Princeton University (2023-2024)

[glass drum]

It's going man. I have a draft done, probably gonna submit sometime next week

[tough eagle]

Oh yea I get roasted into oblivion too dw about that chanceme is weird

[tough eagle]

Hell yea

[glass drum]

Same with the roasted

[thick seal]

i think your ecs really just matter in the context of how you write about them

[tough eagle]

The thing about my LOCI is I talked about an event that is in the organising process so I might have to get that done before I send it out

It’s like a charity thing

[glass drum]

Yo @tough eagle how likely is it that you're gonna end up at Purdue University? Because if you are, we should DM. For me, I'd say pretty likely

[thick seal]

it’s like some of the most amazing shows and books are on the most absolutely mundane premises

[tough eagle]

Hm I’m just waiting on GATech to be honest that’s my realistic dream school

[glass drum]

This is true.

[glass drum]

Lmao same. January 26th baby

[tough eagle]

Yessir

[thick seal]

i hear that the loci is really something you’re just supposed to knock out in like an hour

bc it’s supposed to be concise and to the point

[tough eagle]

I mean yea but my grammar sucks ass

[glass drum]

But honestly it's more expensive so idk if I'd go even if I get in

[tough eagle]

Ah I see

[thick seal]

• whatever updates you can give later when you get them

at any time before decisions

[tough eagle]

All my updates are here I have like 5

[thick seal]

man i did NOT do enough this fall to have like five updates lol

[glass drum]

Hey @thick seal what do you wanna study?

[thick seal]

math/physics

[pseudo oar]

W

[thick seal]

but i might left field into neuro or poli sci or econ or smth else

[tough eagle]

Rare leo appearance lol

[pseudo oar]

yyyy

[thick seal]

i’m pretty comfortable bc i don’t think many fields are like harder than math

so i think if i develop an interest elsewhere i’ll just go for it

[glass drum]

Nice nice

[thick seal]

everything’s interesting to me

[pseudo oar]

bro i havent been doing anything lately😭

[tough eagle]

I thought you’re doing UChi?

[pseudo oar]

ahhhh

[tough eagle]

Did you do it

[thick seal]

fucking uchicago

[pseudo oar]

yeah i submited

[thick seal]

i am not getting into that school

[pseudo oar]

i had the essay doen a long time ago

[thick seal]

i wrote the essay on the last day lol

[pseudo oar]

u'll

[rose lava]

princeton >>> uchicago

[thick seal]

disagree

[rose lava]

dont do it

[thick seal]

princeton = chicago

[pseudo oar]

u should stick w math physics imo

[rose lava]

my friends there do not like it

[pseudo oar]

thats what im doing

[thick seal]

i think this depends

on how aggressively sweaty you are

[pseudo oar]

lmfao

[thick seal]

some kids at uchicago love it there

my brother hates it bc he’s doing both econ and physics

[pseudo oar]

im applying j to see cause it used to be my #1

[rose lava]

princeton is pretty fucking sweaty bro

the quarter schedule is just ass for uchicago kids

[tough eagle]

Galactic did you get in rd I forgot

[pseudo oar]

uchi econ is crazy

[rose lava]

nah i got in rea

princeton was always my top choice so i am a little biased

[thick seal]

i decided to apply like mid-december

[rose lava]

also the uchicago counselor who came to my school was like "this is a school where kids come to learn and it is not the right fit for everyone" when i asked about the social environment 😭

[thick seal]

they say that yeah

[pseudo oar]

lmfaooo

[rose lava]

scared the shit out of me

[thick seal]

but it’s a pretty big school

[rose lava]

way to market your school!

[pseudo oar]

isn't pton like the same thou?

[thick seal]

it’s more like that than uchicago

the core curriculum is skirtable

the junior papers and senior thesis are not

[rose lava]

i party a fair bit more than my friends at chicago i tink

yeah the JPs will be tough

not excited.

[thick seal]

but i feel like the difference is mkre

princeton’s experience is actually more homogeneous than chicago’s

and the average a2c kid probably ends up on the sweaty side of chicago

which is more sweaty than pton

[rose lava]

bse/ab are pretty different but other than that yeah the requirements are similar

but i think kids here are just happier it's a nicer campus it's a more social school

[thick seal]

like chicago has many ways to go about the core curriculum iirc

[thick seal]

chicago’s pretty nice

i feel like i can talk most extensively on these schools

at least location wise

i have family around both

[rose lava]

i love chicago it is a super nice city

[thick seal]

hyde park sucks but uchicago is pretty

[rose lava]

but it's not as kid friendly as nyc is I think

[thick seal]

meanwhile the area around pton is kind of dead aside from the town

[rose lava]

oh yeah it is super dead

but the campus has all you need really

[thick seal]

i think it’s like to each their own

[tough eagle]

Damn cracked asf man

[rose lava]

the eating clubs are great for social life

[tough eagle]

Galactic do you know much about the Princeton cricket club

[rose lava]

and student government runs a ton of campus events

[rose lava]

i did not know it existed until just now!

