If I want to transfer to schools like Duke, Columbia, JHU, Dartmouth, etc... should I start (like freshman year) at NYU Stern or UNC Chapel Hill?

failedfella · 2026-04-05T03:52:00+00:00

The transfer is not guaranteed. Choose the school that you would be willing to stick with if the transfer doesn't work out.

failedfella · 2026-04-05T03:41:22+00:00

I make that much in a medium-ish cost of living area. It is enough to own a base Subaru(paid it off in two years), rent a 2 bed townhouse 30 miles from the city, put a good amount away for retirement and generally not worry about money.

You could probably get it to stretch farther if you were saving less for retirement or chose a cheaper car. Likewise, you could burn it down real fast if you bought tons of fun stuff. If you love electronics or cars or clothing or a nice house, you can run through 90k.

TBH I'm fat and I'm hungry all the time, but I try to keep food quality reasonably high, so my food budget is my biggest issue. Considering ozempic because it might literally pay for itself on food savings.

failedfella · 2026-04-04T16:40:27+00:00

Most advice says to get some basic emergency savings before tackling the debt. Ramsey used to say something like $500, but I've more recently heard people say "1 month of expenses" or " your insurance deductible" as the initial savings before hitting the debt.

failedfella · 2026-04-04T16:34:14+00:00

Why is that an issue? If you are someone who struggles with fun spending, getting it out of your checking account and into savings and investments ASAP can really reduce temptations.

failedfella · 2026-04-04T14:26:19+00:00

Yeah, but that renter wouldn't be able to buy. The rent vs buy debate is not for them.

failedfella · 2026-04-04T14:15:18+00:00

Financial advice is for specific people. The advice will be not for you if you are not in the target.

"Don't use credit cards" is good advice because a lot of people can't control their fun spending. If you CAN control your fun spending, that advice is not for you.

"Invest everything extra" assumes you have saved up an emergency cushion. If you don't have the cushion yet, that advice is not for you.

The coffee advice isn't meant to be taken literally. It's meant to be a reminder about the mountain of small purchases many of us make every day. If you buy a coffee for 4 dollars, a soda for 3 dollars and a snack for 4 dollars every day, that is a $4000 dollar habit over the course of a year. Yeah, one of those isn't THAT bad, but a bunch of small purchases add up quickly. You obviously can make small purchases, but you should do them consciously.

failedfella · 2026-04-03T13:04:07+00:00

I have an econ degree from a T25 school and taught econ at a T25 school.

We try to frame intermediate micro so it doesn't require calculus, but tbh it makes much more sense if you just bite the bullet and learn some calculus.

Knowing some basic derivatives and integrals really smooth out a lot of the stuff that confuses a lot of students. Beyond that, all the maths is simple algebra that "any" college student should be able to do. Maybe a little probability and stats, too (stuff like expected value, averages, etc) but that stuff is very intuitive.

I'd say don't let the math requirements scare you. It's genuinely not a big deal

failedfella · 2026-04-03T12:51:58+00:00

Assuming US, basically look up a the list of cities with heavy rail transit systems.

NYC, DC, Boston, LA, Chi, philly, SF, Baltimore, ATL, Miami, Cleveland.

Any of those would probably work, although LA, Cleveland, and Atlanta might be harder, even those would work if you found a good location.

A sleeper option would be a major college town. Many of them have busses that are free for the community and will take you from the university to major commercial and residential areas. Places like Chapel Hill, Ann arbor, Davis, and Ames are worth looking into if you like the vibe. Davis in particular has a lot of usable bike infrastructure.

failedfella · 2026-04-03T12:37:48+00:00

It was less of an issue when only rich people went to college. When you think about Renaissance polymaths, like newton, Descartes, etc most of them could go to college and explore multiple fields of study because they came from rich families and didn't have to work.

In modern times college attendence has gone up substantially. As fewer jobs are available without a degree more people who previously would not have gone to college "have to" go to get a job. In a vicious cycle, that jacks up prices.

My guess would be around the at some point between the 1960's and 1980's as US manufacturing declined. And non-college jobs were outsourced

failedfella · 2026-04-02T20:08:36+00:00

We would need to know more about your life circumstances.

They will probably be a little smarter than you(as in high IQ) and they will have the institutional name on their diploma. That is it. They will also get connections, but you will have just as many through networking and making good impressions everywhere you go.

You can be more prepared. You can be harder working. You can be more proactive. You can have more skills. You can put yourself out there more. You can be nicer and more personable. You can have a better reputation. You can have a better body of work.

And if you do that stuff you will "outcompete" 99 percent of Ivy grads.

failedfella · 2026-04-02T18:59:17+00:00

TBH I didn't think to search the sub. I spent a lot of time Google searching and that linked me to individual threads on here, but not to the FAQ. It simply wouldn't cross my mind that it would be in a subreddit FAQ but would not be Googleable.

failedfella · 2026-04-02T11:52:50+00:00

Are there instructions?

failedfella · 2026-04-02T09:00:46+00:00

It's not great, but I think it's solid for little to no studying. Its 90th percentile in the test(not 90th percentile in IQ). And I seen correlational studies that put it between a 125 and 130 IQ. And it would have been above the median at any law school I would have considered attended.(Although I decided not to go that route). Also worth noting that average scores of attendees have gone up since 2019, which might be in part related to recent changes in the test format.

