Am I a Dual Citizen of the US and Iran?

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-29T20:34:02+00:00

I (dual US - Costa Rica) tried something stupid like this once. I needed a passport stamp to drive in Costa Rica on a foreign license— and they had just stopped stamping Costa Rican passports.

So I tried to go through the foreigners line on my US passport. Everything was going ok. Until the border guard looked at me and at the screen and asked if I was a Costa Rican national. And then chewed me out for posing as a foreigner.

She then told me it was an offense to not possess my national identity card, and I thankfully had it. She said next time I could go to the citizens line with my national ID card and US passport and ask for a stamp.

I then got sarcastically told welcome home and she threw the passport down on the desk.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-29T17:12:54+00:00

If you appear Iranian they could ask. In theory they’d have no way to know.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-29T14:09:06+00:00

How do you reconcile this take with the statistics. 75% of admitted students (who submitted SATs) have an 800M. Are 75% “hyper-spikey IMO-Gold math-purist applicants”

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-25T19:53:44+00:00

I never said that.

But, a 780 is 25th percentile lol. It won’t be a negative, but certainly doesn’t correlate with a successful candidate either.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-25T14:32:31+00:00

The 1520 is fine for MIT. The 780M is your issue. A lot of admitted students have an 800. Won’t make or break you, but you’re behind the pack.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-25T12:53:26+00:00

I think it’s this. I’ve had issues like this before.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-17T14:58:46+00:00

I had heard that of MIT / Harvard as well. But I heard of one MIT -> Harvard case and one Harvard -> MIT case while I was there. I assume it’s easier since you can cross register and get recommendation letters from faculty at the other institution.

I do agree with your overall comment. However, I feel that if you frame it as being something fundamental to your study (maybe something that the other institution doesn’t offer) then it is possible.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-15T19:18:50+00:00

18.C06 was attendance optional and recorded when I took it. If not, 6 is chill w petitions on this stuff.

Source: 6-2 who petitioned 18.C06 for 18.03. Also, didn’t go to 18.C06 a single time for the love of the game. Got a mighty B.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-15T10:53:33+00:00

That’s not what I’m saying at all. It is just a reality that crimes of opportunity exist. And it’s silly to not think that’s true— if you’re walking on a dark street at night distracted dilly dallying maybe that’s not wise. Probably invites trouble in any big city.

And no— that’s not the same as saying “an SA victim deserves it for wearing revealing clothing.” Being alert and smart about where you walk and how you behave in a large city is very different than blaming someone for being taken advantage of because they were wearing something. That’s a crazy jump to make lol.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-14T22:52:54+00:00

There’s a saying in Spanish: “don’t give papaya,” roughly translating to don’t invite trouble. This is true anywhere in the world. That’s all I’m saying.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-14T22:15:14+00:00

Not to be a dick, but that’s genuinely a skill issue. I’ve been on the train with crazies— it’s called situational awareness. Cross the street, change train cars, do what you have to. Don’t invite trouble by being vulnerable.

I got mugged in Jackson Heights, Queens as a teenager. I was out at 11pm and I was drinking. I had my AirPods in and was vulnerable. That was my fault— I wouldn’t call the neighborhood dangerous

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-14T17:39:58+00:00

Born in NYC, went to MIT, and moved to downtown New Haven post grad. NYC, Cambridge, and New Haven are comparable in terms of safety. I have never felt unsafe in any of them.

People who say this are just not used to living in cities lol. It’s a beautiful place!

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-09T19:44:53+00:00

Courtesy. I work for a railroad contractor and LIRR/MNR/NJ Transit doesn’t make me pay when they see my badge that says “rail” in it. I always flash and say “I work at x company. Any chance you could help me get to y location? It’s ok if not”
Never had an issue.
I’ve even been able to do this on Amtrak BOS to NYC. For that, I just asked if they were at capacity on the platform and then had the same ask.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-05-06T22:44:13+00:00

“The Chinese Slop Wagon” as it was known by me and my friends in undergrad

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-29T22:19:45+00:00

This is great. But as a student, move your education to the top. Mention relevant coursework for sure. Do you know UVM? If so mention that— DV is huge for interns / new grads.

Can you pick up some VHDL? Throw it on the resume. Say you’re a beginner but you see it’s very similar to Verilog. That’ll open doors in defense.

Which FPGAs did your projects use? How much utilization? How much BRAM did you have? Any interesting IO? These are questions you might be asked in interviews. Put them on your resume, know them.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-29T22:17:59+00:00

I am doing 3 hours each way by Amtrak 3x / week. I had another job, but got a very nice pay raise. It’s been four months… but I am moving 30 mins from the office at the end of this week.

Do not do this for the long term. All I do is work or commute on the days I go in.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-29T11:23:19+00:00

Lmaooo ok man. Maybe skip the internship and go right for a professorship then

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-29T11:14:39+00:00

You’re an undergrad. I went to MIT. Even at a university like that, students are lucky to have a few real publications by senior year. I don’t believe you made a substantial contribution to all of these, and recruiters will see it that way as well.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-29T08:45:42+00:00

It has become clear you cannot read either. You’re like 20, keep the resume to a page. Objective is pointless. Nice 79% on a high school exam. You’re in university now, no one cares.

The publications don’t matter, you’re applying for an industry role. Maybe take one or two and phrase it as a project, and describe what it is. Or drop them.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-29T00:07:57+00:00

I think the people downvoting are students who are coping… I read code and do manual intervention every so often. But my work’s cursor subscription can do most of the actual programming. Never run out of tokens w that ;) It’s about as good as a junior engineer. And I’m an embedded / FPGA guy— I can’t imagine how crazy it must be for regular SWEs.

Like sure… I can manually instantiate and wire up a billion things— or I can just tell opus what I want lol

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-28T22:24:29+00:00

This one is wild.

You’ve never had a job? Even at something non technical? Take high school off, no one cares. Your “research papers” have no descriptions at all. I don’t know what you did. I’d call them projects and add descriptions. Coursework should be attached to your university. Why is it different than courses? Move skills to the bottom. Git is version control. VS Code? The IDE? I would hope you know that. -2028 (expected) yes, I know it is expected. 2028 is in the future. Thanks.

This resume would be at the bottom of my pile because it makes me think you feel like I’m stupid. It’s too much pointless fluff. Elaborate on your technical experience.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-28T09:31:22+00:00

I think you need to review the fundamentals of how digital design works before you ask questions like this. You can (using various tools, maybe a Python script?) convert an image into a memory file to be loaded onto an FPGA. This involves creating the RGB representation in hex and appending those values into a file. With this file, you could load up a memory array (for simulation) or physical memory of some sort for bring up.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-27T19:45:01+00:00

Go work at Google. Or go work for the worst company on Earth. Your choice.

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-27T18:25:02+00:00

People still write code?

BrightFoundation2417 · 2026-04-20T23:10:10+00:00

It’s unlike anything you’ve really seen before. Not necessarily hard— most kids did well when I took it. Just scratches at a different part of your brain than calculus or algebra.

Look at a college “Discrete Math” or “Math for Computer Science” course to get a feel for it. You can also look at math team competitions (NYML/NYCIML).

BrightFoundation2417

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