[thick seal]

that’s fair but it’s also hella pretentious in some areas

[rose lava]

i have never played cricket before though

[thick seal]

nothing like that in uchicago bc pretense disappears COMPLETELY

which is both good and bad

[tough eagle]

My guy 😭😭 I wrote about it in my LOCI because I just got promoted to official member of my local cricket club

Honestly my LOCI achievements are so shit

[rose lava]

there are a lot of clubs

[thick seal]

it’s ok

the loci achievements are not supposed to be good

[rose lava]

however i know many many people on campus and have never heard about a cricket club before 😭

i know all of princeton's new polo team though

[thick seal]

no one expects you to do much in two months

and there are a lot more rd slots than sts semifinalists fs

at least across good schools

[tough eagle]

Posh ass shit

[thick seal]

huh?

[tough eagle]

Sorry wrong reply

[thick seal]

oh lmao

[thick seal]

so is cricket in america though lol

[rose lava]

so true

horses scare me i will stay away

[thick seal]

galactic what’re your major interests

[tough eagle]

Wait fr

[thick seal]

nah i’m joking

[pseudo oar]

how good is sts semifinalists

[tough eagle]

Nah I see so many horse memes on insta they are so goofy

[thick seal]

top 300

usamo qual level

actually probably better than usamo qual

idk i’m not usamo qual

[thick seal]

they’re distinguished wdym

majestic

sublime

virtuosic

[pseudo oar]

rly?

[tough eagle]

Lmfao I love horseys

[pseudo oar]

usamo qual is v good thou

[thick seal]

usamo is like

300 students

[pseudo oar]

well idt u can compare like that

[rose lava]

like what i might major in?

[thick seal]

actually maybe 150

[thick seal]

yes

[pseudo oar]

usapho qua is like 400

[rose lava]

spia/history/politics are my three most likely i think

[pseudo oar]

doesnt mean its rly good

[thick seal]

but math comps are nicher and less interesting than science research

[tough eagle]

That is so cool ngl

[rose lava]

it is pretty normal

[thick seal]

divide by two for senior class

i’m highballing so like 250

[pseudo oar]

yeah

but not a lot do physics

[thick seal]

sts is really prestigious

usapho is less prestigious than usamo

[pseudo oar]

iciccc

[pseudo oar]

yeah exactly

usapho qua is like nothing tbh

its like aime

[thick seal]

like the wikipedia page says ghwb called it the olympics of science or something

[thick seal]

less than aime

[pseudo oar]

i wouldnt say its less

[thick seal]

but not by much

ehh

i feel like it’s more knowledge less thinking

but i mean aime is also not really thinking

[pseudo oar]

hmmm

[thick seal]

usabo semifinals = usapho

[pseudo oar]

idk i needed to study harder to get usapho than aime

[thick seal]

this is not a super important comparison anyway

[thick seal]

yeah

but studying isn’t like a distinguishing feature

[pseudo oar]

yeah

[thick seal]

i feel like aime is harder to get bc to get it consistently you have to practice

like at least a bit

at problem solving

instead of learning physics

qualifying for usapho i feel like is more consistent

so 4x aime in my opinion is better than 4x usapho

[brazen crow]

ive heard of sm cases of ppl usapho qualing when they just took AP physics and retained the concepts well

[pseudo oar]

u have 2 chances for aime thou

[thick seal]

even then

there was a kid who didn’t qualify for aime his junior year after qualifying freshman and sophomore

he wasn’t bad at math

[pseudo oar]

what

[thick seal]

at my school anyway

[pseudo oar]

