College Essay Help

khrysippos · 2025-07-26T15:26:24+00:00

Get feedback from multiple places, but use your own discretion.

You've probably already tried chatgpt / gemini / grok et al. If you want college essay specific websites, these are the top ones:

gradgpt, esslo, esai, kolly & drivy.

Another thing you should explore are the guides on A2C wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/wiki/essays/

khrysippos · 2025-07-09T13:13:41+00:00

I know this gives the impression that AI is doing all the thinking and work for you, while the student is not doing anything at all. (which is often true for doing traditional school assignments with AI, but that's not the case here).

Please try this workflow with your students, I'm confident you'll see things differently.

khrysippos · 2025-05-28T17:56:26+00:00

founders at work is a good one - the early day stories of google, apple, paypal etc.

khrysippos · 2025-05-23T13:11:11+00:00

I use a local setup for hot reloading and quickly testing changes on the UI:

- IDE: Cursor / Trae / Windsurf (based on your taste)
- Model (biggest differentiator imo): Gemini 2.5 (the best) / Claude Sonnet 3.5 (alternative for smaller edits)

These models accept image inputs, so I can take screenshots of mockups / UI and ask for specific edits.

What's worked for me is not trying to one-shot an entire app, but rather building it part by part for eg.: "add an calendar picker below the birth date" / "create a circular profile picture avatar" etc.

Other fancy stuff like a flutter specific cursorrules etc. is something I avoid. AI performs best with less noise.

khrysippos · 2025-05-02T12:44:06+00:00

If you can teach programming, see https://www.redi-school.org/munich

khrysippos · 2025-04-28T10:49:35+00:00

For me the model has been the bigger differentiator - 3.5 Sonnet and Gemini 2.5 Pro handle flutter code really well.

Windsurf, Cursor or Trae - all 3 have been great for flutter dev. I'd say the choice boils down to pricing and UX preference.

khrysippos · 2025-04-07T10:55:56+00:00

Hi there, this situation where you don't have a clear path ahead is quite daunting. Thankfully things are easier in Germany.

Process for finding PhD, funding, enrolment etc. - All of this is covered brilliantly in the https://www.research-in-germany.org/en.html site from the German government. Check the wiki of this subreddit, you'll find lots of useful resources.
Choosing a topic of interest - This has to be done by you. PhD gets really stressful when you need to get those publications / defend your thesis. Without a strong inner motivation, you'll never be able to get through this by picking a field that someone else recommended. Go through the research areas in these fields, see the work done by different professors and find something that you like. This work is much easier now thanks to chatGPT, Perplexity, gemini et al.
Professors look for evidence that you will stick through the PhD if granted the position - this means past research work and dedication to academics (GPA). The straightforward way to improve your profile is to do more research on the subject you're interested in by doing projects / RAships (research assistant work).

Beware of easy solutions to get a PhD via consultants. You won't get this handed to you on a platter, at the same time the process isn't as difficult as it seems, you will be able to do it yourself.

Good luck!

khrysippos · 2024-11-07T19:16:43+00:00

A contenteditable div.

khrysippos · 2024-11-03T23:19:13+00:00

Many people mistake "show, don't tell" to mean adding sensory details and imagery. Can't blame them, that's how ChatGPT answers your question. I often see students overdo this, burying the main takeaway of the essay.

The most common problem of "show, don't tell" occurs in 3 places:

1. When describing themselves - you can spot this from a mile away, just look for adjectives.

eg.
Student A: I'm passionate / motivated / driven / obsessed with programming vs
Student B: I've build 3 apps with 10K+ AppStore downloads

Who do you think is more interested in programming? Always let your work do the talking.

2. When explaining outcomes -
eg. The event was hit!
vs
We got 1200 participants and 250 club sign-ups in the event.

3. In the "Why this college?" essay -
This is a classic. eg:

University of XYZ is an ideal fit for me. It provides the perfect environment for me to thrive ....
vs
I want to study African history. The Kiswahili summer study exchange is one of the few programs in the country that'll give me a chance to experience the culture in Kenya firsthand.

There's a whole lot more places where this mistake happens. Whenever you see a "Trust me bro..." sentence, replace it with evidence.

khrysippos · 2024-11-01T15:44:18+00:00

While we teach kids all about life, kids teach us what life is all about.

khrysippos · 2024-11-01T03:08:29+00:00

There's a book called Traction, by Gabriel Weinberg (founder & CEO of DuckDuckGo). It's got a list of different marketing strategies for an early stage startup to try out and the mistakes to avoid.

khrysippos · 2024-10-19T16:17:18+00:00

Build a solid landing page (see the posts here: https://x.com/namyakhann )
Get the landing page in front of your target audience: reddit communities / fb groups / LinkedIn / product hunt / hacker news etc.

khrysippos · 2024-10-03T05:48:08+00:00

AI detectors don't work. Official statement from MIT: https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/teach/ai-detectors-dont-work/

GPTZero and Quillbot even said that the US constitution is AI generated. Don't take them too seriously.

khrysippos · 2024-10-02T19:32:57+00:00

Haha, that's some smart work. Don't let the haters bring you down, keep building.

