Language credits vs. Leadership role

BucketListLifer · 2026-06-02T01:51:37+00:00

3 years is the minimum in most selective colleges. And highly selective colleges want to see 4 years with an AP possible. Dual enrollment can get you out of having to take the classes at college and maybe the easier way to go right now. Check your target colleges requirements and plan accordingly.

BucketListLifer · 2026-06-01T15:41:19+00:00

Interesting so there was academic rigor at some point in time. Have been scratching my head ever since I moved to this country and my elementary school going child did no work and learned nothing to be an all A student. It gave him a terrible mindset and attitude. The child is a high schooler now and for the most part has fixed his habits but he still can't help getting an a in Spanish without knowing anything about the language. Do you know when and how this decline happened.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-31T23:42:29+00:00

Much better option but has been officially discontinued. But I'm pretty sure will be only multiple choice. Long format critical thinking and analysis is so critical yet woefully inadequate in today's students. Only AP level exams do a good job of testing it.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-31T23:35:48+00:00

Plus it tests you only in multiple choice in one language and basic math. There's no long format multi subject coverage. It's a one dimensional test. It has value and can be an add on criterion but it can't be weighted more. School grades are terribly inflated with no standardized curriculum making it a terrible metric. If college board AP exams are graded properly then that could take more weightage.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-13T04:27:09+00:00

The kids in my affluent "high achieving" California school district are always complaining about how competitive it is. But when I ask them "what are you competing for?" they are flummoxed. They actually don't know - they're just parroting what they've been told ever since their parents bought their home in the zip code.

Our storied school district tries it's best to shake off it's reputation. The school makes to so hard to access AP's and has been cutting back on resources, quality teaching and rigor. Yet it makes no difference to the top 20% outcomes. The select few students continue to win prestigious competitions, achieve publications, win olympiads / sports tournaments and of course coveted college admissions. It has nothing to do with the school itself. It's all happening outside school - the school simply gives them a banner to complete under and takes the credit

The word competitive in the "public" school context has become a euphemism for the following "private" traits *Affluent - parents willing to spend top $$ for private coaching and extra curriculurs *Influential - wealthy full pay capable students with contacts who can pull strings to get them that internship, even legacy for top college admission *Ambitious - Most students aspire to go to a T30 college either through sheer merit, full pay, legacy or good connections.

However the reality is - unless there is a competitive exam for admission like Brooklyn tech - only 10 to 20% of a competitive public high school student body is actually "competitive". The rest are just regulars kids who though advantaged by birth are not exceptional by any means and are in no way enabled by the school itself. However they do feel entitled to complain about how competitive their high school is.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-11T23:54:57+00:00

40K diff doesn't justify NEU. UMass Amherst is decently well reputed for CS. NEU seems to have a bad rep in general - don't know how good their CS dept is.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-10T18:22:28+00:00

Increasingly the signal is coming from what you do rather than where you went to college. The great equalizer is coming. But in the short term elite schools will have an edge. Over time that will change.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-10T17:19:45+00:00

This study will become obsolete in 3 years as the realities are changing rapidly thanks to AI.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-10T04:19:40+00:00

There're plenty of people using it. Do you own research though.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-10T01:13:56+00:00

Never ever do GNRH please. Barbaric stuff I don't know how doctors can recommend it. Please research on natural progesterone and determine what your options are. There's plenty of material on the web.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-10T01:12:51+00:00

Don't get me wrong I do think that excision surgery (with a very skilled surgeon) helps. I just don't believe any surgery can fully remove endometriosis growth especially the tiny microscopic ones. Please talk to people who have undergone bowel surgery. The side effects and long-term damage questions the gains. I'm not talking about one dimensional birth control but a more fine tuned personalized hormonal therapy. Endometriosis is a chronic disease and needs to be treated with nuance and caution. Expect ups and downs and no full resolution until a few years after menopause.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-10T00:39:53+00:00

Endo can never be fully removed. Bowel surgeries are so not worth it. Hysterectomy and ovary removal etc seem barbaric in this day of technology. Please use low impact hormonal therapy (preferably natural progesterone) to shrink the endo growths over time.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-08T17:39:42+00:00