😭

i think at the end of the day usapho and aime r j trivial award

[thick seal]

yeah

sts is too honestly

[tough eagle]

lol i fucked up AMC

[thick seal]

super packed with randomness and ai

[pseudo oar]

usamo gets untrivial

[thick seal]

academic excellence is about consistency

[thick seal]

i don’t totally agree

[pseudo oar]

would have tried if i dont suck at comp math

[thick seal]

usamo awards gets untrivial

lmao

yeah

[pseudo oar]

icic

[thick seal]

before usamo awards

it’s a lot about just knowing tricks

[pseudo oar]

i looked at my honor list its so bad lmfao

[thick seal]

mine too lol

if i get 13+ on aime this year i make usamo 😭

maybe 14+

[pseudo oar]

lmaooo

r u taking it

[thick seal]

yeah

it’s like

it’s fine for the most part

getting a good aime score is what matters

bc usamo happens after decisions iirc

and good aime score = usamo qualification for the most part

[pseudo oar]

ohhhh

u can send aime score to college icic

[thick seal]

like are they gonna judge you bc you didn’t do well on the amc 12 lmao

yes

i put my score from last year down

[tough eagle]

same

one of them was DofE 😭

[thick seal]

i put down ap scholar

[tough eagle]

how does one get ap scholar tho

[thick seal]

and national merit semifinalist

[tough eagle]

cuz i do not ap

[tough eagle]

how do you get that

[thick seal]

test scores LMAO

that they would already have seen

[tough eagle]

oh damn

[pseudo oar]

whats that

[tough eagle]

my awards look impressive on paper

[tough eagle]

duke of edinburgh's award scheme

[thick seal]

i put down an ftc invitational from my sophomore year lmfao

[pseudo oar]

lmfao i was deciding which one to put psat semi or ap scholar

[tough eagle]

but is actually ass

[orchid axle]

bro

[tough eagle]

ikr

[orchid axle]

HAHAHA

[thick seal]

is this like the nshss thing but in the uk

[tough eagle]

nah its kinda like scouts but not really

so like you do volunteering physical and academic (?) things for a year

[thick seal]

ahh

that’s interesting though

it’s better than my fucking national latin exam awards

which i put down

[tough eagle]

bruh

award reveal

its so ass

[thorny viper]

it's ok most kids at princeton haven't done serious comp math

[tough eagle]

whats comp math

competitive math?

[thorny viper]

competition math

[tough eagle]

ah gotcha

i suck at AMC

[pseudo oar]

yeah those end up in mit 💀

[tough eagle]

got like 66

[pseudo oar]

wait do pton get like imo

[thorny viper]

yeah they all trickle over to MIT

[pseudo oar]

or all imo j go mit

[tough eagle]

nick did you do a lot of comp math?

[thorny viper]

yeah all the time, our valedictorian last year was an IMO gold medalist

[tough eagle]

cuz youre a math major right

[tough eagle]

yall still have valedictorian at college?

[pseudo oar]

oh so we do have some

[tough eagle]

god damn

[thorny viper]

no I didn't do comp math, but I was trained with comp math kids during high school pretty frequently

[tough eagle]

ah ic

that is very cool

i was not as i was not considered one of the elites at my current high school

[thorny viper]

yeah it's not uncommon, like there's a '27 who is a IMO silver medalist

but like if princeton wanted those kids they could recruit them all, we just don't care

[tough eagle]

bruh why

[pseudo oar]

icic

wdym recruit

[thorny viper]

MIT literally has recruiting events

[tough eagle]

idk likely letters, perchance

[tough eagle]

how

[thorny viper]

it's weird, like there's stuff on AoPS a lot if you know what that is

[thick seal]

yeah

[thorny viper]

basically every elite competitive math kid is on AoPS

[thick seal]

i used to be

[thorny viper]

so they recruit on there

[thick seal]

but it’s like

[tough eagle]

ive heard of it

art of problem solving

[thick seal]

amc scores are not a good indicator of actual math talent

i think you have to like get the field well

which doesn’t mean anything to most people including me

[thorny viper]

but like besides that, there's a pretty pervasive culture about competitive math and MIT

[thick seal]

yeah

[thorny viper]

like it's all anyone talks about

so if you're in those circles then you basically just matriculate to MIT, cause you know so many people already

[thick seal]

yeah

half the kids i went to mathpath with are at mit now

[tough eagle]

nick is pton math a big jump from high school math

[thorny viper]

I didn't apply to MIT (I only applied to princeton and got in EA) mostly because I found those kids insufferable and insanely arrogant

[tough eagle]

i wish i applied mit my dream school frfr

[pseudo oar]

lmfao

[thorny viper]

depends on where you start

[thick seal]

i dropped out of the math comp scene like freshman year and didn’t do hmmt or arml

[pseudo oar]

no way mit recruits kids on AoPS 💀

[thick seal]

its so painful though

[tough eagle]

i do a level math and further math but i will try to self learn calc bc cuz theres a bit of overlap

[tough eagle]

why how so

[thick seal]

aops is so unserious

[thick seal]

i think this is a jump

[thorny viper]

i mean every IMO competitor is on there

[thick seal]

yeah

[thorny viper]

like the entire USA IMO team is on AoPS frequently posting and stuff

[thick seal]

but it’s an unserious platform as in math kids are so unserious

[tough eagle]

how should i bridge that gap

[thick seal]

learn calc

[thorny viper]

idk what this means

[thick seal]

that’s p much it

[thorny viper]

like are you starting at calc?

