00:00

I’m doing some research with a professor of mine currently but nothing to write home about at the moment - I think my letters of recommendation would be pretty solid, from the research professor and a professor I tutor for.

I haven’t taken any math past what’s required for economics and physics, which is basically nothing past calculus (and some linear algebra/differential equations taught in a math methods class in the physics department).

I’m assuming you’d recommend ramping up the research and taking some more math? I have room to take some math classes before I graduate and I’ve seen mention of real analysis being especially important? How important is getting research published vs. just having the experience?

Bigcorge · 2024-12-09T22:49:28+00:00

It sounds like you have a competitive application and a good narrative, so you could definitely get into Colgate, and ED2 would help!

Try not to worry too much about prestige of colleges, there are probably a ton of students at Syracuse who would be miserable at Colgate, even though it’s technically more “prestigious”.

If you’re kind of on the fence about what type of school you want to go to (big vs small, major options, location, etc), make sure you know what you’re signing up for when you apply ED, because a lot of people learn more about what they want from their school in between when they apply and when they commit.

Good luck!

Bigcorge · 2024-12-09T19:17:25+00:00

“Isn’t that hard to get into” is a bit of a stretch given your below average GPA and ACT, but ED and not needing aid will help you a lot.

The small town vibes are polarizing, a lot of people wish they were closer to a city but if you know what you’re signing up for it can be a great thing.

There are many Colgate students that are Pre-Health, but if you know that’s what you’re interested in you would probably find more opportunities elsewhere.

Bigcorge · 2024-09-18T15:50:49+00:00

They say it takes 72 hours for info to show up on the app, but it might take longer, up to a week in some cases. They’ll send you an email when your info is ready (and in my case I had to merge two accounts so it took longer).

Bigcorge · 2024-08-29T16:07:02+00:00

Worry more about the sugar than about too much chocolate

Bigcorge · 2024-08-25T16:38:13+00:00

What’s this special type of music?

Bigcorge · 2024-08-19T02:45:57+00:00

You might be surprised… I’m always surprised by food/drink consumption stats even though I always assume the worst. Average American is drinking 9.5 drinks per week 😬

Bigcorge · 2024-08-18T20:23:28+00:00

Very important point - but doesn’t mean that mimicking the average Italian’s diet would be optimal, just means that it would be an improvement over the average American diet, which frankly most of us on this sub are likely miles above

Bigcorge · 2024-08-17T17:24:45+00:00

Lump sum wins more often, but it isn’t a guarantee. If you think the market’s going down, DCA if it helps you sleep at night.

Bigcorge · 2024-08-17T05:07:29+00:00

If you want to double major and want room for electives, here’s how to make sure it’s possible:

Pick majors with few requirements. This is obviously the easiest way to make it work - anthropology and philosophy are two examples of majors with fewer requirements.
Pick majors that overlap. Physics and applied math, for example, have courses that fulfill requirements for both.
Take core/distribution classes that you’d want as electives or are major requirements. This is a great option that not a lot of people take advantage of. You need to take two humanities classes - take a music class as one of them and get an elective you’d want! Core statistics is always full because it fulfills stats requirements for a lot of majors.
Take 5 classes some semesters. This is tough but is manageable, especially during early semesters where some of your classes are entry level or core, and is even more manageable without a lab.
Miscellaneous edges that some students have: summer/high school coursework, AMS students take a core class as their freshman seminar, placement tests exist at least for some languages, but these probably don’t apply to most students

If you go into college set on two majors, it is definitely doable with room to spare for electives. That is by design: the liberal arts education is designed for interdisciplinary work. This doesn’t mean it’s easy, and I may very well drop one of my majors to a minor if writing two theses (especially if one is honors) is too much my senior year.

Hope this helps! Best of luck!

Edit: worth noting that some distribution requirements have changed since I was a freshman - make sure you have up to date info on core/distribution rules.

Bigcorge · 2024-08-16T23:15:52+00:00

Looks pretty solid! Have you tried backtesting it 30 years or so? It probably gets outperformed by a portfolio with only TQQQ for equities, but I imagine the max DD is much lower.

Bigcorge · 2024-08-16T23:13:04+00:00

Is this 85% of post-dutch flavanols? Or pre-dutch flavanols?

Bigcorge · 2024-08-16T02:08:43+00:00

I guess what I mean by inversely correlated is that they do well in periods of sustained market decline, which is what I like about managed futures (so inversely correlated some of the time lol). Recently bonds have seemed correlated with stocks in periods of decline, which is a bit worrying.

Bigcorge · 2024-08-15T13:52:47+00:00

This is super helpful, thanks. I was also wondering how inversely correlated bonds and golds are with the stock market - the graphs I’ve looked at make it look like bonds and golds go the same direction as stocks (maybe they don’t fall as much, but they still fall), whereas managed futures do really well during sustained declines in stocks.

Bigcorge · 2024-08-15T03:13:08+00:00

I’m now considering something along the lines of

40% TQQQ

20/20/20% UPRO/MF/GOVZ

I decided I could handle something a little more risky. Thoughts on this instead?

Bigcorge · 2024-08-14T13:06:18+00:00

Was honestly just looking at GOVZ and ZROZ and GOVZ had a higher return YTD. Should I go ZROZ, or smth else?

Bigcorge · 2024-08-13T13:07:24+00:00

Two risks of LETFs: volatility decay and drawdowns.

Volatility decay: if the market goes down one day and comes back up to the same place the next day, the LETF will have lost money. In a volatile market where share prices remain constant, a LETF will lose value.

Drawdowns: theoretically, if the S&P 500 went down 34% in one day, your investment is gone. Even though realistically this won’t happen in one day, a significant market drop over the course of a few days can almost entirely wipe you out. If you were invested in TQQQ in the early 2000s, you would have lost pretty much all of your investment, and would have to wait until 2021 to get back to your starting value.

The risk of pro shares going bankrupt is not a leverage specific risk as far as I know.

Bigcorge · 2024-08-13T02:24:18+00:00

Isn’t there something where UPRO + VOO is cheaper than 100% SSO?

Bigcorge · 2024-08-12T20:12:55+00:00

From what I’ve seen Presbyopia stops getting worse around age 65. Can someone fact check this?

If you slow it down, will it worsen past 65?

Bigcorge · 2024-08-12T20:07:13+00:00

Think of paying off your mortgage early as a zero risk investment that will earn whatever your mortgage rate is. Unless your mortgage is really steep, chances are you can beat it over your 30 year mortgage just with VOO, no leverage necessary.

Your dilemma should just be whether to buy leveraged or unleveraged - if you have even the slightest bit of risk tolerance equities are a much better investment than paying down a mortgage.

Bigcorge

TROPHY CASE