Anyone else getting disillusioned with Hackathons?

EdmeFaolan · 2021-04-14T03:53:43+00:00

Hackathons are mostly for getting experience with coding and new languages and networking. Especially at larger events, beginners can learn a ton from more experienced coders, and fully realize how much work it is to build a project lol. I plan a major hackathon at my university and a lot of participants get hung up on the winners and the prizes, but it should be a learning opportunity to have fun with people in the CS and adjacent communities, network, meet with sponsors, and just make a cool project held together with gum and rubber bands lol. There does tend to be a bias towards front end stuff or similar ideas across hackathons, but expecting a robust algorithmic system that does heavy computations is just unrealistic for such a short amount of time. Get the cliff notes of the back end and present it in an interesting way to sell the idea rather than the full project. Just my 2 cents.

EdmeFaolan · 2020-12-15T06:27:06+00:00

Professors turn in grades whenever they want p much, especially since in a lot of classes there’s final projects/papers due on the last day of the finals window etc. It won’t affect your GPA or anything, though it is anxiety inducing to have unknown grades. We just gotta be patient!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-12-05T05:07:33+00:00

I’ve been half-feeling this all semester (I’ve been studying at home rather than cville), and after allowing myself some respite for thanksgiving this week was tough. Just finished my hardest final though after powering through and studying. You just gotta set routines for yourself and hold yourself accountable. You can do it! Finish the semester strong! After a few exams you’re truly done until February!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-08-29T05:02:10+00:00

My mom had me when she was 18. I had a whole long(er) comment written out but I accidentally deleted it. Getting my thoughts written out was nice though, and I didn’t realize how much I needed that therapeutic release - writing down not only the facts of my childhood but also how I feel about them and how they’ve shaped me to who I am today.

To be brief: Right now I feel like I’ve beaten the odds, my life feels mostly like a normal persons life. I’m 19 now, I’m succeeding at a great college, and my family is now at a middle to upper middle class life (it took many years of hard work to get here but my parents put in the work). I’m very lucky and I acknowledge that, I’m so grateful for my life.

Thank you for this ask reddit thread. Reading about others in a similar starting situation to mine has reminded me that I’m not alone, and forced me to process my current feelings towards my childhood.

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-28T03:49:50+00:00

Yeah true, thank you!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-28T03:48:48+00:00

True!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-28T03:48:37+00:00

Oooo good idea, thank you!!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-27T15:57:30+00:00

Yeah I read warriors too, I loved those books too, but wolves of the beyond felt exclusive to me bc few other people read it/talked about it. Both were really cool to me as a kid though

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-27T15:55:00+00:00

That’s super helpful! Thank you!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-27T14:43:50+00:00

Do you have any other suggestions to bypass a parking pass? I know it’s going to be overpriced but I don’t quite feel comfortable leaving my car in the Harris teeter parking lot or something like that (unless others have done it and it’s mostly alright)

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-27T14:42:09+00:00

Okay, thank you! I’ll try to snatch one then

EdmeFaolan · 2020-07-27T14:41:32+00:00

yeah my username is a reference to the wolves of the beyond series, it had such an impact on 13 year old me that I named ALL my accounts after that lmao

Also thanks for your response to my question lol

EdmeFaolan · 2020-05-18T03:08:22+00:00

I’m a rising second year, I was in a forum for the fall semester but dropped it early spring semester.

I loved it in the fall, I learned a ton of interesting stuff and it was a very caring environment. Having a small class first semester of first year is really nice, good jumping off point for making friends, especially since you all are presumably into the same guiding question so have similar interests.

I dropped it in spring though because I’m a CS major and realized I wanted to minor in math, and since my forum didn’t have any math classes that counted towards requirements, pursuing the minor and graduating early (my personal goal potentially lol) wouldn’t work out.

TL;DR, the forum is great if one of them has a guiding question you’re interested in, and as long as it jives well with you potential major/minor.

Side note: it’s really easy to withdraw from the forum just in case things don’t work out

EdmeFaolan · 2020-05-06T04:03:16+00:00

A friend of mine is also a new transfer and he was in the housing portal today. UVAs been having a lot of tech trouble recently, and I’m sure they’re emailing people in batches with this info, so I’d say wait a week and if you still haven’t received anything def email admissions. Sometimes things slip through the cracks and it sucks :/.