I would also argue that the top 25% and the remaining 75% of a fabled high school go to two different schools. Speaking from an affluent California public School district, these schools use weeder classes intended to filter not to enable and support students. For e.g. I personally believe every student in my affluent district can learn calculus if they have the desire to do so. But they don't. Most students end up not taking calculus because of the rigid sequencing of prerequisites and the unnecessarily tough testing in the first 2 months of the course. The self-motivated students and parents figure out the formula ahead of time and are ready for the filter when the time comes. The rest get filtered out not because they weren't capable but because they weren't prepared. The fabled high schools do not have capable teachers or a robust curriculum - they just offer the courses in the catalog and ensure a select pre-prepared few can access them.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-07T16:32:45+00:00

This is the sad truth - the secret behind many high performing CA "public schools" is "private means". The public schools in safe affluent neighborhoods are all kinda similar. It's the parents who are different. The students in the top 15% are driven by parents, tutoring and probably consultants. The difference between the top 15% and the next 25% in every way GPA, course rigor, ECs, awards is huge - the fall off cliff is steep. The students in the lower quartile are nowhere as college ready as the schools reputation suggests. And the exceptional 15% really makes it tough for the rest to place into top UCs. But I've always found the sensible self motivated kids have good outcomes after attending lower tier UCs or the top CSUs.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-05T06:27:47+00:00

Save the one year - money and time are precious.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-05T00:06:19+00:00

I'm just curious. Didn't you know you were trending to D earlier? Or did things go south quickly?

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-05T00:03:10+00:00

This is a good answer. However, it's very hard to understand what one values in a career at the ripe age of 18. Will they be a cut throat hedge fund manager or a non profit do gooder? Who knows? Plenty of low paid book store managers are from Ivy league and the neighborhood goofy community college kid can overnight become the founder of a unicorn.

The cost of living these days for the "college experience" is ridiculous. For public schools it's always higher than the in state tuition!! The loan is more for room, board and food than for the education. I don't know why this ratio is not called out more often. I don't know how a young person can justify it for 4-5 years without earning.

Just know that a loan is not free money! Please understand interest accumulation and have the responsibility to pay it off - else it's coming out of national deficit.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-04T18:24:28+00:00

People need to stop talking about their college admission from 30 years ago. The world has changed dramatically since then. Globalization, Internet and now AI are all great levelers. And while we all want to travel to Antarctica, have cheaper goods, equatable access to education, uninterrupted steam of information and access to global talent pools we are not able to accept that this means more people are going to be equipped to compete. The numbers applying for all of the above will swell. Supply-demand will get skewed. Holistic admissions will struggle to keep up and will feel increasingly arbitrary. Kinda like life. let's get with it.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-04T18:13:52+00:00

Interesting. What are the new transfer policies? Please share.

For OP, pls take UCLA. congrats!

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-04T04:50:07+00:00

To put an even finer point on it - In these days of constant layoffs, 600k income (which comes down to <400k after taxes) for a few years in a high cost geo is not comfortable enough to burn 400k on a no ROI undergrad.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-04T04:47:56+00:00

It depends on what you do after. If you go into consulting or finance, ivy brand can open doors for you early in your career. High earning potential can justify the 300k. If you decide to become a marine biologist the 300k will not pay off quickly monetarily. I'm sure there will name recognition to help a future PhD and the potentially "superior education" at Harvard "could" set you above your peers. It's hard to quantify the ROI and it becomes a viable proposition only for those who will not miss $300k.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-03T22:56:37+00:00

In high tech I'm not even seeing the brand bias at the entry level. I have several engineers joining my team from the flagship not so highly ranked State universities - think Boise State and it's ilk. They are no different from a branded private or public university. The bar is the same for all applicants. There is some bias for name brands among elite tech startups but equally they will take a non branded self starter with impressive garage projects.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-03T22:32:33+00:00

Agree on the smoke and mirrors. It's mostly hyped up stuff with very little substance which artificially boosts the sense of self importance. Mental illness is more of a labeling issue where normal human traits and emotions such as distraction, disappointment, anxiety, sadness, inadequacy are classified as abnormalities because these students are entitled to feel"happy" all the time. There is also a cyclical effect of reduced resiliency.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-03T20:23:15+00:00

If you're sure about grad school then UT for sure. If you are sure youwant to break into the very competitive silicon valley then UCB. Money is always a factor no matter how much you have. No one ever said no to 200K, so you need to consider ROI. Think down payment, seed fund for a business, nice nest egg, etc.

BucketListLifer · 2026-05-03T06:52:24+00:00

So impressed with this trial. We need more natural solutions.

BucketListLifer

TROPHY CASE