
Three years since being rejected from CS - vu0tran
http://www.vutran.me/3-years-since-rejection/
======
mitchellh
Hah! Fun story: I was rejected from University of Washington CS as well. Since
then, here is a list of some projects I've made that are used by tens of
thousands of companies/orgs worldwide (including UW ;)): Vagrant, Packer,
Serf.

For more backstory: I applied direct to UW CS from high school, rather than
waiting a year or two into undergrad to apply. I had a background in
programming (not what I'd call "CS"), I had successfully run a software
business for 4 years, I had a 4.0 high school GPA, had perfect 5 AP scores
across the board in basically every subject imaginable, played varsity sports,
was part of extracurriculars, etc etc. I thought it was a safe bet, an easy
in. Surprise surprise: I was accepted to UW, but rejected to the CS college.
Ego blow.

At the same time, I was directly accepted to the Carnegie Mellon CS program,
which is a pretty good school, if you don't know. My ego tempted me to accept
this. After all, in much of the CS academic community (and to some regards
industry as well), having a CMU degree is regarded VERY highly.

But, I visited Seattle anyways since I had those tickets booked already and I
ended up falling in love with the city and atmosphere. So I attended UW
anyways. I failed my first quarter of college (whoops, was too cocky, never
attended class), got a 4.0 in my 2nd quarter, and re-applied to UW CS.
Miraculously, they accepted me. I graduated in 2011, and here I am. I'm a big
Husky at heart and the UW CS program is amazing.

I was bitter for a short while, but the things I'm working on today would
simply be impossible without a strong academic background, so I'm thankful I
pushed through and got my degree in CS rather than sitting on the sidelines.

This has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but figured someone might
find this anecdotal story interesting.

~~~
hga
Wow, the acceptance into CMU's CS program is more meaningful than you may
realize. Besides being one of the top 4 schools for CS in the world, Stanford,
UC Berkeley and MIT are the others, unlike the 2 other private schools (don't
know so much about Berkeley), they limit their class size to 135 students, and
have a separate admissions program for that.

That they would accept you and UW didn't suggests either UW screwed up, or
just had too many qualified applicants and your luck initially wasn't good.

~~~
infinite8s
Did the CMU CS program have separate admissions 20 years ago? I applied to CMU
for CS, got in (but don't remember if it was for CS or just CMU in general)
and then couldn't afford to go even with the aid package (biggest mistake of
my life!).

~~~
hga
Do not know, I've only been recently studying the top 4 after the dot.com
crash, when CS enrollments also crashed.

While not actually being an EECS major (science was my calling), I have close
ties to the MIT EECS undergraduate program and wanted to see how the other
schools were dealing with these problems. The department's enrollment crashed
by more than half after decades of being 40% of the undergrads; they were
panicked into developing a new curriculum, and a new meaning of what it meant
to get a MIT EECS degree.

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techsupporter
So, um, what have you been up to? Text doesn't convey inflection so please
know that I'm not being a twit about it. I can't find an "About Me" page
anywhere, though your list of Seattle stereotypes is rather funny. Maybe I'm
being too nosy; I just like to read other folks' successes.

~~~
th0br0
[http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vu-tran/42/586/9](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vu-
tran/42/586/9)

~~~
FLUX-YOU
From Lead Dev to Consultant. That's a hell of a nice trajectory.

~~~
freyr
For those of us who can't view his LinkedIn account, that still doesn't offer
much information; anybody can call themselves a consultant.

Regardless of the details, it's an inspiring story of someone persisting with
their dream after facing rejection.

------
incision
_> "It’s great because I almost get monthly emails from recruiters from
companies such as, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and this time around, I’m the
one dishing out the rejection."_

This seems to be standard practice. Recruit people who've ostensibly been
vetted by someone else already and surely pay a premium versus "taking a
chance" on the same guy 3 years earlier.

I wonder if/how hiring processes could be improved to surface desirable people
in the first place?

On a semi-related note, I find it mildly annoying to see job postings looking
for people with say 3 years of experience in technologies that are 3 years
old.

~~~
johnward
Still better than requiring 8 years of experience in a technology that is 3
years old.

------
gtani
backstory: it used to be extremely difficult to get into that program, but
since expanded by 55%, so rejection is no reflection on the student

[http://seattletimes.com/html/dannywestneat/2016987078_danny1...](http://seattletimes.com/html/dannywestneat/2016987078_danny11.html)

[http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022132141_b...](http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022132141_briercolumn28xml.html)

------
Balgair
Wow, this really helped.

I got rejected from UCLA's bioengineering program this morning. I've been
volunteering here full-time for about 19 months. Really, it hurts a lot. I
feel like a sucker. I feel terrible for believing in people that are obviously
taking advantage of me. Like a soiled napkin, that's how it feels.

But, your piece helps. I know that I have to move on, that I'll be stronger
and better in the future. That I'll be the one rejecting them soon enough. I
hope, at least.

Anyway, thanks.

~~~
ak217
Try applying to Human Longevity, Craig Venter's latest startup in San Diego.
[http://www.humanlongevity.com/careers/open-
positions/](http://www.humanlongevity.com/careers/open-positions/) Nothing
like Craig Venter's network to jumpstart your career.

------
pearjuice
Based on your post, I am wondering whether "big" tech companies have any
minimum filters? If you weren't already eyed upon or networking, and you are
just filling in the form or however you regularly apply for an internship
these days, what is the absolute minimum tech companies ask from you?

Or do they read every application/CV/motivation independently and check
whether it's a match? Is there a checklist or something?

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gknoy
While I didn't get a lot out of this blog post, your prior ones ("what would
you PAY for it?" and "shit goggles") were really well done. Good work!

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sosuke
From intern to director in 3 years, whew I must be doing something wrong then.
Nice work sticking too it, I'd love to hear more details.

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johnnyg
"We are all main characters in our own movies." nice line.

~~~
moron4hire
It's also the basic definition of narcissistic personality disorder, the
inability to see other people as anything else but supporting characters in a
scripted life about you.

~~~
enraged_camel
Diagnosing mental disorders is an extremely complex process. You can't just
read something and say, "well, that's pretty much the definition of Disorder
X!"

~~~
moron4hire
Someone likening life to a movie is pretty out of touch with reality no matter
what you call it. That was the only point of my comment.

~~~
bradleysmith
movies are representational of reality, some more than others. How is this so
far from "life is but a stage"?

It seems like a short-handed narrative for purpose of communicating a train of
thought to me.

------
Dewie
So it was CS at that specific university or no CS?

