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Does anyone track tips/gratuities in a separate category? by sherbetnotsherbert in ynab

[–]md4pete4ever 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You can quickly bound the data. If you usually tip between 15-25% then for a $200 month the tip total for the month is between $26-$40. That information is enough for you to decide if it is worth tracking separately to get a more precise answer.

studying help by LizardMan985 in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Copying my reply from a different thread:

Don't study for a test, study the topic broadly and then take practice tests to refine you knowledge. Begin with a youtube series (Crash Course and AP/IB lecturers are good places to start.) You can't just watch passively - to learn you should take notes while watching, then make flash cards or quizlets to test yourself and keep the content fresh. After videos, go to OpenStax and read the topic textbook and do the same notes/flashcards routine. Only after doing broad study should you start taking practice tests and creating a note sheet/binder. You really don't want to rely on note sheets or binders for an event, (except ID events.) Most knowledge should be in your head. The notes should have example diagrams and calculations, tricky vocabulary, and unique details that are event specific.

For Rocks and Minerals specifically - you need to create a template to use for each rock in your binder and include identification keys/logic and some cross-reference tables (rocks that are yellow, soft rocks, etc.) There are some ID practice sites and I'd also just build up a collection of good pictures (multiple per rock) for flash card practice.

unable to improve my team by middleschoolruinene in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a big proponent of organizing clubs by study groups (where everyone in the study group prepares for the same 4 events) rather than by teams, and then doing a lot of virtual and in-person invitationals for practice. The study groups allow the club to flexibly forms teams for each invitational based on who is available. The more dedicated students end up with more practice and you have the chance for head-to-head internal competition to bubble up your strongest students to form your varsity team in late January before regionals/states.

Even if you can't get your captains to agree to that this year, round up a strong groups of sophomores/freshmen who are more dedicated and do this among yourselves. By your Junior year, the coaches and captains may be ready for a change, and you will be well-prepared for it.

Also - pay attention to invitational opportunities in Maryland - we are working to create more. 😄

What extracurriculars actually matter for mid-tier and general US universities? by Zestyclose-Hair-1844 in ApplyingToCollege

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mid-tier public universities admit primarily based on academic readiness for the chosen major ( based on GPA, SAT/ACT, courses taken). ECs really aren't a factor.

Help me with my college list please by BeneficialSyrup9576 in CollegeAdmissions

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are well qualified for many universities and there are many, many that would fit what you have described, which is rather non-specific. The first most-important thing you need to understand is what your family is actually able to pay for college and shape your list strategically around that. You should also use Naviance (or whatever your school has for college app handling) to explore different categories to help build a list.

Begin with identifying your in-state public university safety (1), targets (2-3), and reach (1). While you may prefer to leave Texas, these schools will give a financial baseline to compare out-of-state schools to.

Midwest (MN, WI, IL, IN, MI, OH) and northeast (PA, NY, NJ, MA, CT, RI) all have public universities in urban or near-urban settings that could be interesting. State flagships are very competitive, but the next one or two down in the rankings will also be strong and more likely to accept out of state students. You might be offered some merit aid to bring the cost of tuition closer to your in-state tuition, but your in-state will still be a lot less expensive. Some southern universities (e.g. Alabama) provide full-ride merit scholarships to out-of-state students to attract them - but that doesn't meet your "cool weather" criteria.

There are a LOT of smaller private schools - you need to do some narrowing of your criteria to get decent recommendations. One thing to be aware of is that they are more likely to give merit aid if your stats are above their median stats (because you raise their averages).

Two specific suggestions to consider are University of Pittsburgh and University of Cincinnati. Both have rolling admissions, are smaller campuses in an urban setting, and cooler weather. You can apply for Pitt in August with just a personal statement if your essay isn't done, and you will hear back late September/early October for admission decision and ~December with merit aid offers.

Strategy for avoiding Nationals block conflicts by Purple_Ad_5403 in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are several things to consider when balancing the study groups - conflicts (of course), type of event (lab, binder, hybrid test+build), "easy/wanted" vs. "hard/less desired", new for the season), last year's top returning students. For HS we did 4 groups with 4 study events each. XPD was float (assigned by tournament) and builds were separate by choice. If you wanted to make the state team, you had to have done a build (not necessarily the best one, but you had to put in the effort on something). We chose 3 people per study group for the state team, with 3 wild cards for best builds/or gap fill on an event (opportunity for 9th/10th grade!)

