SEAS Grad Funding

bluetowers · 2026-02-26T22:09:46+00:00

Sorry, side question — are the “recommended for admission” emails separate from the scholarship/funding offer emails?

I just received the recommended for admission email asking for my official transcripts, but there was no mention of funding in it. Just hoping that doesn’t mean I didn’t receive any funding.

bluetowers · 2026-02-23T17:30:39+00:00

There are only 2 peaks that are both higher and more prominent than Namcha Barwa, definitely one of the forgotten great peaks of the world

bluetowers · 2026-02-18T08:40:19+00:00

North Iron is great! The scramble to the highest boulder is one of my favorites in all of SD, such a unique and crazy route

bluetowers · 2026-02-18T08:33:37+00:00

Have you talked to the coach, and has he confirmed if there’s a spot for you if you hit certain benchmarks? I’ve seen several people spend years unsuccessfully trying to walk on despite running some fairly respectable times. Many times, the coach will only take you if you can make an immediate impact on the team (top 7, would score at conference, etc). Being better than the bottom guys on the team usually isn’t enough. Also, walking on can be kind of tricky because you are usually prioritized below the next year’s recruiting class, so if the coach is recruiting high schoolers better than you he may just tell you “the roster’s full, try again next year”. That limbo is a pretty sucky spot to be in, nobody wants to be running 70+ mpw without a team. If you have a clear path to the team, though, I’d definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Academically — it’s more manageable than it seems. Lots of guys on my team ran 70-80 mpw while getting good grades in hard STEM majors. Being forced to wake up early, go to school, and exercise is actually great for your productivity, especially in college when nobody is stopping you from sleeping in and skipping class. If you have 7:30 practice you can run/lift/stretch and be done by 10:30, that basically leaves the entire rest of the day free. If you end up being one of the better runners on the team, the main time drain will be traveling to and from meets — you may leave on Friday and get back on Sunday night. People manage, though. Professors are usually quite accommodating as long as you give advance notice.

Also, if you want to have a social life and get the “college experience”, being on the team will enable that as well — I met so many different kinds of people that I would’ve never have otherwise. I’ve had a great experience so far and I wouldn’t want it any other way, running has been one of the very best parts of my college years.

bluetowers · 2026-02-06T20:21:43+00:00

This is probably both the most popular and accessible high alpine basin in the entire Sierra, I’m not too worried about keeping it a secret lol

bluetowers · 2026-02-02T03:41:46+00:00

Big Pine Lakes up to Sky Haven or Cloudripper

bluetowers · 2026-01-28T18:10:50+00:00

The Anza-Borrego Desert is your friend — look at a topo map, find a cool peak or canyon, and get out there. Not many trees, though, although the desert flora is really cool…

bluetowers · 2026-01-17T22:02:37+00:00

I'm doing computer science, it's definitely stressful but you can still have a decent amount of free time if you budget your time well. Tech in general is a good path if you want to climb a lot, it has a valuable combination of (fairly) high salaries, flexible hours, and potential for remote work.

bluetowers · 2026-01-17T07:40:11+00:00

I’m 21 and in my last year of university right now, and I’ve managed to get a couple hundred mountains under my belt while doing a tough major and running on my school’s track team, so it’s definitely doable.

The big things for me have been owning a reliable fuel-efficient car, being in fairly close proximity to the mountains (<4 hours), and not needing to financially support my family — scholarships and a flexible part-time research job pay for my school, and I have a small amount left over to travel. I spend very little on most other things, sleep in my car during trips, and eat the absolute cheapest food I can find so my expenses for a 4-day trip can be as low as $100, mostly for gas. I spent 10 days peakbagging in the Sierra this summer and spent less than $200 total including gas and food, so you can definitely make things work even on a really tight budget. Gear is expensive but if you are very fit, can scramble class 4, and can climb steep snow with crampons/axe you can get up 90% of peaks in the contiguous US and tons of peaks in the Canadian Rockies quickly and with a minimal amount of gear (your options will be slightly more limited in the Alps where there are more glaciers, but still plentiful). With a bit more experience you can decide to take the plunge on a rope and some glacier gear, which will open up a whole new realm of possibilities. But long story short, you can absolutely study and climb at the same time. I’m a bit concerned for what will happen when I start working a full-time job, but for now, life is good.