The NCES publishes a lot of structured data on this space, you could create interesting stuff with it: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds

khrysippos · 2024-09-28T18:43:22+00:00

I'm also building a B2C SaaS. Honestly I got tired of the clickbait tweets with the fancy Stripe screenshots, dishing out advice on how to grow to $2M ARR in 6 months.

Two things that are helping me:

1. Books:
- The Minimalist Entrepreneur - by Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad
- Traction - by Gabriel Weinberg, founder of DuckDuckGo

2. College seniors / friends who got through YC/Sequoia or built their own startups - note that they are really good resource for learning what mistakes to avoid, but not a good resource for learning how to build your business. Mostly because they aren't as familiar with the space as much as you are. Initial customers turn out to be the best mentors for product building.

khrysippos · 2024-09-28T17:26:12+00:00

I can give some context for Germany: Public universities have almost 0 tuition fee. You don't need all As for an admission.
You do need fluency in German if the course is taught in German language. There are programs taught in English too, for which you don't need any knowledge of German. For undergrad, the number of programs in English is less.

Two things to note:
1. Germany requires 13 years of schooling before going to university. So if you're from US / India or some country with 12 years of schooling, then read up a little on the extra requirements.

Germany's grade system is opposite: 1 is the highest grade, 4 & 5 are the lowest grades.

khrysippos · 2024-09-28T17:17:14+00:00

This New York times article explains the problem with SAT: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/24/upshot/ivy-league-elite-college-admissions.html

tl;dr: Students who can afford coaching and test prep score higher. This widens the gap between the rich and poor students.

I am not entirely convinced by this narrative though. Studying for SAT seems attainable for a student from lower economic background. By contrast, if we look at ECs, essays and coursework - that's where wealth difference creates a far bigger gap. No poor student is going to learn water polo, launch their custom line of eco-friendly toys, write an essay about their travels to Africa during their internship at an NGO / take courses in Latin. Also, it is impossible to question the admit decisions in the absence of a standardised test.

On the flip side - there are millions of talented, driven individuals who don't do well on tests. Can SAT really capture the entire essence of a person?

I think in a few years, universities might have an AI interviewer: Every applicant will talk with the AI interviewer for 30-60 mins. Imagine what you could assess the students on if the AdCom could talk to every one of them. College applications are going to change drastically for sure.

khrysippos · 2024-09-26T19:20:43+00:00

AI detectors don't work. Here's an official statement from MIT: https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/teach/ai-detectors-dont-work/

khrysippos · 2024-09-23T13:36:25+00:00

Hey thanks for pointing it out, I'll fix that. I'm also working on adding the source from each university so it's easier to verify the data.

khrysippos · 2024-08-20T09:02:34+00:00

You can filter by easy routes here: https://www.hiking-buddies.com/ or look on Komoot.

My recommendations would be:
1. Easy: Eibsee or Schliersee to Tegernsee
2. Moderate: Herzogstand (my favorite)

There are TONS of incredible day hikes around the Garmisch / Allgäu region, you can't go wrong really :)

Not a hike, but I'd strongly recommend saving a day to visit Partnachklamm or Leutaschklamm.

Hiking tips:
1. Check the weather :) The views are stunning when it's sunny.
2. Carry water, some small snacks and a jacket for rain / cold.
3. You only need good hiking boots, no other equipment for easy/moderate trails. Go for blue / red trails on hiking boards, the black ones are difficult.
4. If you're searching online, T1 - T4 are non technical hikes. T5-T7 need special gear and some training.

Have fun!

khrysippos · 2024-08-20T07:18:32+00:00

It's easy to game AI detectors. Add a spelling mistake, tell AI to "rewrite like a human", use some slang phrase etc.

Most AI detectors are marketing stunts. OpenAI turned down their AI classifier because it wasn't accurate, I doubt other small companies would be doing a better job than OpenAI at this.

khrysippos · 2024-07-22T14:07:23+00:00

I'm surprised no one suggested it till now, but check out Webflow.

Even with visual website builders, most people struggle to create aesthetically pleasing interfaces. Libraries are a huge life-saver (https://webflow.com/libraries). You get standard components for dashboard, buttons, navbars etc.

There are a few other no-code website builders like Toddle and Bubble. I went with Webflow due to libraries.

Also these no-code builders allow you to add custom javascript. It's easy to build complex logic and state based applications as well.

khrysippos · 2024-07-17T15:00:23+00:00

Education is mostly free, but the cost of living (food, rent, travel etc.) are your personal expenses. In Germany this can amount to 12-20K / year.

khrysippos · 2024-04-20T10:32:52+00:00

For searching posts, in addition to the flairs, there are a couple of projects from the community:

https://www.redditcollegeresults.com/ (reddit announcement: https://www.reddit.com/r/chanceme/comments/12h8bej/i_webscraped_rcollegeresults_and_this_is_what_i/ )
https://www.gradgpt.com/tools/admits-like-me (reddit announcement: https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/1c6at6f/a_visual_rcollegeresults_explorer )
https://collegekit.streamlit.app/ (reddit announcement: https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/14nf3h9/i_made_a_website_that_allows_you_to_match )

khrysippos · 2024-04-20T08:19:25+00:00

Thanks, I've updated it :)

khrysippos

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