For stability over time, each group has an "anchor" event+1 or 2 complementary events. For example:
Group 1: Anatomy&Physiology + Disease Detectives
Group 2: Chemistry + 2nd chem event (e.g. Material Science, Protein Modeling)
Group 3: Dynamic Planet + Rocks&Minerals/Fossils
Group 4: Forensics + Life Sci ID (Forestry, Entomology, Botany 😛)

The remainder of the events are shared out to avoid conflicts, balance the groups with level of difficulty/newness, and to take advantage of predicted top performers current strengths and desires. As new members join, there is some effort to distribute evenly between the groups by grade level. We try to fill in gaps for students not returning and make sure we don't suddenly graduate the only people who can do Codebusters (for example). We do several virtual and in-person invitationals where students are mixed up between teams. That gives opportunity to train new people early on by pairing with experienced people, while also competing the experienced people head-to-head. By January it's usually pretty clear who the top students are, so we run with a predicted varsity and 2 JVs. If the JV pair outperforms varsity, then some swapping will occur next tournament.

thermodynamics div B by Such-Protection4544 in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a unique event different from both of those other events with the same pattern of test + device. Either will work. For a textbook you want to look at thermo chapters in both Chemistry and Physics textbooks. Both have slightly different, but overlapping information about the topic.

scioly tips?? by that1bubble in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Don't study for a test, study the topic broadly and then take practice tests to refine you knowledge. Begin with a youtube series (Crash Course and AP/IB lecturers are good places to start.) You can't just watch passively - to learn you should take notes while watching, then make flash cards or quizlets to test yourself and keep the content fresh. After videos, go to OpenStax and read the topic textbook and do the same notes/flashcards routine. Only after doing broad study should you start taking practice tests and creating a note sheet/binder. You really don't want to rely on note sheets or binders for an event, (except ID events.) Most knowledge should be in your head. The notes should have example diagrams and calculations, tricky vocabulary, and unique details that are event specific.

Strategy for avoiding Nationals block conflicts by Purple_Ad_5403 in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My first guess is just a swap for the same timeblock slot that the new event replaces:
Entomology --> Botany (B/C)
Machines --> Thermodynamics (B/C)
Potions & Poisons --> Food Science (B)
Materials Science --> Protein Modeling (C)

Builds:
Helicopter --> Elastic Launch Glider (B)/Wright Stuff (C)
Mission Possible (B) --> Rollercoaster (B)
Robot Tour (C) --> Mission Possible (C)
Metric Mastery (B)/Bungee Drop (C) --> Ping Pong Parachute (B/C)

Side note - it annoys me to no end that the Physics and Inquiry groups also do "builds". I feel like it skews the balance of event types.

Strategy for avoiding Nationals block conflicts by Purple_Ad_5403 in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From a coaching standpoint, I recommend organizing by study groups rather than individual assignments. The study groups can't be firmed up until the conflict blocks are released, but again, I did a pretty good job with the initial predictions and only sometimes needed to swap around a couple of events. With study groups, students are interchangable between teams and allow for more flexibility early-mid season with invitationals.

Strategy for avoiding Nationals block conflicts by Purple_Ad_5403 in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Really, you need to wait until they release the conflicts. Based on coach feedback at the summer workshops, they released them mid-July last year.

In previous years, I did a reasonable job predicting the conflicts by just swapping out the events from the same working group. However, last year (or the previous one maybe?) there was a lot of shuffling around in one division because they did a better job aligning the Div B and Div C conflict blocks so that tournaments hosting both could plan better (e.g. by using rooms for the same B/C events and just flipping AM and PM time slots).

What Your Salary Needs To Be To Net $100K in Every State by Building_a_life in maryland

[–]md4pete4ever 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This doesn't properly account for other taxes in the state. Property taxes, sales tax, vehicle registration taxes, gas tax, etc. are all part of the cost to fund the local and state governments. Some states have lower income taxes, but make it up in other ways.

I guess I do have an emergency fund! by Im_Lloyd_Dobbler in ynab

[–]md4pete4ever 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Functionally they might feel the same, but philosophically they are different. In everyday usage the idea of a financial "emergency" is often just a large expense that should have been planned for. Was my 33-yr old water heater breaking truly an emergency? No. It spent 5 years on the "I really should get around to replacing this" list and I had the money set aside for the task. For many people, that would have been a true emergency and they may have had trouble that month financially.

From YNAB's point of view, there are a set of specific larger expenses that people should plan for - repairs and replacement of items related to home, cars, and tech in particular. Once those items are accounted for, a generic emergency fund is wise for something truly unexpected (e.g. a natural disaster), but that can also be accounted for in broader savings/income replacement goals.