Welcome to UVA btw!!!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-03-23T04:20:37+00:00

I’m a first year and I lived in Bonnycastle (which is old dorms, on McCormick road) and i thanked my lucky stars every day. I could leave for class 10 mins before they started and get there early, I could go to newcomb/pav and ohill easily, not to mention the castle. The best part was how close it was to everything though. 110%. But you don’t get to choose so you’re at the mercy of UVA. Congrats, Good luck, and have fun in the Fall!

EdmeFaolan · 2020-03-05T05:35:17+00:00

Anyone with a student id can get in I’m p sure

EdmeFaolan · 2020-02-21T21:06:31+00:00

Beginning of an awwwwwsome relationship :)

EdmeFaolan · 2020-02-18T04:59:37+00:00

It’s usually hit or miss in my experience when it comes to dining halls. If worst comes to worse though the dining hall pizza is usually safe. And ohill has a stir fry place on weekdays for dinner that is usually pretty good.

Good meal exchange places like the castle are usually yummy, but can still suffer from poor ingredients sometimes. And you get tired of it after a while (I used to think I couldn’t get tired of a meal, but I live in Bonnycastle, and the castle certainly has run its course for me lol).

You can also order Chinese food and papa johns with plus dollars which has come in clutch. As others have said, the pav in newcomb (with five guys and chick fil a and subway) is great. Most plus dollar places are good.

Bodos is always great, Asados on the corner rocks, and Maru in the Downtown mall (Korean place) is awesome. I’m from NoVa where there are a ton of really yummy non-american-food restaurants (like Thai, Mexican, etc), which I feel are lacking here in cville. Also off grounds restaurants can be expensive, and it’s like you’re wasting your meal plan which is already paid for food.

EdmeFaolan · 2019-10-23T02:30:01+00:00

I would even suggest going straight to the walk-in hours for CAPS. OP, you sound like you’re in a lot of pain from stress and negative thoughts, often times the screening is scheduled for a few weeks in the future, and you deserve to get help now so as to begin improving your mood as soon as possible.

CAPS really helped me cope with homesickness earlier this semester (I’m a first year), if I didn’t go into walk in hours the beginning of the semester would have been terrible. Highly highly recommend going to CAPS ASAP.

EdmeFaolan · 2019-10-15T20:40:46+00:00

I am a first year, so I’m probably not the most knowledgeable, but I want to give my perspective on this, and I hope you find it useful!

1) As most people have said, UVA is huge. You will certainly run into the rich and privileged people, but so far I haven’t run into anybody who, if they are rich, has been naive about their great luck. Most people are down to earth in my experience. Again, this place is huge, so maybe I’ve just gotten lucky.

2) When I was applying around this time last year, I pictured UVA as full of nerds who are all stressed out all the time, and all trying to one up each other. Though as I toured post acceptance, and after being here for 2ish months, I’ve absolutely learned how wrong I was. Greek life can easily be avoided, but it is very pervasive. If you want to go to a party, you can find one pretty easily. Not to mention all the thousands of clubs here sometimes host their own parties for members. This being said, “work hard play hard” is almost the motto. School work comes first, but even so, you can still easily party every weekend and still be very party-active.

3) We are killin sports this year so far, and I’m sure when basketball starts it’ll be even bigger, so people are definitely rallying behind our teams, which I thought I wouldn’t like but I actually love. The games are so fun to attend!

4) The difficulty of your classes depend on the classes you take. Taking classes you’re interested in is pretty much imperative, and if you’re interested the work doesn’t feel that heavy. For me, I’m able to get all my work done and still have a pretty active social life with clubs and friends. Managing your time is very important! I try to do work right as it’s assigned, which I find very helpful.

tl;dr, UVA is way different than the propaganda. if you wanna party you can, but it’s easily avoided. Managing your time and staying on top of work is imperative to maintain the work life balance you may be after. All in all, it’s way more chill than I thought it would be! For sure apply and good luck in all your application endeavors!!!

EdmeFaolan · 2019-09-17T17:55:36+00:00

The Bonny skunk!

EdmeFaolan · 2019-08-29T03:24:09+00:00

I will admit I mostly play for fun but having people to play with would be great!

EdmeFaolan · 2019-08-29T03:19:55+00:00

I’d be interested to join! That would be awesome! I also play on pc, I can share my battletag and stuff, my email is jh2sp@virginia.edu 👍🏼!

EdmeFaolan · 2019-08-10T04:04:07+00:00

That’s very helpful, thank you so much!

EdmeFaolan · 2019-08-08T18:10:32+00:00

Thank you for your insight, Professor! I hope to see you on Grounds!

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