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Posted
1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

If you are doing all the work, it is only because you are trying to bootstrap an argument unrelated to my post you initially responded to, or any others that followed from me.

no, it is because you responded with a one word answer that appeared sarcastic without explanation. i wasn't bootstrapping anything. was i wrong in my interpretation of your response?

 

1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

Watching kids navigate the current college admissions process is mind blowing to me.

why? what is so mind-blowing about it?

 

1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

I am not automatically offended by the mere existence of UATX. I am not automatically offended at a marketing post calling out the absurdity of the admissions process. Frankly, not sure why some of you appear to feel so threatened.

i'm not offended by its existence. i'm just surprised that some superficial nonsense that they post trying to attract customers resonated so much with you.

threatened? fuck's sake.

Posted
1 minute ago, sidis said:

i'm just surprised that some superficial nonsense that they post trying to attract customers resonated so much with you.

 

I am not sure why you are surprised. The entire process is fucking ridiculous. We are pressure cooking these kids, distorting the educational system, significantly harming adolescent well being and mental health, and the process is being gamed by the institutions. UATX is not the first to observe this, and certainly won't be the last. I actually love the simplicity of "list three verifiable achievements, each described in a single sentence." Package that up with some scores and get on with making some decisions.

Maybe some of y'all just need to hear it from other sources to avoid the reflex.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/where-admissions-went-wrong/475575/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-particular-misery-of-college-admissions-tiktok

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/college-admissions-applications.html

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottwhite/2025/02/18/the-college-admissions-crisis-how-scarcity-economics-is-failing-our-students/

Oh gee, look at that...

image.thumb.png.cb4b65b87566f331dfa5703425ff045c.png

 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

 

I am not sure why you are surprised. The entire process is fucking ridiculous. We are pressure cooking these kids, distorting the educational system, significantly harming adolescent well being and mental health, and the process is being gamed by the institutions. UATX is not the first to observe this, and certainly won't be the last. I actually love the simplicity of "list three verifiable achievements, each described in a single sentence." Package that up with some scores and get on with making some decisions.

Maybe some of y'all just need to hear it from other sources to avoid the reflex.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/where-admissions-went-wrong/475575/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-particular-misery-of-college-admissions-tiktok

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/college-admissions-applications.html

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottwhite/2025/02/18/the-college-admissions-crisis-how-scarcity-economics-is-failing-our-students/

Oh gee, look at that...

image.thumb.png.cb4b65b87566f331dfa5703425ff045c.png

 

so all of those articles all boil down to the competitiveness of getting into the most exclusive and elite schools in the world in which there is significant scarcity. in 1990, the state of texas had approximately 16 million people and the flagship university of texas had approximately 49K students. in 2025, the state of texas 30 million people and the university of texas has 53,800 students. that is a failure on the part of the state of texas.

i agree that the drive to get kids into harvard and stanford or else life is a failure is perverted and fucked up and likely causes undue anxiety but a lot of that is the parenting and crony capitalist society as a whole.

to the extent that exists, it is largely a failure of the parents imo. i just read each of those stories/opinion pieces and every one of them talks about how the kids are putting so much pressure on themselves and that they will get into 13 of the 14 colleges they applied to but not harvard. not sure what to say about that. those are perverted expectations.

as for your chart, i am sure that some contributing element of that rise in anxiety and depression is the pressure of college admissions but as someone who spends a lot of time with regards to data analytics and statistical significance as you profess to, i'm surprised that you would actually post that knowing that the real timeline underlying contribution is social media (25 year olds aren't terribly anxious about college admissions). most of my friends in 1997/1998 were incredibly anxious about getting into their first choice college just like kids today are...i don't think college admissions are causing the anxiety spike for most. but it certainly is for children of perverted tiger parents with fucked up priorities.

anyway, i would love to see the pressure dialed down on the college admissions front just like you. a 90 person unaccredited school trying to aggressively grow is not taking some morally superior position by claiming to be less discerning in its admission standards.