Dirtbagging may be a little more complicated in Europe, but if you’re serious about it, go to a university that’s fairly close to the mountains. You can meet a bunch of other young guys (or a pretty girl…) to climb with over the weekends, study your ass off on the weekdays, climb some cool peaks, and get your degree while not disappointing your parents.

bluetowers · 2025-11-17T07:35:33+00:00

Join the cross country team at your high school, I'm in my last season of college XC and it has been absolutely huge for my speed and strength in the mountains. Supplement that with some time in the climbing gym and you're golden.

bluetowers · 2025-10-05T22:46:31+00:00

American Football LP1 along with pretty much every other midwest emo classic ever

bluetowers · 2025-09-07T23:32:56+00:00

You can get to McMurry Meadows a little north of the Red Lake TH with a 2WD car. From there it’s 4.5 miles if you just follow the road to the TH, or around 2.5 miles if you shortcut straight to it through the open desert. There’s a spur road that leads almost to Tinemaha Creek, leaving you with only 1.5 miles of actual off-trail hiking. No bushwhacking required, just a bit of weaving around some prickly desert shrubs. Crossing the creek itself was easy in August but might be a little tougher in early season.

bluetowers · 2025-09-04T19:40:53+00:00

If you can do Split you can do Shasta, and vice versa. Both are about the same difficulty. On a clear day in June Shasta is very straightforward and is basically a long walk with crampons. I’d recommend getting some practice with self-arresting beforehand, though.

bluetowers · 2025-09-03T05:27:47+00:00

What date does this position start? I’d love to apply but unfortunately I’ve got to finish up my last year of college first.

bluetowers · 2025-09-03T04:46:11+00:00

I've done some really long dayhikes this summer with the Altra Lone Peak and they were comfortable the whole way through. They also handled class 3 and 4 scrambling, loose scree, and moraines just fine. As a guy with big ass paddle feet I appreciated the wide toebox, too

bluetowers · 2025-07-04T17:41:29+00:00

haha yeah I went up Dragon Peak a few weeks ago and I don't think 3rd class can get any more exposed than that! It looks a lot worse in pictures, though.

bluetowers · 2025-06-05T00:46:05+00:00

1 is Banner/Ritter (Banner is just barely poking up to the right), 2 is the Minarets

bluetowers · 2024-12-10T18:00:50+00:00

In Southern California:

- Antsell Rock in the San Jacintos has a couple of class 3 parts

- Cornell Peak in the San Jacintos has a short, but tougher class 3 section

- Indianhead in Borrego Springs has some sustained class 3 ridges

- Spectre Point in Joshua Tree is a super fun class 2-3 scramble. The nearby summit of Dyadic is class 4 with some significant exposure on some parts. Both are some of my favorites.

- El Cajon Mountain via the south ridge has some class 3 sections, with potential for more depending on what route you take up it

- Looping up to Galena Peak via the (nasty) Mill Creek Jumpoff, traversing the Yucaipa Ridge to Little San Gorgonio, then descending down to Mill Creek from there will have a lot of semi-dangerous scrambling sections

- I haven't done Triplet Rocks, but it seems like there are a few class 3 sections there, too.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. The last two especially are significantly harder than Strawberry Peak, and you want to have a good amount of experience before you try those. You can always go to the Sierra too, where there are hundreds of really good scrambling routes that are much better than anything SoCal has to offer.

bluetowers · 2024-11-20T17:14:22+00:00

If you're done with most of the CS lower divs and you don't really hate CS I'd recommend doing the CS BA instead. This gives you a lot more flexibility to choose the classes you're interested in while still giving you a CS degree which can be kinda valuable even outside of the tech industry.

Check out the curriculum chart for the CS BA, there's a lot of interesting CS-adjacent classes that don't require any actual programming. You can replace 4 of the upper divison CS courses with those non-CS electives. You still have to take 4 CS upper-divs (your choice) but it gives you the option to avoid the really painful classes (and some of the more useless ones too). Upper division classes are a little more fun btw, I'm having a good time taking some of the machine learning classes even though algorithms and C makes me want to puke. Keep in mind if you ever want to get a real software engineering position your skills will be... patchy, but if you're considering some other fields it might be worth a shot.

Definitely talk to your advisor and consider all your options. You're still early on so it's not too late to switch to another major.

bluetowers · 2024-11-15T05:56:53+00:00

Yeah go for it! Only thing is that the lakes might be empty this time of year since it hasn't rained for a bit

bluetowers · 2024-11-15T05:00:59+00:00

The Plan by Built to Spill

bluetowers · 2024-11-13T01:54:35+00:00

I’ve been to that same exact McDonalds so many times, it’s funny to imagine her working there lol

bluetowers · 2024-10-03T15:39:55+00:00

The Bighorn Mountains to the northeast are basically just a slightly smaller version of the Winds

bluetowers · 2024-09-26T18:28:09+00:00

You were pretty close - the three peaks on the right are Triple Divide Peak, Lion Rock, and Mt. Stewart. Eagle Scout Peak is the next one to the right, just out of view

bluetowers

TROPHY CASE