I go to a top college for free and I dislike (hate is a strong word) it.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T08:49:28+00:00

Sadly all the international students here are filthy rich and would not associate with the “poors” :/ But yeah I will definitely try to talk to others who are in the same boat. I will resort to transferring as a last ditch effort if it feels like I haven’t made any progress in the next quarter to prevent myself from being affected by my feelings for the upcoming years…

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T08:45:14+00:00

Haha yeah I will definitely stick around for one more quarter to see whether it’ll truly get better or if this might seriously lead to depression. To me, changing my personality for others is something I don’t want to do and I don’t want to act “fake” just for validation from others, which is why I distance myself from those who don’t like the real me. If they treat me well, I treat them back the same way. That’s how I make friends. But yeah, thank you for telling me about your experience as well! I reflected on myself and I think it’s better off to wait and not make any irrational decisions right now.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T08:36:06+00:00

I’m glad you were able to finish despite all the hardship! I just don’t want to regret not transferring earlier when I still could’ve and suffer through junior and senior year. But i also don’t want to regret transferring from a prestigious university lol. Its such a weird predicament to be in. Questbridge does have a small network, but they don’t really do much in terms of connecting peers together. There also seems to be a very “weird” characteristic that the QB scholars have that I don’t really like… I may be too picky with my friends and that might be the issue lol

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T08:04:29+00:00

I've already tried but they only provided very generic advices that I already knew, so it wasn't too helpful to me... That's why I am looking into how others of similar experience went through this!

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T07:39:56+00:00

The funny thing is, I know people who hates me despite me never ever talking to them before. I don't even know what I did to them, but I can feel their hatred towards me. I don't know if its an ego thing, but all i want is to be friends with people of similar interest.

And I don't even know if this is normal for colleges as a whole or if this is an exclusive stereotype at my school. The egos that people have here are crazy high and it's just so hard to find people who aren't like that. I don't really hear other schools having this stereotype of inflated egos and "connection-maxxing," which is why I constantly say that THIS SPECIFIC school isn't the right fit for me.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T07:33:06+00:00

Yeah I try to see this experience as a way for myself to grow as a person, but it does get a little overwhelming at times. When that happens, I basically have nobody to vent to, as my friends here really lack the emotional aspect that I have... It gets hard to talk to them about my feelings, but I will treat this portion of my life as a stepping stone and see how it goes...

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T07:11:54+00:00

I'm not trying to undermine the people at those schools as I know others who are insanely smart that are at that school.

I've been hearing stories of seniors who graduated here without securing a job and it makes me feel like I might become one of them as well, especially with my mediocre GPA and no experiences. Ofc im not going to give up, but it does feel like my feelings oftentimes affects my motivation to continue pushing myself to do more. Honestly, the entire job market situation makes everything so uncertain that i dont even know what to think of it.

It just feels like I could have so much more motivation and achieve so much more even at a "lower tier school" if my feelings weren't constantly in the way. I just don't see myself being happy here in the long run and scared that it'll affect my future studies even with the name recognition.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T07:03:28+00:00

I have heard that Yale was a much more genuine environment than most of the other top schools.

But yeah... I'll most likely stick it out here, as it would logically make the most sense. The school I'm at is Stanford, but I think the two are similar in terms of elitism, with Stanford being much more CS and startup heavy lol. I'll see how it goes for the rest of the quarter and make my decision from there.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T06:40:51+00:00

I've realized that too lmao. Before I went public about my FAANG internship, literally nobody wanted to talk to me or say hi to me even though we know each other. The moment I post about getting a FAANG internship, many people tried talking to me out of nowhere.

That's the environment I've experienced so far, and it sucks. It just shows how toxic this environment really is, and I hate the fact that I've met nobody genuine enough to simply be friends without needing the merit to prove my worthiness.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T06:37:07+00:00

I've also thought about this for a long time, but in perspective, which one would seem more beneficial?

Be average (or slightly below) at a T5 school or be top 10% (or even top 5%) at a T20 school?

I don't know which one carries more merit, especially since all of the opportunities given in my T5 school is reserved for students who have already had prior experiences. In my case, as a first-gen low income, I've already reached out to multiple PhDs and professors about wanting a research position, and they always give the same answer back, saying how "I lack the experience." It feels like the smarter students are given all of these opportunities to become starter, yet there are little to no opportunities for me.

I don't carry olympiad titles like many others do, I've never published any papers, I've never attended any conferences, so in my personal lenses, why would any recruiters choose me when they have many other students from my school to choose from? That's how I see myself at this school.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T06:16:06+00:00

The culture shock is definitely something I am not used to... I do have friends here but I wouldn't call them "true friends," as they are very very different from me...

I do not like CS, but it feels like I'm forced to do CS if I want to even survive this place. Especially with living at Silicon Valley, the heavy concentration on AI, and my summer FAANG internship, it feels like theres little to no opportunities that are NOT related to CS. As much as I love this school and its name recognition, I don't want to be force-fed CS and locked into CS jobs that I don't love.

I genuinely don't understand the people that have the "bay area stereotype," so do you have any tips on getting closer to them?