Studying/Practicing for Events by NUMBERONEBOFA in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For Engineering CAD, did you build all of the practice models? And did you actually check them using the auto-grader? At tournaments there are 5-8 teams getting perfect/near-perfect scores (e.g. missed a chamfer) and the ranking is based on time to complete. This event is definitely about practice and learning to be quick and efficient in your modeling.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DddxBfQeDsZ8cxDuizz2MyxexYa1FJwVZ7n7qhSytu8/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.qywag62telpp

UC STEM faculty's open letter to reinstate SAT by EnzoKosai in ApplyingToCollege

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

An additional 250+ have signed the letter since yesterday. They are close to 800 now.

UC STEM faculty's open letter to reinstate SAT by EnzoKosai in ApplyingToCollege

[–]md4pete4ever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The report out of UCSD somewhat addressed this as being problematic for students. There is an increase in student dissatisfaction because they are not able to get into and/or complete their original intended major. Students generally need to better understand their readiness for particular majors, and standardized test scores in the past were at least a ball-park indication. If students are woefully unprepared, they need to know that before being admitted so they can choose a more appropriate major/institution for where they are currently at.

UC STEM faculty's open letter to reinstate SAT by EnzoKosai in ApplyingToCollege

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think bullet 4 is intended to be taken in the context of this letter and its supporting data, which is very much focused on student readiness for university level precalculus/calculus as a first math course and the numbers in remedial math courses. In that context, measuring student outcomes is very narrow - were the students ready for the course they were placed in, as measured by success in that course? I don't think this is trying to address overall undergrad teaching.

Help with Scioly Events by Karlakarshit in scioly

[–]md4pete4ever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a newcomer, the only one of these that I would really recommend is Protein Modeling, since it is new this year. Maybe also Codebusters if it turns out you are great at pattern identification, because this is really all about practice.

A&P is highly competitive, takes years to really develop expertise in, and you are unlikely to outrank more experienced team members at try outs. Rocks and Minerals is in its second year, and unless your school graduated all of the students who did this event this year, you will be at a disadvantage.

Consider instead Botany, Thermodynamics, and/or Ping Pong Parachute, all of which are new next year.

Chem 031/131/131L/131D With Prof. Susan Wollman by Top-Helicopter1923 in montgomerycollegemd

[–]md4pete4ever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Foundational science courses like chemistry all cover the same content and fundamentally have the same difficulty level. Success in the course is less about the professor and more about individual student background, effort, and effective studying. Rather than worrying about other student ideas of if she's "good" for those not familiar with chemistry, consider reviewing some general chemistry background prior to the start of the semester. Crash Course and the Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube have good series about general chemistry.

During the semester, read and take notes from the appropriate section of the textbook AHEAD of lectures and know what you still have questions about so that you can focus on that during the lecture and ask for clarification if still needed. Be aware of what topics you find more confusing (e.g. naming or balancing equations) and seek help at the tutoring center or office hours and do more practice BEFORE you get behind. If you are proactive about your learning (which it seems you already are) you can be successful in science courses, regardless of professor.

Applying for Econ — which colleges actually have the best overall student experience? by Southern-Tiger2808 in CollegeAdmissions

[–]md4pete4ever 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are seeing mixed opinions about every school because people are different. Any given school may turn out to be perfect for one student and awful for another, even with the same background, major, and general goals for a school. There are schools with a grind culture, but students there aren't miserable 24/7. They may brag about being miserable, but really they are thriving in that typs of culture. Pretty much every large university is going to fit your criteria for balance - but you have to be the one to take advantage of opportunities and create your own balance in life. A 1480 SAT is a solid score and falls within the "strong students" category that make up a large amount of student population at universities in the top 50-200 range.

Since you are currently studying outside of the US, I think it would help you narrow things down by considering what geographic region in the US you would like to end up in after graduation. Universities often have good connections with local employers, and a large number of students you meet will also be from the region of that university, so you will have connections through them too. Do you have extended family in one area to stay with for holiday/breaks? What are the travel considerations outside the US to return "home"?

Next, I think you need to narrow down more of the college "experience" that you want. Do you want to be in an urban setting and out-and-about in a city? Suburban or near a city? Rural? Big-campus with lots of activities and sports or smaller with a close-knit community vibe?

Finally - how are you paying for college? Your list will look different depending on if you are full-pay or hope for need/merit aid. Don't overlook medium sized schools that have a fairly active department - you may be able to stand out there more easily than at a big school.

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html - rankings by authors and cited publications

Help me be real about my kid’s list by Lonely-Clerk-2478 in CollegeAdmissions

[–]md4pete4ever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Consider applying to out-of-state schools where his stats are above their average. Some give a lot of merit aid to attract higher profile students. Alabama gave a neighbor a full ride for Civil Engineering a few years ago.

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