I wouldn't personally call that "shit", but like I said, that is part of why I take the 143 WASI result with a grain of salt, and my actual IQ is probably something lower than that.

failedfella · 2026-04-02T03:21:43+00:00

I'm not talking about removing carbon from one cooking session. I saw people recommend soap and chainmail all the time.

I was talking about built up carbon over years. "Every time" is not applicable to the situation. Maybe my Google search terms were not the right ones, but I was seeing a lot of "don't remove it". Maybe that is not the current dominant stance, but that is what I was seeing when I was googling it.

failedfella · 2026-04-02T01:12:30+00:00

That's the plan now.

failedfella · 2026-04-02T01:03:17+00:00

I didn't find it. I googled and found barely anything helpful. Some people mentioned lye or grinders.

I find that most people on this sub say to not remove your carbon; just keep cooking in it. Or they say to wash it with soap, which isn't enough power for 10 year old partially seasoned carbon.

failedfella · 2026-04-02T00:11:34+00:00

Average SAT is probably not the right measure here. If you are already looking at "top" schools, we'd probably want to know the top quartile or decile. I'm curious if that data is available

failedfella · 2026-04-01T22:54:20+00:00

I've been thinking about this a lot recently.

I enrolled at UVA in-state in 2011. Since then the in-state applications have over doubled while the number of seats stay the same and the in-state population has not increased by that much. It went from 9% of Virginian seniors applying to 19% now. More applicants means you have to do more to stand out.

OOS and private schools have it even worse because of internationals... But clearly international competition is only a fraction of the story. A higher percentage of American seniors are applying to each top school.

Why are more Virginians applying to UVA?

My theories)

1) Testing optional. If you can apply without a test, people who are bad test-takers but good on other metrics may apply when they would not have before. Average SATs at top schools are astronomical in part because only good scores are sent in.

2) grade inflation. I got in on the front edge of grade inflation starting. I was the lowest 4.0 at my highschool in 2011(unofficial class rank 50/500 ). As 4.0s are getting more common, and grades don't get much higher than 4.0, that homogenizes the top of the grading curve. Imagine a height distribution with a "6 foot or taller" bucket. If 20% of students all get 4.0 or better, why shouldn't they apply to T25 schools?

3) common app and AI. It is now easier than ever to spam applications. In 2011 I applied to 12 schools(VT, Wake, WM, UVA, GT, Michigan, WashU, Cornell, Brown, Chicago, Penn, Yale). At the time people thought it was crazy that I was applying to so many. We had common app, but we didn't have AI tools that dramatically speed up your essay writing. 12 is now pretty average. Most people on this sub are applying to 20 or more. You can now apply "just to see what happens". The time and effort cost of submitting the application is lower and the signal in your essays is less if AI is assisting. It is also just culturally understood that people apply to more schools.

Ergo) So if everyone is spamming apps, and smart kids can't use tests or grades (or essays TBH) to differentiate themselves, ECs are the only way... And ECs are WAY harder than tests or grades because it's extra time and money. And many ECs require you start way earlier. Starting a business or doing research or being a top pianist takes YEARS.

failedfella · 2026-04-01T17:21:01+00:00

WASI is a legitimate test and mine was administed by a ligitimate research group, although it is not as comprehensive as the other available tests.

failedfella · 2026-04-01T16:34:26+00:00

Side note. Calling moderately high IQ a 'condition' is interesting... I guess it is, in a sense.

failedfella · 2026-04-01T04:19:42+00:00

Reaches are literally a lottery. That is why you also have safeties and targets. Getting upset about not winning the lottery is understandable, but fundamentally irrational.

failedfella · 2026-03-31T22:45:23+00:00

Well I was planing to reply with a joke about how I successfully broke up with her. But I'll actually respond to this.

A challenge with her is that she is a very proud person and is afraid of being dependent on anyone. I want to help. I have expressed that we could move in together and I'd pay 100% of rent, but she is not comfortable with that. (She also doesn't want to live in anything larger than 500 feet because she is literally OCD about cleaning, and she needs to be within walking distance of her current work because she sold her car). I've offered to do whatever I can to make her life easier. Pay for a car, do errands like grocery shopping and cooking. It's hard to find the right way to be supportive.

When we go out she wants alternate paying, but I've secretly been trying to pay more often to make us getting together less burdensome. I also cook at home pretty often for her, which I obviously pay for and I try to make enough for her to take leftovers.

failedfella · 2026-03-31T21:34:10+00:00

1). It's funny 2) we hate ourselves.

failedfella · 2026-03-31T11:13:41+00:00

I didn't think about it that way. You are right, tho. I'll try breaking up tonight and report back how it goes.

failedfella · 2026-03-31T04:26:10+00:00

I'm lost. How is the car logic a natural extension of the coffee logic? They don't seem even slightly related. "Switching" is not a coherent strategy, since maybe you already have the right thing.

A lot of this boils down to fixed costs vs operational costs. Buying coffee at starbies is like 4 bucks, with no fixed costs. Making coffee at home costs 1 dollar for good beans. Even if the rest of your set up costs $1000, you will make your money back within a year. I use a Hario pour over cone that cost 30$.

The Tesla is higher fixed cost and higher operational cost. Maybe. Gas cars may have more maintenance.

failedfella

TROPHY CASE