

How to Hack Yourself a Class - zamansky
http://cestlaz.github.io/2014/09/17/stuycs-spectator.html#.VBn8hLR-a1U.hackernews

======
devchuk
A quick note on what Stuyvesant is for those who don't know.

Stuyvesant High School is a specialized high school in NYC. It is considered
to be the top public high school in the city.

Anyways, its computer science program is literally one of the best in the
country. Currently, every high school student there learns how to use HTML,
Python, and Javascript. Those who want to continue their education are able to
take an Advanced Placement Java course and then later on three courses:

a Graphics programming class where we learn algorithms for creating 3D objects
a Systems level programming class where we learn C and a Software Development
class where we learn web development and databases and pretty much everything
about software.

I'm actually a Stuyvesant graduate of 2014 and I can say that if it weren't
for Stuyvesant & Zamansky, I would not have been confident enough to teach
myself so many things about programming and work towards my dreams. It's a
shame that Stuy or the DOE does not give more support for CS.

~~~
didgeoridoo
Further clarification on the meaning of "public" in this context:

Stuyvesant accepts less than 3% of applicants, making it about three times
more exclusive than any Ivy, Stanford or MIT. The average SAT score is roughly
in line with that of the accepted student bodies of top-ten schools — in
effect, Harvard could close its eyes and accept 100% of Stuy applicants and do
as well or better than with its normal applicant pool, at least with respect
to standardized tests.

Stuy is not typically what you think of when you think of a "public" school.

~~~
superuser2
They key distinction is that most schools of that caliber are very expensive.
Stuy sits in a class alongside Hunter College High School and a few others
with the relatively rare property of being like $30k+/year institutions while
also not charging tuition.

------
marincounty
When I went to college, I knew the required English classes would be my
Achilles heel. Even though English was my native language--I found writing
really hard. I had a decent part time job so I bought an Atari 1040si for word
processing. I went through four years if college and told no one about my
computer. I felt like I was cheating because the other students were spending
hours on the typewriter correcting, and rewriting. I had one teacher who said
I should buy a IBM typewriter. After reading my assignments, he figured I had
a cheap typewriter, and a modern IBM is worth the investment. Funny how times
have changed? After college, I lost Internet in computers and gave the Atari
to my brother. He told me it was just too confusing--and threw it away. I has
an extremely ambitious girlfriend at the time, and she felt computers were a
waste of time. She is now some big wig in charge of Technology, and and the
Internet. Hello--Ingrid. She was adorable, but we were really different.

------
tantalor
> Imagine Stuyvesant without a computer science program.

Easy when I have no idea what Stuyvesant is.

~~~
dang
That sentence is fine in its original context [1], the school newspaper of
Stuyvesant High School. We didn't replace the url because the current page has
some nice additional commentary by the author.

HN users can reasonably be expected to google what they don't immediately
recognize, especially when the answer is the top Google result for the name.

1\. [http://www.stuyspec.com/features/how-to-hack-yourself-a-
clas...](http://www.stuyspec.com/features/how-to-hack-yourself-a-class)