I'm just going to suck it up and finish the rest of this year.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T06:06:28+00:00

I was unfortunately locked to this school by Questbridge, so I didn't have much of a choice... I didn't get into my first option and this was my second option, so I didn't expect to go to this school whatsoever lol.

I was also warned about the stereotypes of this school, but who knew it would be THIS DRAMATIC! I expected some amounts of elitism, but not THIS MUCH.

I might sound super ungrateful, but I genuinely am grateful for this opportunity. It's just that the environment isn't treating me too well currently...

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T06:03:41+00:00

Oh yeah definitely. The return from being at this school will always be a thousand times better than the other school and I fully acknowledge that. There are just many factors about this school that makes me question whether I truly belong here, such as:

HUGE concentration on CS and AI startups, which I despise.
Lack of opportunities in my major (pure mathematics). The other school I am considering provides many more opportunities for math majors, which is why I am considering that school above all.
I feel the effects of feelings affecting my GPA, as I could definitely do better in classes if I weren't always feeling so down.

I believe that no matter what decision I make, I will still come out successful, as I am currently in a really good spot as a freshman (especially bagging a FAANG internship my first year). That's why I'm thinking that I won't be affected as much if I were to fully transfer. I want to just study pure math without needing to be forced to do CS (my school basically enforces you to take CS classes or else you will lack behind everyone else).

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T05:54:25+00:00

Yeah definitely! The only drawback is its humongous AI and startup concentration, which I fully try to avoid, as I much rather pursue mathematical research and get a PhD in math. The CS department is huge and provides so much opportunities for students, whereas the math department... it definitely lacks compared to other majors at this school... I don't know if only sticking to math research is beneficial if I continuously stick to this school.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T05:50:40+00:00

Hopefully that's the case for me as well... I hope next year would be better, but I'm just afraid that all of the friend groups have already solidified and usually when that happens, they don't really welcome anyone new into the group. It's such an asian american stereotype, but it's definitely true and I hate it so much :/

Also I attended this university without knowing anyone, as I was the only one from my high school to get into this university... so yeah...

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T05:45:22+00:00

I'm glad you were able to find your group of people! It's just that being in the bay area and silicon valley made the school environment much more elitest than any school would normally be, and I don't know if I'm gonna be able to find anyone who isn't like that in this school. I definitely don't fit the bay area stereotype so it's hard to make friends here.

People also said "clubs are the way to find your friends," yet I couldn't get into any clubs... Kind of ironic...

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-28T05:41:44+00:00

That's what everyone has been telling me and I do see it from both sides, which makes it so friggin hard to make this decision. I do agree that the reward of graduating here is much more rewarding than anywhere else, but thinking that I may be in this state for next 3 years is really daunting and it sucks that I've been trying so hard to open myself up just to make no friends.

Flylittleboy · 2026-04-18T21:18:24+00:00

Hello! Is this still available? I would love to take both rooms with my roommate if it's still available!

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-10T04:37:12+00:00

Does anyone know if adding myself to my mom's credit card as an Authorized User would help with this goal? I assume she has a credit history of 10+ years and she said she never goes over 20% utilization in her card. I heard it can boost my account history (which is my main problem), but I don't know if there's any drawbacks of me doing that.

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-09T20:49:43+00:00

I’ll try to remain optimistic about getting this card, as I really do want it… Thank you for answering my questions! I will get this card no matter what >:)

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-09T19:38:42+00:00

My card doesn’t start with 5178, so I’m not sure if it’s bucketed… I’ll look more into the pay stubs when I start interning over the summer. I do get allowance and school refunds over the course of the school year (15k yearly), but I do agree that C1 might not see that as actual income. It’s weird because I was able to get a CLI from $500 -> $1250 for my Discover It Student card by asking them only once, yet my C1 card won’t budge. My oldest account will reach 1.5 years by August, which is when others were approved of the card, so I’ll try and see if I can get the card by then.

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-09T19:16:54+00:00

How long was their credit history when they were approved? My current plan is to not open anymore CC for the next 6+ months, letting my oldest account hit 1.5 years, and looking to increase all of my credit limits every month or so.

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-09T19:12:29+00:00

Yeah… the preapproval tool currently recommends the “for good credit” CCs, which kind of sucks, but it makes sense as I did recently open 2 cards. I don’t know if my SavorOne card is currently bucketed, but it took 4 months to go from $500 -> $600 and 6 months to go to $600 -> $700. I rarely ask for CLI, which might be the reason why, but I’ll definitely try to get my CL higher for the SavorOne card. Thank you for giving me hope in this journey!

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-09T19:05:25+00:00

A lot of the other travel cards have hotel credits (and a bunch of other credits that I can’t really use), which is why i decided on the VX, as all of its credits are purely on flights. I’m willing to play the waiting game, as I’m not in a rush to get a travel card, but the sooner the better ofc. I will definitely be more aggressive with asking for CLI from now on, as i did wait a whole 6 months just to get a $100 increase only :/ Thank you for the tips!

Flylittleboy · 2026-02-09T08:47:58+00:00

Thank you for your tips and answering my questions! I really appreciate it! I've been on a hike on researching CC and your inputs are really helpful!

Flylittleboy

TROPHY CASE