[tough eagle]

where

[thick seal]

maybe take the aops calc course LMAO

or khan academy

don’t take the aops calc course

[tough eagle]

i do the bri ish curriculum and do the most intensive math course there is

[thick seal]

worst mistake of my life

[tough eagle]

i am doing a bit of calc yes

[thick seal]

yeah i think

the british math curriculum is not great

[tough eagle]

i will try to learn bc through khan

[thorny viper]

i mean I took it

[thick seal]

which is saying something considering the us’s garbage math curriculum

[thorny viper]

it was fine

[tough eagle]

mars which is worse

us or uk math system

[thick seal]

uk

easily

[tough eagle]

💀

[thorny viper]

@thick seal why did you not like AoPS calc

[thick seal]

in the us you have ap occasionally

but i took the mat and i did NOT study

and i got a 79

[tough eagle]

bruh

[manic jay]

idk but fs canada is the worst

[tough eagle]

that is NOT how that works

[manic jay]

canadas math system is dogshit

[tough eagle]

oh dang

[manic jay]

they dont even learn fractions until the 7th grade

[tough eagle]

WHAT

[manic jay]

my friends moved to canada

and took alg 1

[thick seal]

i dropped out mid year

[manic jay]

in 7th

in US

sorry

[thick seal]

bc i hated online

[manic jay]

pre-alg in 6th

and then canada 7th

[thick seal]

mostly my own fault honestly

[manic jay]

they taught them fractions

and basic 4-5 grade level math

[thick seal]

in fairness i took it pointlessly early

[tough eagle]

that is wild

[manic jay]

i feel like the best math systems are in asia

india/china/singapore

[tough eagle]

hong kong dse math is dogshit

[thorny viper]

when did you take it??

[tough eagle]

i like a level tho cuz its more flexible

[manic jay]

ib is good

[thick seal]

8th

did it with a friend from mathpath

[manic jay]

omfg aops was my kumon

[tough eagle]

i hate IB cuz i would be forced to do english

[manic jay]

i hated aops so much

[thorny viper]

that's pretty much the average age, probably 8th or 9th grade

[manic jay]

shit had me stressing

[tough eagle]

do you have to pay for that aops math course

[manic jay]

art of problem solving

my dad used to buy the textbooks

[tough eagle]

also what is the hardest math course khan offers

[thorny viper]

I was old, I took calc on AoPS sophomore year and then took abstract algebra with them afterward

[manic jay]

fellow iber?

suffering in solidarity

[tough eagle]

oh wait no wrong grammar

i do a levels

so british

[manic jay]

where are u from

hk?

[tough eagle]

hong kong

yea

[manic jay]

ive done so many research papers on hk

but i prolly dont know shit still

its all for like world geography/global politics lol

[manic jay]

is that easier or harder than ib

[tough eagle]

i do not know

i fucking hate IB

definitely not because im too dumb to do it

[manic jay]

random source

[thick seal]

i say pointlessly early bc i took calc again the next year

[tough eagle]

yea i begged my dad to not let me do IB

[thick seal]

but yeah

[tough eagle]

yo mars is the aops calc courses free

[thick seal]

no

[tough eagle]

shit bro

[thick seal]

do khan academy

[tough eagle]

whats the hardest course on khan then

[manic jay]

i go to a k-12 ib school lol i did pyp myp and dp. now im prepping for mock ib exams in dpyr2

[thick seal]

or read a textbook

its uh

[tough eagle]

god damn i did gcses and doing a levels

[manic jay]

jamie did u send your princeton loci

[tough eagle]

not yet

imma do it as late as possible

[manic jay]

dont glaze them too much

[tough eagle]

can you help me check

[thick seal]

don’t glaze them at all

[manic jay]

in case u win new awards?

[tough eagle]

if i glaze them too much

[manic jay]

nah u gotta do a little

[tough eagle]

dmdm

[thick seal]

write one sentence talking about the school

and your interest

then the rest of it is about you

[manic jay]

u have alr written it?

