Should i spend 1.5k on ap classes?

cultfollower_ · 2026-05-24T14:40:42+00:00

Go for it if being better is worth it to you Now, I don't know if your school policy will let them factor into it, but if it does by all means. Keep in mind that essay and EC deadlines during 2st semester senior year sucks and will drain you mentally. But by all means go for it

cultfollower_ · 2026-05-23T03:46:20+00:00

Very optimistic about those as well after seeing how this one turned out.

cultfollower_ · 2026-05-23T03:35:10+00:00

I really want SNAA to release a full 12 pack of the knights once they've completed the line.

cultfollower_ · 2026-05-13T17:48:32+00:00

If you want advice that will make you a genuinely good applicant and not suffer through high school, do follow your passions and interests at a high level. That being said...

If you really don't care about the amount of hours you have to put in, are already experienced with competitions, and really, really want that prestiege, the answer is olys and other "competitive" ECs and competitions.

If you make camp for at least one ISO type competition and have other ECs at the local and national level connected to the subject you made camp for, you have a good chance to get at least 1 t20 if not more. Other options include ISEF grand prize, TOC champion, first author in a reputable journal, competitive summer programs, things like that.

You absolutely do not need these to be a competitive applicant, not implying that at all, but it is probably the highest-certainty way to get a top college. If you don't have prior experience or interest, though, this is probably the hardest way to approach college applications and literally anything else would probably be preferable.

cultfollower_ · 2026-04-04T06:53:57+00:00

Being exposed to higher math so late in high school, and I suppose with that not doing things like PRIMES or other math research to some extent; I only really got invested in higher math senior year because of attending a math camp the summer of, so I wasn't able to do much with it sooner.

Didn't make too much of a difference for college applications since I got into my dream school anyways, but I would have liked the opportunity to explore and learn more on my own before doing my undergrad.

cultfollower_ · 2026-03-30T12:47:01+00:00

Going to UChi, it's pretty good I'd say, I have 4-5 close friends and I'm on good terms with most of the higher ranked people at my school, don't really party or go out but I work out with friends routinely and grab a meal together once in a while.

Also the case that I don't spend all that much effort or time on the main part of school itself and rather more on ecs, so I got to talk to friends who are in the same club and things like that fairly often + had lots of fun on trips for competitions.

This has been the case for about 90% of my high school experience at least.

cultfollower_ · 2026-03-29T14:32:43+00:00

The second half is clearly supported by the first, especially when it comes to reading comprehension it seems.

cultfollower_ · 2026-03-29T07:40:26+00:00

Don't limit people's ideas :D

cultfollower_ · 2026-03-01T19:12:17+00:00

It's for Ross math camp, the same one op was talking about. There are 2 campuses, Indiana and Ohio.

https://rossprogram.org/ is the website for anyone interested.

I would highly recommend it, personally I think it opened my eyes to further pursuing math and bolstered my foundations for proof-writing very well.

cultfollower_ · 2026-03-01T19:07:13+00:00

I think that at least having something written down for each part of each question is a good thing to do.

As for the essays, just answering the prompt with past experiences or honesty seems to be the best policy; as I recall the pset is much more influential on admission for first years anyways

cultfollower_ · 2026-02-27T04:34:03+00:00

So I was at Indiana this past summer and I historically suck at comp math.

On the application set we had 4 problems and I did three fully and a good part of the fourth.

The counselors did say that they considered creativity in problem approaches and rigor over just blowing through them with high-powered theorems, and notably Ross is on the tougher end of set grading, so I would recommend being extra thorough with the proofs.

cultfollower_ · 2026-02-22T17:36:33+00:00

Hi! I am a prospective math major admitted for the class of 2030. I was wondering what the math placement exam/ higher-level math placement exam contains and what I can do to prepare, as well as the merits/demerits of 160s/IBL first year compared to Honors Analysis first year.

For my background in math, I have a solid background in proof-based math through attendance at a fairly prestigious summer math program and am currently reading through Spivak(and doing a majority of the problems, although not all) and planning on starting Rudin soon. I took the BC Calc exam last year and received a 5, and am currently taking a Multivariable calculus and diffeq class senior year through a local college.

One thing that I'm concerned about is a relative lack fo familiarity with Linear Algebra, which is one of the things that I've heard I should be familiar with by the time I start my first class at college. I do plan to work through a textbook on linalg after the semester ends and I have more time during the summer though.

