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Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:29 pm
by davidthefat
One of my goals is to get into MIT or Caltech or Stanford and go join the DARPA Challenge team and program it. How about you?

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:08 pm
by Arce
Awesome.

I know a guy who had similar goals. He's at MIT right now.

I pity him. :lol:

As for myself...Cowbell.

All of it.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:19 pm
by Falco Girgis
One of my goals USED to be to get into MIT...

Until I realized that ivy league schools are a bunch of bullshit. The only thing they really care about is your name and your money, not your grades, achievements, or potential.

I had a friend who literally ACED the ACT (36), had over a 4.0 in high school, was secretary of the student body, and was one of the brightest kids I had ever met. MIT literally didn't even glance at his transcript. They didn't give a fuck. He was a nobody to them.

But I know people who get in just because their fathers went there? Bullshit.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:21 pm
by Bakkon
Every time I pass an exam, I hear 'bleep bloop' in my head.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:24 pm
by Maevik
lolz! I used to want to go to MIT too until my city college took first place over their robotics team last year. pwnt!

Now I'm looking at University of Pittsburgh or UC Santa Cruz. Both have awesome AI programs and their CS departments are great!

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:37 pm
by hurstshifter
I used to want to go to MIT but then I smoked a shitload of weed. I woke up 5 years later in a state university.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:07 pm
by K-Bal
I like this topic :D Actually I'm just a lazy bitch. I went to college in my home town. Luckily, it's one of the best universities in Germany. However, it does not make a difference where you study when you are passionate about the things you do.

Next nerdy goal for me is to go to Norway for one term abroad (already applied)

and

finish my multiplayer action game I recently started (updates will come in the next weeks, I already haz simpl working clientz and serverz!!11) ;)

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:14 pm
by dandymcgee
I used to want to go to MIT then I found out it was in Massachusetts.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:28 pm
by davidthefat
I so want to get into CalTech, literally 15 minutes from my house, I live like 5 minutes from JPL, and theres so much potential :lol:

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:34 pm
by XianForce
My goal is to get into UC Berkeley or UC San Diego... I've always thought UC Berkeley, because I hear they have a great CS department, but lately I've heard that San Diego is equally good, but is less 'formal', and is near a beach =D

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:31 am
by programmerinprogress
Yeah, some comparisons can be drawn with the UK university system.

Although it's pretty damn fair (in terms of fees and their acceptance system) and most universities will base offers on your skills, initiative, portfolio etc, there are a few institutions that people go gaga over and never get into, just because they're not the 'right' kind of person for them.

Take Oxford and Cambridge, those are the two prestigious universities in the country, people keep telling me that they their friends didn't get in because of where they live, essentially, they don't like northerners.

And Durham, one of the higher ranking universities, an excellent institution, which I even considered applying to, apparently has certain colleges which you can't get into unless your parents went there or you're parents are influential.

I can't confirm that, mainly because I didn't want to go to some snobby institution, my friends told me this , I wanted to go somewhere where I would be comfortable and have enough time to get on with my side-projects, as it turns out, my university got university of the year 2009, this didn't happen until after I was accepted, so it was a nice surprise.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:31 am
by hurstshifter
dandymcgee wrote:I used to want to go to MIT then I found out it was in Massachusetts.
Oh no you didn't

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:48 am
by avansc
Its not what you know but who you know. you can apply that to pretty much anything in life.
i dont care how good your credentials are but if you are personally recommended by someone important you are as good as gold.

as for ivy league schools. save your god damn money, and dont be one of those douchebags that think that means anything.
college education is much of what you make of it. you can get a degree without knowing shit, from a community college, or from MIT.
Most of todays tertiary education is much focused on graduate programs and dont really focus as much as they should on undergrad.

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:45 am
by GroundUpEngine
hurstshifter wrote:
dandymcgee wrote:I used to want to go to MIT then I found out it was in Massachusetts.
Oh no you didn't
:lol:
K-Bal wrote: finish my multiplayer action game I recently started (updates will come in the next weeks, I already haz simpl working clientz and serverz!!11) ;)
Cool!

--

I'm a fucking lazy too :P My goals is get into a good university and be sucessful. not to nerdy I guess hehe

and to finish my engine ;)

Re: Nerdy Goals In Life

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:23 am
by Ginto8
My goal: Drexel University. It's a great engineering school, and as Falco brought up, it isn't MIT :lol: