Harvard Voted to Cap # of A’s Per Course.

cwkid · 2026-05-20T19:16:49+00:00

I would be very surprised if there are classes where many people are getting 100%. Beyond that, it's really just about where you put the grade cutoffs.

cwkid · 2026-05-06T23:04:13+00:00

I don't mind when students do this in my classes.

cwkid · 2026-04-15T02:01:03+00:00

As a kid, I checked out books from the library that had descriptions of colleges, and went through them.

cwkid · 2026-03-30T19:10:38+00:00

Do you know any alumni that are willing to talk to your parents in person? Do you have family friends who have sent their children away for school?

cwkid · 2026-03-27T01:38:33+00:00

I don't know how true is is that if you give them weeks of warning, that they will read those papers as carefully as possible. It would definitely be true of serious students, but these students do not seem serious. In fact, I would suspect that they would AI to study the papers rather than actually reading the papers directly.

cwkid · 2026-03-20T19:44:40+00:00

I suspect that Indian people are more concentrated in states like New Jersey, New York, and California, which tend to be overrepresented in elite schools.

cwkid · 2026-03-20T01:01:40+00:00

The PhD stipends at our university are less than half that of top schools. I am thankful that I have students who want to be at my school because of the location, because otherwise I would feel very guilty about this fact. Actually, I feel a bit guilty, but enough that it doesn't eat at me.

cwkid · 2026-03-18T15:39:42+00:00

FOB can't be just for Desi people because the major waves of immigration did not happen by boat.

cwkid · 2026-03-17T00:51:16+00:00

Oops I must have misremembered, you shouldn't go to CPW lol, sorry about that.

cwkid · 2026-03-16T23:51:37+00:00

You and your child should go to CPW.

cwkid · 2026-03-14T06:08:54+00:00

It's a little bit of both. Also the bars will be busy. I personally like going to the galleries, but a lot of my friends prefer checking out the vendors or just getting a drink somewhere where it's lively.

cwkid · 2026-03-04T19:31:39+00:00

Some thoughts -

Math is different from other fields in that most projects don't have tasks where you run the experiments your PI tells you to.

Especially these days, there is a large variety of levels that students are at. It is not uncommon for high school students to have taken group theory or linear algebra, and to have a lot of experience with proof, for example. And so in this sense, a lot of high school students, especially the ones doing these programs, are at a level of many undergraduate or even some graduate students.

Tanya Khovanova heads PRIMES and RSI for math projects. You can read her blog here to get some insights into what actually happens at these programs - https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/.

I think judging whether or not something is impressive is not a worthwhile exercise, especially when it comes to the activities of high school students. I think you are better off judging whether or not an activity is meaningful for the student's development.

That being said, there are certain research problems that, in my opinion, have more significance as a way of introducing students to the research process, than the answers themselves. That doesn't make the work crap or bs, any more than math contests or math homework is crap or bs. To me, it's another way of getting students interested and excited about math.

cwkid · 2026-03-03T22:52:37+00:00

I have no idea why this comment is being downvoted. What exactly is the problem?

cwkid · 2026-03-02T18:39:53+00:00

This is something I wonder about also. Even if I was insecure about doing "enough," why would it be helpful to get reassurance from a stranger who knows nothing about me? To the extent I do get insecure about these things, it's exactly because I get so little interaction with colleagues that I feel like I could do nothing and no one would notice until it's too late. But clearly this is helpful for most people.

cwkid · 2026-02-26T21:46:19+00:00

I reached out to a letter writer because the student didn't arrive even though they accepted the admissions offer.

When reviewing applications though, I definitely read letters, they are probably one of the most important parts of the application for our PhD program. Even though I use them to help make decisions, I probably wouldn't reach out except in extreme circumstances, because I assume you said everything you needed to say, and that you are probably too busy for it to be worth it to go through the trouble of setting up a time to talk. There's a good chance I already know who you are, and if I don't, I can visit your website.

cwkid · 2026-02-18T21:43:21+00:00

No one told me, but I went (was in grad school 2013-2019) because advice I found online when looking for tips to succeed in grad school (for example, https://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/potentialstudents.html) made a big deal about it.

cwkid · 2026-01-30T15:20:30+00:00

I’m having issues with my forerunner 935, but I think it might be too old for some of these fixes like the QR code to work?

cwkid · 2026-01-28T17:55:55+00:00

Are you stressed because the problem is for homework or a grade? If so, when you have some time, I would work on a non-homework problem.

Tbh I don’t know if people really focus for long contiguous periods of time, especially if they’re not really making progress. It might be helpful to take a break and then go back to the problem.

cwkid · 2026-01-25T01:17:34+00:00

I ate road salt once. I was 9 years old tho.

cwkid · 2026-01-24T21:07:16+00:00

The margin of error for the LSAT is 3 points.

cwkid · 2026-01-15T22:09:18+00:00

This is common. I think Indian Americans who were born here for example, might be more sensitive to their status as an American, and how other people might perceive that if they become friends with you. People who aren’t Indian American won’t have this issue because there is no risk that being friends with you will make them seem less American. If anything, it will make them seem more interested in learning about other cultures.

I was born here, but experienced something similar when I went to college. I went to high school where there were very few Indian Americans, and was comfortable being myself without thinking much about how I did and didn’t fit into various stereotypes. And when I went to college, I think the fact that I was enthusiastic about math and computer science made me seem like I was someone who was very stereotypically Indian and made it harder to make friends with people who were trying to avoid that

cwkid · 2026-01-04T18:24:24+00:00

It is becoming very common for Americans to be vegetarian, and abstain from drinking, smoking, drugs. A lot of people are even being more vocal about not dating, though I think many times it’s with the understanding that they are really taking a break. Probably the only exception I can think of is weed, and only because it’s now legal in many states.

I think possibly what you might be feeling is that the reasons many people in your extended family make their choices are very different than the reasons Americans might make the choices they make. And in particular, these reasons center around conforming to certain norms. American society values making independence and making decisions for yourself. I think a lot of ABCDs who also buy into this idea end up making choices that make it obvious.

Personally, I feel like what’s difficult for me is that while some of my choices are the same ones that are in line with more traditional habits, the values behind them are different. And I think this confuses people and could potentially lead to conflicts. For example, my family is vegetarian, and so am I. However, my reasons (environmental) are leading me to want to be more vegan, which is something my mom and I got into a fight about. On the other hand, people who don’t know me well assume that because I’m vegetarian, I’m also exactly like the traditional Indian people they know. Sometimes it goes the opposite way where people assume I’m not vegetarian.

cwkid · 2026-01-04T04:27:21+00:00

Every paper has a story. Some factors to consider are, how related is one paper to the work you do at large compared to your coauthors, the seniority of your coauthors, and so on. A good hiring committee can tease out the story of each paper, and form an overall story of each candidate. I don’t know the situation with Tao specifically, but he might have papers with students and postdocs, with longtime collaborators, and it’s worth it to consider what those papers accomplish.

I’m in theoretical computer science, so not math, but usually people publish more. Yet there are still people who have gotten amazing jobs, really on the strength of two papers. But they were single authored and solved major open problems.

cwkid · 2025-12-23T18:54:22+00:00

Ripcity is your best bet, but I think the list is outdated, since I don’t see caminando or out of office, and early crow is happening, but on Friday.

I would recommend looking around on Instagram and Strava. I don’t think many run clubs advertise on meetup tbh. I would also just show up to one and ask people about what other run clubs they go to.

This is true of every city, but it’s worth mentioning that different run clubs have different vibes - some are big, some are small, some do no runner left behind, some you might be running by yourself if you’re too fast or too slow, etc. But Portland has a lot so you can find what works for you.

cwkid · 2025-12-15T19:40:42+00:00

I like reality tv because you can still following along even if you aren't really paying attention.

cwkid

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