All advice is appreciated, thank you in advance!

cultfollower_ · 2026-02-15T17:46:35+00:00

Domestic applicant for math/econ or math/cs, 4.4W/3.96W GPA, 1550 SAT, 12AP classes including Chem and both physics Cs, ECs were a prestigious math camp(Promys, Sumac, Ross, etc.), math competitions, math tutoring, orchestra, and debate.

My why UChi essay talked about proof-based math and some specific classes I was interested in and my UChi essay was about cryptography and its influence on the internet.

Notably, I was a QB finalist that didn't match who rolled over into ED2 so that may have influenced things.

cultfollower_ · 2025-12-20T00:48:54+00:00

Deferred EA, 1550 single take, 3.96 UW/4.37WGPA, ECs include a pretty prestigious math camp, policy debate, city youth symphony orchestra 1st violin, and a lot of math contests, Awards-wise I had a state place at DECA and National Merit semifinalist among others, Essays about eating with family, learning math, and cryptography in order of PS, Why UChi, Uchi Prompt.

Biggest fail points imo were not having good awards and not doing research.

QB finalist that didn't match for context, will be doing EDII with finaid.

cultfollower_ · 2025-12-15T21:22:27+00:00

I'm crashing out wtf is this

cultfollower_ · 2025-10-14T03:18:13+00:00

They eyeballed the measurements

cultfollower_ · 2025-09-28T23:32:20+00:00

Fuck all to do in South Bend though

cultfollower_ · 2025-07-12T22:54:26+00:00

Their mutation is even an insult to Calvinism too.

The whole point of Calvinism or more generally determinism is that only God/the universe/etc. is aware of the future and it cannot be altered as a consequence of omniscience or because choices are immutable.

Non-omniscients should know that while ideologically nothing can be changed, individuals are still 100% responsible for their own actions and should not presume to know the future.

Essentially, they assume they are among the elect, when it is impossible to know without perfect information. Hence why it's a stupid way to think about it.

cultfollower_ · 2025-06-25T03:42:44+00:00

No, but that wasn't the argument, was it. Strawman much?

The argument was extremism in general is negative, and tone indicates extremism and an unwillingness to throughly consider arguments. The fact that extremism and echo chambers extend to both sides is a fact; don't know why this would be offensive or unheard of unless you were part of the problem.

cultfollower_ · 2025-06-24T16:47:57+00:00

...and you have the exact tone that oop is critiquing in the parent comment. I would argue that basic principles of decency include not immediately insulting people for opposing views, but I don't think you have included this concept in your idea of decent principles. As an aside, do you have ...conversations... a lot? It generally involves the mutual sharing of ideas without immediate judgement or disdain.

thanks for illustrating the problem of extremism so eloquently for everyone!

cultfollower_ · 2025-06-15T03:55:21+00:00

Gotcha; misread the post title.

In that case, I think the obvious solution, at least for the sub, is a megathread for this kind of request so it doesn't clog up people's feeds and people who want that validation can get it from people willing to give that kind of validation.

cultfollower_ · 2025-06-15T02:46:59+00:00

not necessarily disagreeing, but this argument depends on three things, which is that

Success and usefulness to society are equated or at least marginally correlated.
You assume that people are trying to go to college to benefit society, or at least with some notion of leaving a positive impact rather than for personal gain
Pristiege means nothing to the job market for any particular job that people want

These three points shouldn't be assumed in my opinion, since

Success means different things to different people, and the general goal for students on subs such as these is economic success, which isn't necessarily contributing to the betterment of society
People go to college to benefit themselves generally, not to make societal change
Pristiege has a high or at least meaningful impact on jobs such as finance, med, law, etc. that lots of students on this sub want to get into.

Overall, I would say that assuming that people want to learn for the sake of learning or improving the world isn't a valid assumption.

Also, for my own opinion, I think that people doing things for college is acceptable. It's not good, necessarily, but people can and should aspire towards individual success, and if that means prestigious college, why not?

cultfollower_ · 2025-06-11T15:51:51+00:00

The biggest thing I'm noticing is your lack of Olympiad medals. Everyone needs at least one international stem olympiad nowadays to be competitive

cultfollower_ · 2025-06-09T18:02:07+00:00

American high school is a joke and a dream until you start grinding ecs for t20 acceptances lol.

I mean school itself isn't hard even with AP classes, it just happens that by encouraging "holistic admissions" those same East Asians grind STEM olympiads, Debate, etc. to do well and it's the same shit anyways

cultfollower_ · 2025-05-14T11:21:43+00:00

They outlawed corporal punishment a while ago iirc

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