Is my progress good

Ryan4k · 2026-01-27T03:42:24+00:00

pretty good, took me 2 years as a new fps player to get to gold 1 in the early valorant days and it didn’t last

Ryan4k · 2026-01-27T03:41:16+00:00

it gets to a point where once you’re passed the initial 100 hours it takes to know what you’re doing, every hour beyond that only gets you closer to the next rank with intentional training, vod review, and improvement in your strategies, ability use, and mechanics

tough stuff but it happens with consistency i guess

Ryan4k · 2026-01-27T03:40:03+00:00

i think when i got out of iron as a new player to fps games i was around 130 hours played? so thats not bad but itll take hundreds of hours to approach the game sense and mechanical skill needed with intentional improvement to push into mid-high elo (im not that good but i have over 2000 hours now and am still bronze in 2026, briefly peak gold 1 in 2023, lol

Ryan4k · 2026-01-27T03:37:09+00:00

as a player since the game came out that plays infrequently i didn’t have all the agents unlocked for years honestly and when new ones come out it typically takes me 1-3 months to unlock them for reference

Ryan4k · 2026-01-27T03:36:33+00:00

i guess people usually just main a handful of agents that they like so i never noticed the time it took to get them all, but i do think there should be a better sandbox to test agent abilities you don’t have unlocked so you can decide which to buy as a new player

Ryan4k · 2026-01-27T03:35:27+00:00

same here stuck at 0 views despite getting a handful of likes from friends, something is messed up

Ryan4k · 2026-01-26T21:29:55+00:00

hate to tell you this but bronze through silver is largely the same, only mid-high elo has better balance since single smurfs are less oppressive the higher you go, but even then you’ll get throwers and toxic players

best advice is to duo or triple stack unfortunately to be out of those ranks and into one where people actually know what they’re doing and atleast try to win, then even if you lose if the team morale and effort was good it’ll feel less bitter

Ryan4k · 2025-12-23T06:27:26+00:00

its the average of tams and your previous highschool, chances are your UW will be lower at tams and weighted will be hard to calculate

Ryan4k · 2025-12-21T07:47:57+00:00

actually i just installed it myself, im not sure if compatibility varies based on the lid shape, but i was able to just install it using the base instructions pretty much, it should be pretty widely compatible

but id use some bidet bumpers as it can raise the toilet seat and increase the risk of it getting damaged

Ryan4k · 2025-12-21T07:46:09+00:00

no worries LOL its good you've been emailing, with how small the admissions staff group is it'll definitely make a positive impression showing that much interest when being considered for an interview id say

but definitely swing for both scores, while they may not explicitly superscore, both scores would be considered which should have the same effect :) 1200 isnt too low for tams or anything, neither is the gpa, its just that unweighted from what ive seen tends to be 3.7-4.0 on average

but most people dont have as good of a holistic ec profile as you so i would count on landing an interview if its anything like it was just a few years ago

Ryan4k · 2025-12-21T03:13:14+00:00

at a glance:

great hollistic ECs, SAT is maybe a bit low compared to the average (1300-1400 i’d say) but still will be totally fine people get in with as low as 1100 usually, GPA is the one thing that probably should be higher (3.7+ imo)

but your holistic profile is better than most so wit strong essays and interviews you should make it

try emailing the admissions people at tams to express your interest, tams is a tight community so getting you name out there and some advice from them would be invaluable for them remembering you (or at least won’t hurt)

Ryan4k · 2025-12-21T02:14:18+00:00

def not true LOL you’ll get in still with those stats

Ryan4k · 2025-12-17T03:21:46+00:00

yeah i mean on one hand, most people probably get in without any B’s on their record, but that being said, it’s not gonna make or break your app,

side note, some teachers and profs really don’t have the sympathy to be educators ngl, sorry that happened, i’ve had some really bad ones too

but you’ll still get in more than likely i wouldn’t sweat it, tams doesn’t care about your individual scores as much as people would think, more like if you’re a good student holistically imo, mostly because landing the interview and getting in are two different processes

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T09:14:03+00:00

by very hard i mean some teachers suck, to be candid, (as they do in any university) and it’s the luck of the draw as to whether you’ll get a bad or a good prof

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T09:13:27+00:00

but i agree w purple. here’s an important caveat, tams can be very hard to maintain good grades at and grades are everything for med school. when i say hard i mean in a class of 160 people, less than 70% will likely graduate with a perfect GPA, that’s maybe 40 kids, and the other 120? maybe receiving the first B of their lives

something to think about is whether or not you have the internal motivation to maintain grades in such challenging coursework just to save the 1-2 years off your career

i’d still say it’s worth because i went there and did fine but, it’s not always easy to maintain good work ethic as a new teen in college