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Posted
6 minutes ago, sidis said:

as for your chart, i am sure that some contributing element of that rise in anxiety and depression is the pressure of college admissions but as someone who spends a lot of time with regards to data analytics and statistical significance as you profess to, i'm surprised that you would actually post that knowing that the real timeline underlying contribution is social media (25 year olds aren't terribly anxious about college admissions). most of my friends in 1997/1998 were incredibly anxious about getting into their first choice college just like kids today are...i don't think college admissions are causing the anxiety spike for most. but it certainly is for children of perverted tiger parents with fucked up priorities.

Certainly there are multiple factors involved. And I would be the last to minimize the role of social media. I think that the factors being kicked around here are loading on some of the same domains, e.g. perceptions of societal expectations. Our children, and in particular our adolescent children are in an absolute pressure cooker. I think it would be foolish to minimize the role of the educational environment. 

15 minutes ago, sidis said:

anyway, i would love to see the pressure dialed down on the college admissions front just like you. a 90 person unaccredited school trying to aggressively grow is not taking some morally superior position by claiming to be less discerning in its admission standards.

Well we can at least agree on that. I don't find what ATX is trying to do particularly offensive. Maybe they are successful, maybe they fail. Either way it is a process and everything will be ok. Given the resources and backing, I think that they will pass accreditation soon after they are eligible. But that is really here nor there and like 2030 or beyond. Any student enrolling in one of the initial cohorts is taking a big risk, imo, and needs to go into that totally eyes open in terms of the potential implications. Esp if they intend to go to grad or a professional school. This isn't that pathway. Again, not the right fit for my kids as we sit here today, but I can understand why others may land in a different place.   

Posted
18 hours ago, Anastasis said:

If you are seeking STEM you certainly need to go through one of the name schools.

I hate the college admissions arms race and for the record don’t have any objection to UATX doing whatever they like, but the above quote is horseshit undiluted.
Not only do you not need to go through a name school for a career those fields, you may not even need to graduate from or even attend a four year college. 
 

 

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Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I hate the college admissions arms race and for the record don’t have any objection to UATX doing whatever they like, but the above quote is horseshit undiluted.
Not only do you not need to go through a name school for a career those fields, you may not even need to graduate from or even attend a four year college. 
 

 

Cosign. As someone who actually hires a shitload of folks into a stem field. I don't give two fucks about where they graduated from or if they even graduated at all. They just need to show they have drive to learn and we will teach them to do the job. In fact, the amount of *gasp* immigrants that I hire because they are qualified and hardworking would make our resident red's head spin. They are taking your jobs because you and yourn are shit workers.

Edited by HOOKEM4
ousux
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Posted

Its entirely fair to call the admission process cooked but its laughable to point to a bullshit school that can’t even transfer credits but “only” requires you to score in the 96th percentile of the SAT and call it a better way of easing the pressure on kids. 
 

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Posted
2 hours ago, sidis said:

while there have been state law efforts to raise opportunity (especially for rurals) by 10%, 7%, 6% rules, i have actually not seen much real evidence of this. a lot of it is driven by main character bias from which we all suffer. while the diversity of most institutions has increased, that has been the result of demographics and previously unavailable opportunity.

UT is moving to 5% next year I believe.  

Still, for in-state students, they accept about 40% of those who apply.  That’s not bad for a flagship institution, where about 10,000 new students enroll every year in a state with 31 million people, of which around 2.8 million are 18-24 year olds, and 775,000 are in college of some sort (two year or four or grad).  I’m sure the argument will or can be made that students who don’t think they have a chance won’t even bother applying.

And if we want to go down the road on the demographics of the state and representation, whites are not even the largest group anymore. UT Austin will look far different 10 years from now, as will aggy and other schools.

We are in an unfortunate situation where we need a major boost for the other branches in the UT (and aggy) and we needed it years ago, and we have lagged behind in doing that while the state grew extremely fast, although there are efforts being made.  At the same time we have a bit of a war on education, learning in general, science, etc. being conducted by people who can influence those university systems.

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Posted
52 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Not only do you not need to go through a name school for a career those fields, you may not even need to graduate from or even attend a four year college. 

Maybe they should put that in the UATX online FAQ. 

Posted
3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Which this "institution" is not.

Are you seriously going to argue that engineers from aggy, Tech, etc. are not getting hired?

