

UPDATE: iwanttogotocarnegiemellon.com rejected - reddog9287
http://iwanttogotocarnegiemellon.com/

======
mjfl
It's too bad. The kid looked like he put a lot of effort into that site and
and from the looks of it he is sufficiently competent. College Admissions is a
crap shoot. They may as well set minimum requirements, race quotas, and then
randomly accept people. Any assertion of "selection skill" beyond that is
bogus. I got into one of the "top" schools in the country, and on one of the
first days of school an admissions officer came up to me, asked my name and
shook my hand, telling me that my essay was among his favorites ever. I never
saw the guy again, to this day, and it's a small school. I don't think I saw
any of the admissions officers actually around the student body they created.
And further, while I acknowledge the talent of my fellow students, only very
few were "super stars" with academic qualifications that far exceeded anyone I
had met before. Most students (including non-athletes, non-legacies, etc)
could be replaced by select students from my high school, who probably worked
just as hard, and just not gotten lucky. I think the decision looks worse on
Carnegie Mellon than it does on the student that made this page.

~~~
reddog9287
I agree! I certainly didn't intent to make anyone look bad, but I was just
happy with the way the site turned out and the buzz it generated. Thanks!

------
apetresc
I strongly recommend he consider the University of Waterloo. It may not have
that shiny Ivy League veneer, but since his main draw to CMU was its industry
ties, he'll be at least as (if not more) happy there.

With his obvious drive and skill, he'll have no problems getting internships
anywhere he wants from UW. And one you've got the internship, nothing else
matters.

~~~
reddog9287
Thanks! I will look into it. Yep already had an internship last summer and
sorting out my options for this summer. Totally agree and thanks again!

------
reddog9287
Check out the bottom of the page to see total vote tally and blog post!

------
mindcrime
I wouldn't worry about it. Going to a "name" school is nice, but it's neither
necessary nor sufficient to going on and having a great career. What's more
important is what you _do_ in life, rather than where you went to school. If
you still want to do C.S. and work in the tech industry, you have a TON of
choices.

Go go a "lesser" school and get a C.S. degree. Or even go get a degree in
something other than C.S. Or don't go to school at all, just find a job (I bet
you will be able to, based on what you already know) and just teach yourself
all the other stuff on the side (works well if you're a natural autodidact).

Or consider a hybrid approach: get a job (full or part time) and take night
classes for credit, possibly also inter-mingled with MOOCs that interest you.
Don't worry about finishing a degree or meeting any certain deadline, just
take the classes that interest you, learn useful skills, and build cool shit.

If I had a suggestion for someone in your shoes, I'll throw this out there: If
you do go to school, either full-time, part-time, seeking a degree or not,
don't take _just_ technology courses. Take a few classes in economics,
finance, history, political science, etc. Even if you take those at a
community college, or as Coursera courses or something. When I look back on my
career, I definitely think I would have benefited from studying more of that
stuff.

If I had a second recommendation, it would be to take all the math and
statistics courses you can handle.

~~~
reddog9287
Totally agree. I am definitely going to try to learn as much as I can any way
I can. Thanks very much for your suggestions. I will keep them all in mind!

------
gargarplex
A high school kid with a two page resume? lol

