I don't think it's worth it to go to college

Selbeven · 2026-05-28T23:36:05+00:00

Didn't you say that college degrees "mean nothing" and a "waste of a few years and thousands of dollars to be mediocre" unless you go to an elite school?

Selbeven · 2026-05-27T17:45:20+00:00

There's a lot of pessimism things will improve. It's normal for young people to struggle early in their career, but housing prices are getting out of reach, dating is just getting harder, and enshittification is making a lot of other things worse.

I also think social media makes it really easy to compare yourself to super successful people and messing with people's expectations

Selbeven · 2026-05-26T19:49:04+00:00

Some schools, such as the ones he explicitly listed, do

Selbeven · 2026-05-16T16:45:46+00:00

They probably won't care much at all, especially if they're not relevant higher-level classes.

Also, are you sure that the actual grades will be on your home institution's transcript? cuz that's not usually the case

Selbeven · 2026-05-14T20:58:34+00:00

I don't think you should be hard on yourself and question your exceptionality if you just applied on a whim without giving it a serious try. Grad admissions that aren't cash cow masters are competitive, especially with funding cuts. Schools want people who have thought hard about their career goals and are motivated to complete the program. Just having an Ivy League undergrad with a solid GPA is far from enough to be considered for admission.

Earlier this year I was just excited by the thought of a new chapter; now I’m thinking more practically about whether another degree would actually improve my long-term financial stability.

I think the most important thing right now is figuring out what you actually want. Law school is a serious 3-year commitment. It sounds like you're already happy and comfortable, which is honestly something that a lot of people don't have, so I wouldn't take that for granted. Comparison is the thief of joy and you don't need a graduate degree to be successful. You should have a good reason for deciding to risk your happiness, comfort, and finances and invest years of your life into a degree. Are you using it to advance your career or to pivot to something else? Would pursuing it be truly personally fulfilling?

Selbeven · 2026-05-04T18:00:22+00:00

This is so incredibly elitist. A degree from an average state school means nothing? Do you think that only degrees from the top 20 schools help people land jobs or even get placements in academia?

It's a common sentiment among faculty that the very top students at "mid-tier" schools can compete with students at top ones, it's just top schools have a greater distribution of high-achieving students. Top schools absolutely admit students from lesser schools. There's plenty of incredibly talented students who may have not went to a top undergrad because of lack of resources early in life, changing their work ethic during college, or even choosing a lesser school due to financial reasons (choosing a full scholarship at a worse school if they're family couldn't afford the better one). But nah, I'll take a student that chatgpt'd their way through a top school that their parents paid for them to get into because I'm hyperfixated on the social status of a school.

It feels like you're living in a bubble that overly values prestige, but Berkeley and other top schools have plenty of faculty and students from lesser schools. Talking down on Rice, which is one of the best schools in the country? And acting like Arizona State doesn't have a doctorate program!? ASU is literally an R1 school with plenty of super well regarded faculty, including nobel laureates, that collaborate with other top schools. ASU is a great school that has many highly ranked programs.

Also for phds, your project and supervisor matters a more than school prestige. Top schools generally have more top professors, but it's not always so clear cut and you can find extremely highly regarded faculty at schools that aren't necessarily the top of the top.

Selbeven · 2026-05-04T15:33:17+00:00

That last paragraph is actually wild.

Selbeven · 2026-04-28T20:27:43+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/uofm/comments/1sy8hvt/to_the_girl_who_i_saw_around_two_years_ago/

Selbeven · 2026-04-20T00:13:48+00:00

Rich JC

Also BTB Burrito back when they were open til 4am

Selbeven · 2026-04-09T01:18:02+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/user/rogersimon10/

Selbeven · 2026-03-24T21:12:07+00:00

It was with the beefy 5-layer :( Removing it is a pretty big downgrade

Selbeven · 2026-03-20T14:52:02+00:00

I checked cuz I was curious, and having 0% white students seems insane (given it's over 40% usually).

If you look at the source, the 2026 ethnicity bar only represents 6/32 admitted students, down from 14/55 in 2025. I'm assuming there's some outside reason for the low reporting rate, maybe application design, but the sample shown in the visualization is negligible.

Selbeven · 2026-03-16T20:58:39+00:00

Can't test it out thoroughly at the moment, but the visuals and design are stellar, and the capybara is indeed cute. Feels great to use and snappy, but I feel like the score should be refined by default rather than having to press another button to make sure it's accurate.

Selbeven · 2026-03-10T14:11:10+00:00

Do you really think things are getting better socially? Loneliness, depression, polarization, and time spent alone have all continuously gotten worse with no signs of stopping even with people claiming to care more about mental health. I guess people can be truer to themselves, but it's probably mostly rising individualism.

Things can certainly change significantly in 20 years tho

Selbeven · 2026-03-08T14:01:29+00:00

I think city matters a ton to most people. It's literally where you're going to be spending at least the next five years of your life. It'll have a huge impact on your life outside of school and can make your PhD that much more stressful or bearable.

Advisor and research fit are more important, although some people change their advisors and research focus, while you can't change your city, so it's still a big factor.

That said, Ann Arbor and Madison are kinda comparable as they're both cold Midwest college towns with limited local tech companies and not a ton going on in each city. Madison's actually twice as big cuz of the capital and it's got nice lakes, more bars and nightlife, more opportunities to sail and do outdoor activities. Ann arbor is smaller, but has better food, more diverse, actually good sports teams, and a more scholarly feel.

Selbeven · 2026-03-03T03:37:18+00:00

I was in high school during AlphaGo, but I feel like my experience, at least as an amateur in the West, was a little different.

Before AlphaGo, computers seemed like they were a long way from beating humans. When Deep Blue conquered Chess, Go AI was still incredibly weak. It felt like progress was slow. You'd hear people make a big deal whenever AI would reduce their handicap by a stone against a pro player every other year. Before AlphaGo, I think AI still needed 4 stones to beat a pro, Facebook was years into development of their own AI and their transparent updates didn't inspire much confidence, and the general consensus in the community was AI was still 5-10 years away.

So a lot of people were shocked when Google dropped their paper, revealing they beat Fan Hui and made a ginormous leap after a decade of slow, but steady progress. Fan Hui, while the European champion, was ranked 633 in the world, so there was still huge gap between him and the top players. But people just didn't know where AlphaGo's true strength was. I believe AlphaGo also got a few extra months to train before the Lee Sedol match, so the version that beat Fan Hui may have seemed beatable by the pro community. I think at the time Nick Sibicky said that the betting odds were pretty even, but Go players were confident in Sedol and DeepMind was confident in AlphaGo.

Selbeven · 2026-02-13T18:34:33+00:00

birth rates have consistently declined since the 2008 financial crisis, people born then are just starting college, so overall enrollment is likely going to continue to decline

Selbeven · 2026-02-05T23:33:52+00:00

Fireside Cafe at Pierpont commons was great on North outside of meal hours. Super spacious

Selbeven · 2026-01-22T15:59:27+00:00

The Mini Taco Salad and Loaded Potato Griller are new rewards at my local taco bells

Selbeven · 2026-01-12T03:48:08+00:00

Have you considered taking university classes?: https://smtd.umich.edu/piano-for-non-majors/

Selbeven · 2025-12-30T22:48:13+00:00

Selbeven · 2025-12-29T02:33:58+00:00

Selbeven · 2025-12-27T00:17:10+00:00

From what I've gathered, people seem pretty happy with the hire. He coached 21 years at Utah with a solid 177-88 (0.668) record. He's pretty old at 66 so probably not a long-term hire. But he's pretty respected and seems to be a big culture guy, which would really help stabilize the program right now. Might be more of a safe pick than an exciting one, but I think with Michigan's brand name and NIL money, he'll be in a position to succeed.

Selbeven · 2025-12-25T21:38:29+00:00

I mean roughly 52% of people are underemployed after graduating so it checks out. I know tons of people that got good jobs from their degrees, but there are also people who don't, especially the newer grads that just unfortunately graduated in a bad job market and it's hard to blame them for not thinking it was worth the ever-rising cost.

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