This whole premise is so fucking stupid. Even if U of Austin becomes accredited in a few years it is so, so far from having the infrastructure needed for even adequate STEM programs.  A 1460 on SATs and decent grades might not not get you into Ivys or UT but will probably land you a fully funded spot at a more than accredited university that will set you up for a job or an excellent grad program if you work hard. A lot of top grad programs prefer to poach top-level students from regional schools, they value the diversity and know they are getting a proven commodity.

 

Honestly anyone with a 1460 and STEM ambitions who is considering UATx should be screened out of consideration at other schools. Someone with that profile has far better options.  I suspect most of their student body will come from highly politicized families doing their kids no favors. 

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Posted
34 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

We are in an unfortunate situation where we need a major boost for the other branches in the UT (and aggy) and we needed it years ago, and we have lagged behind in doing that while the state grew extremely fast, although there are efforts being made.

In 2015 we had 4 Tier 1 Research Universities in the state of Texas. Today there are 16. There is some progress being made to expand the smaller schools, but it’s still not proportional to the scale of population growth.

Even if we doubled the size of the UT student population, there are still going to be thousands of students who don’t get in. This is what UATX is trying to capitalize on for those willing to pay for it. The selling point is their ideology is completely opposite to what “mainstream academia” is today. 

 

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Posted
19 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

I gotta say, seeing someone who supports Palestinians so consistently stan for Bari Weiss, who has spent her entire adult life trying to oppress Palestinians, just to disagree with me is fucking depressing. They deserve better.

The institution he’s stanning for now is literally a Palantir creation; someone should dig up his thoughts on the IC and defense contractors. Or maybe that only applies to the woke MIC. 

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Posted

Lol at anyone treating this as a genuine conversation. UATX’s “merit based” admissions policy has fuck all to do with stress, anxiety, and depression caused by the current system. It means “not DEI,” nothing more, nothing less. It’s literally their sales pitch. Nobody attending there is doing so for educational offerings, it’s pure fucking  virtue signaling.

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Posted

"Anastasis, you should really hate UATX because it was founded by the (((joos))) and ackshully it is an intelligence community psyop."

I got to admire y'all's creativity and dedication to the craft sometimes. 

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Posted
6 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Not only do you not need to go through a name school for a career those fields, you may not even need to graduate from or even attend a four year college. 
 

I primarily deal with Compsci folks. I've hired people from Stanford, MIT, Cornell, UT, and other places. The two best hires I ever encountered were from Incarnate Word and a dude with a GED.

THE UIW grad was recommended to me by a friend who was running a DevOps org at USAA, former military that finished his degree at Incarnate Word. He had a CIS degree not a Compsci degree. That fucker bailed on me after 6 months for a higher paying job at Google. Very talented and ran circles around most people with degrees from more prestigious universities.

GED guy was a freak. I was running product architecture for a software security company and he would stroll in looking like a slob and just rip apart our detection methods in dev meetings.

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Posted

I wouldn't call the college admissions process broken, but it is often secretive and competitive. I don't know what was happening in 2007, but all that fucking produced the largest single year baby boom ever. 2025 is the largest high school graduating class in US history, which translates to the largest college applicant cohort ever.

The good news is that American capitalism has made raising children such a drain that each year going forward has fewer high school graduates, so the college application process will be less competitive. Thanks republican policies!

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Posted

Admission into the very elite schools has  always been a social sorting mechanism and not a talent hunt, being accepted was less of an acknowledgment of your academic excellence and more of an anointing as one of the American Brahmins.  There were always plenty of brilliant kids and box-checking strivers who got passed over.  What got people turnt is when the person who took “their” spot became a brown woman instead of a mediocrity who didn’t apply himself at Philips Exeter. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

What got people turnt is when the person who took “their” spot became a brown woman instead of a mediocrity who didn’t apply himself at Philips Exeter. 

But I was in the Key Club!!!

Posted
14 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Its entirely fair to call the admission process cooked but its laughable to point to a bullshit school that can’t even transfer credits but “only” requires you to score in the 96th percentile of the SAT and call it a better way of easing the pressure on kids. 
 