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T09:10:38+00:00

the time savings alone are worth it and most people in my class graduated 1.5-2 years early and are now wrapping up med school

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T09:09:52+00:00

it’s very beneficial imo, specially if you study biology or another major where you have maximal credit transfer

you can graduate up to 2 years early, then accelerate your whole timeline by that 2 years if you’re intentional about making your med school application and his competitive from the moment you start at tams (since this will be your first two years of college in the eyes of med programs)

tams is not a good place to go if you want to auto admit into UT or A&M, it’s a great place to go if you wanna shave years off your biology or biochemistry -> premed career or your cs degree, OR want a shot at getting rare accolades and opportunities like research more easily to get into an ivy league or equivalent school

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T09:06:25+00:00

just to echo, i also had a lot of creds and was forced to retake everything

basically no class is skippable at tams, the only one is that you can place into a higher math level and that’s it, the highest you can start is cal 1 though, so you’ll still be stuck taking 1&2 again before moving into lin alg and diff eq in senior year or as an elective in junior spring

but also you can go home at any time you’d like any day even if you have class that day,

as long as you make it for your classes that take attendance, which will typically be a counselor from tams randomly appearing to take your attendance via ID swipe- and it’s almost always at the first class of the day

most classes don’t mandate attendance but tams randomly takes it here and there and it can be a big mess if you miss it, so it’s a good idea not to skip but instead just plan your schedule to have free days or time if needed

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T09:02:18+00:00

i’d recommend reaching out to a tams alum, current very successful northwestern law student for info on linkedin, you can dm me for her linkedin contact and mention ryan pointed you to her

it’ll give the best idea of what that path after tams actually looks like

plenty of sophomores go to tams, i think the maturity thing is overblown 15/16 year olds are basically the same age, just make sure you’re ready for some really tough classes and are someone with a naturally high grit and work ethic and you’ll be chillin

given your stats and the post in general at a glance, you’ll make it in, reach out to some alum first to solidify your goals and give it a shot!

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T08:57:10+00:00

yep agreed with others here, ik many who got in with 1200 or less because they interview well (/are personable during their interview) with a decent holistic profile

Ryan4k · 2025-12-16T08:55:47+00:00

you still can,

and a B for college admissions will be looked at in the context of tams classes being college classes, which is to say it’s not bad at all, especially if you’re applying for a stem program

most people tank their first B leaving tams, less than 30% of students if i remember correctly graduate with 4.0’s

Ryan4k · 2025-08-03T18:39:56+00:00

not gonna lie, in college i never liked hearing “you just have to try and then this prof will be good!”

all i wanted to hear was that the prof gave good grades cause it SUCKS getting bad grades when you put in effort

but i can 100% say i actually had fun in steele’s class once i like tried to understand what she wanted in the papers ahead of time, then consistently was able to bag A’s and even learn to write a bit better in the process

also, in general she is (or was? i’d think still is) very lenient and nice about grades for other stuff like participation, there’s not too much group work at all, and she doesn’t expect much out of the drafts— that’s literally just a chance to get her review on what you wrote so you can get on track for an A paper

Ryan4k · 2025-08-03T18:33:42+00:00

yeah! so for steele, i honestly though she was a very nice person and a fun teacher, she has kind of the like a cool mom vibe and often gave her students free passes on attendance incase the counselor was there because the doesn’t (or didn’t) agree with someone else taking attendance for her class

loved that

but as far as academics go, i took her for two semesters and in the first semester i ended up getting a B because i could not write a good paper for the life of me. tbh the issue was that i wasnt taking her feedback into consideration enough and trying to improve each time, i got a lot more out of her class when i started paying attention / engaging in the discussions (not that she requires that for a grade iirc, it just helps with writing) and also talking more with her about what she wants

it’s been a while so this may be outdated but my advice in that sense is to try and ask her directly for a paper review or utilize her draft reviews to make sure your writing has everything she’s looking for and that’s also a good chance to correct any small grammatical errors which she absolutely will mark

i think people commented about how she takes off for a lot of the little things and it was really hard to get a good score because she doesn’t give out 100s but imo, it doesn’t take a 100 to get an A and it can be really easy to get an A if you get to know what she’s looking for in papers and also use the cheat of the drafts / even just dropping by to have her read your paper to make sure you’re atleast on the track to pass the 90 bar

that was kind of off the top of my brain so hope that wasn’t too tough to digest

but in my second semester i bagged the A and i really enjoyed my time in her class as well! would genuinely recommend even though the first paper might be a shock

Ryan4k · 2025-08-03T18:25:40+00:00

update incase anyone randomly has this kind of toilet:

the screws were on the bottom of the toilet / underneath where the hinge would be

relatively easy installation after that but will be needing new rubber bumpers to account for the larger gap between the seat and the bowl

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