If you have a hard time understanding this and the ensuing conversation in this thread, it is not everyone else who is a dumbass.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Admission into the very elite schools has  always been a social sorting mechanism and not a talent hunt, being accepted was less of an acknowledgment of your academic excellence and more of an anointing as one of the American Brahmins.  There were always plenty of brilliant kids and box-checking strivers who got passed over.  What got people turnt is when the person who took “their” spot became a brown woman instead of a mediocrity who didn’t apply himself at Philips Exeter. 

The problem is substantially more complex than just the race issue. It starts with this country's long term denigration approach to blue collar work, lack of vocational training in k-12 like every other modern country in the world, a continued, on going insistence that everyone should get a university degree, entitlement to said degree, and the move to a profit driven university model. 

I went to a minority high school in the 80s and the top kids got major scholarships to universities. With the mass demand of college bound kids, increasing costs, racial issues, entitlement, zero support by any political side of a vocational track in our early educational system and lack of funding relative to the increased demand and rising cost, you're bound to see a lot more vitriol, and we have. 

It, like all major issues, is never a simplistic single item causality, and to try and make it one is a huge issue in our world today. Complex issues are complex, the cause and solutions are never 1 thing, but by god, we try to make it about 1 thing because its easier than actual discussion of the nuance and particulars.

Edited by BurntEyes
Posted

Not to mention the idea that test scores are the end all be all of intelligence / merit is part of the stress and anxiety of admissions processes and is also absurd on its face. There is a lot that can be changed but there will always be limited spots at limited schools that lots of people want and lots of rejection. I think the biggest change that needs to be made is to do away with the idea that US News rankings are in any way meaningful. It’s not that hard to succeed with a degree from a mid ranked state school. 

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Posted

Relevant to this discussion, this Reddit thread got a lot of traction yesterday.  You read through the thread and find out that his “other schools” are Ivies, UC system as out of state, Duke, etc.

He had a fantastic fucking outcome! UMass-Amherst is a great school! If it’s your safety then you did well. A lot of this is parent’s grind-set bullshit. 

The dipshit is also telling on himself when he explains that his firm won’t even interview you if you aren’t an Ivy product. 
 

image.thumb.jpeg.1b17eea940871e45148aea1b1b96c3cd.jpeg

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Posted
12 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Relevant to this discussion, this Reddit thread got a lot of traction yesterday.  You read through the thread and find out that his “other schools” are Ivies, UC system as out of state, Duke, etc.

He had a fantastic fucking outcome! UMass-Amherst is a great school! If it’s your safety then you did well. A lot of this is parent’s grind-set bullshit. 

The dipshit is also telling on himself when he explains that his firm won’t even interview you if you aren’t an Ivy product. 
 

image.thumb.jpeg.1b17eea940871e45148aea1b1b96c3cd.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.1ef7d5a114e72d46846854ca16043a59.jpeg

ea employee GIF

Posted
41 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Not to mention the idea that test scores are the end all be all of intelligence / merit is part of the stress and anxiety of admissions processes and is also absurd on its face. There is a lot that can be changed but there will always be limited spots at limited schools that lots of people want and lots of rejection. I think the biggest change that needs to be made is to do away with the idea that US News rankings are in any way meaningful. It’s not that hard to succeed with a degree from a mid ranked state school. 

Or like one of my friends that was in HVAC cluster at my high school, yes, we were a vocational magnet HS. I went off to Texas, he took a paid internship at this little company call Honeywell. I went on to get a degree and work for the state in mental health, making ungodly money. He was making 6 figures running a team for said little company.

Don't disagree with your broader point, just saying not all paths need to lead to universities for success and money.

Posted

That kid should also realize that if he’s that good valedictorian or top 5 from UMass would open as many doors as an Ivy degree. About the only job left that requires Ivy seems to be US Supreme Court and Barrett broke through that one.

Posted
16 minutes ago, 'stache said:

That kid should also realize that if he’s that good valedictorian or top 5 from UMass would open as many doors as an Ivy degree. About the only job left that requires Ivy seems to be US Supreme Court and Barrett broke through that one.

So would one from a university just up the road from them in Vanderbilt, one in Houston called Rice, a goofy one in California that goes by Tree, Texas, MIT, Michigan, Northwestern etc. Specifically given he wants to be in the tech world, I'd argue a lot of those are actually far better choices. Nashville is a booming tech market, but apparently driving 2 hrs north is out of the question.

That guy is full of shit.

Posted
43 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Relevant to this discussion, this Reddit thread got a lot of traction yesterday.  You read through the thread and find out that his “other schools” are Ivies, UC system as out of state, Duke, etc.

He had a fantastic fucking outcome! UMass-Amherst is a great school! If it’s your safety then you did well. A lot of this is parent’s grind-set bullshit. 

The dipshit is also telling on himself when he explains that his firm won’t even interview you if you aren’t an Ivy product. 
 

image.thumb.jpeg.1b17eea940871e45148aea1b1b96c3cd.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.1ef7d5a114e72d46846854ca16043a59.jpeg

So yes the schools he applied to are very competitive, and he was a very competitive applicant, but I also wonder if there's something this guy isn't revealing that could have been tanking his chances

Posted
14 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Is that other fake business school in Austin started by that butthurt billionaire still around? Everyone I met who went there was insufferable. 

Acton. It lost its accreditation and closed down. I googled it and apparently they reopened in Madrid.

Posted
10 hours ago, Anastasis said:

"Anastasis, you should really hate UATX because it was founded by the (((joos))) and ackshully it is an intelligence community psyop."

I got to admire y'all's creativity and dedication to the craft sometimes. 

 

So your kid was admitted there?

I mean this is my real question - did they apply and did they let them in?

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Posted

Ana: “College admission is too competitive and all the pressure to succeed is harming our children. We need a better way.”

Unaccredited School: “We’ll let you in if you score in the 99th percentile on a three-hour exam, pass a background check, and can prove three personal achievements that make you worthy.”

Ana: “That’s more like it!”

What a fucking clown.

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Relevant to this discussion, this Reddit thread got a lot of traction yesterday.  You read through the thread and find out that his “other schools” are Ivies, UC system as out of state, Duke, etc.

He had a fantastic fucking outcome! UMass-Amherst is a great school! If it’s your safety then you did well. A lot of this is parent’s grind-set bullshit. 

The dipshit is also telling on himself when he explains that his firm won’t even interview you if you aren’t an Ivy product. 
 

image.thumb.jpeg.1b17eea940871e45148aea1b1b96c3cd.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.1ef7d5a114e72d46846854ca16043a59.jpeg

YARN | My safety's Harvard. | Rushmore (1998) | Video clips ...

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Posted
1 hour ago, 'stache said:

That kid should also realize that if he’s that good valedictorian or top 5 from UMass would open as many doors as an Ivy degree. About the only job left that requires Ivy seems to be US Supreme Court and Barrett broke through that one.

no one ever asks if you were valedictorian of your high school after college.  it is for your resume to do your next step.  after that next step, it matters zero.

Posted
4 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

no one ever asks if you were valedictorian of your high school after college.  it is for your resume to do your next step.  after that next step, it matters zero.

They do, however, want to hear you talk about how many chicks you banged back in the day.

So, plot your course accordingly.

Posted
1 hour ago, chainsaw said:

So yes the schools he applied to are very competitive, and he was a very competitive applicant, but I also wonder if there's something this guy isn't revealing that could have been tanking his chances

The part about him working for a BU prof for three summers and being the lead author on two papers really blew my bullshit detector to smithereens.

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Posted
28 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

no one ever asks if you were valedictorian of your high school after college.  it is for your resume to do your next step.  after that next step, it matters zero.

I meant out of college. It matters if you're valedictorian or top 5-10% out of college. At least early in your career. It matters a ton out of law school. 

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Posted
15 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Is that other fake business school in Austin started by that butthurt billionaire still around? Everyone I met who went there was insufferable. 

you talking about Acton, the Sanderfer MBA school? i believe they got run out of Texas and are now in Spain. i also seem to recall some association with Jordan Peterson, a scholarship or something 😝...this current iteration was more clever in picking a name, anyway lol

Posted
28 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

The part about him working for a BU prof for three summers and being the lead author on two papers really blew my bullshit detector to smithereens.

some guy really does have over 300 confirmed kills

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