[tough eagle]

yea

[thick seal]

but damn i guess i didn’t remember lol

[thick seal]

that’s super cool

i still haven’t taken abstract algebra lol

i have done three years of linear + diffeq + multi

can you recommend any textbooks lmao

[tough eagle]

mars whats the hardest math course on khan do you know

[thick seal]

i’ll check

it’s not really about difficulty though

[tough eagle]

thanks man

i just want to bridge that gap

[thick seal]

you don’t need to do anything particularly hard to prepare for college maths except probably proofs

but it’s better to wait until you get to college to learn those if you don’t already know them

khan isn’t too extensive but the bc calc sections are fine

don’t stress too hard about it

the main thing is that i think you want an exposure to calc before college

bc the conceptual leap is pretty hard coming out of like four years of the same thing

if you want harder stuff look on mit ocw

[pseudo oar]

for algebra?

[thick seal]

yeah

i’m trying to get through the one on abel’s theorem

this spring/summer

[pseudo oar]

what book is that

[thick seal]

alekseev

it’s the one mit primes recommends iirc

[pseudo oar]

ohhhh

[thick seal]

but i am not mit primes caliber

[pseudo oar]

i know that i was gonna read it when i saw it sophomore yeah lmfao

never did

idk any good intro alg textbook

dommit and foote is p classical

but it sucks imo

aluffi is good

[thick seal]

what math have you gotten through so far

[pseudo oar]

but not intro

[thick seal]

chapter 0?

[tough eagle]

or alright

[thick seal]

wtf it’s on category theory

i am not grothendieck LMAO

immediate intimidation

[pseudo oar]

uhm like linear alg a bit of analysis some algebra some number theory

[pseudo oar]

category is nice i wanna learn that in the near future

[tough eagle]

lmao the hardest thing we doing rn is second order differentials

its pathetic

[thick seal]

that’s awesome

[pseudo oar]

i was thinking abt doing directed reading course on it

[thick seal]

bruh what

you do not need khan academy LMAO

second order differentials is like late bc calc

[tough eagle]

what

[pseudo oar]

i never learnt them systematically thou

[tough eagle]

my guy i do not know taylor series

[pseudo oar]

on lin alg i did w a book

[thick seal]

you need like four seconds to understand it

i can explain it right now

[tough eagle]

sure

[thick seal]

taylor series is an approximation of an (algebraic) function by adding up all the derivatives of the function of any order

by algebraic i literally mean it converges by series at every point

[thorny viper]

you'll probably learn enough of it just by chilling in the math common room lol

[thick seal]

or the point you’re finding the derivatives at

fuck nvm this is a bad explanation

[thorny viper]

like you'll probably hear someone joking about "a symmetric monoidal functor from nCob to Vect"

[tough eagle]

its ok man

ill go on khan for a bit

[thick seal]

it’s like

you’re just approximating a function by its increasing order derivatives

[pseudo oar]

lmfao

i acc really want to go in there

maybe ill visit pton before the preview day

[thorny viper]

yay just lmk

[pseudo oar]

def

[thick seal]

!!

get the ice cream

i don’t remember what it’s called

[tough eagle]

ah ok

[thick seal]

i love princeton ice cream though

[pseudo oar]

i heard its good

[tough eagle]

is it kinda like maclaurin

[thick seal]

my childhood

[thick seal]

maclaurin is taylor

[tough eagle]

oh what

[thick seal]

but specifically at x=0

[tough eagle]

ah ok

gotcha

cuz we did maclaurin but not taylor

[thick seal]

taylor generalizes to x= any constant

LMAO you’re good

[tough eagle]

thanks

[thick seal]

you’re ready for college math dw

the last thing is maybe work through proofs a bit

try axler?

or don’t he’s kind of pretentious

[pseudo oar]

this is so w i searched up math common room the first one that comes up is pton

[thorny viper]

Taylors theorem (aka what allows taylor series) is a way to express a smooth function in Euclidean space (so think R^n where R^n= R x R x... x R n-times, and R is the real numbers) in terms of a polynomial equation and a remainder term.

[tough eagle]

ah ok

thanks nick!

[thick seal]

this is a much more accurate explanation

[thorny viper]

so the benefit of that is (1) we have a nice formula to approximate our function and (2) we can calculate how far off we were

[thick seal]

i never remember the remainder term specifically lmao

hmm wait i don’t remember if taylor breaks in complex-analytic functions

i feel like it doesn’t?

this is a googleable question nvm

ok it holds that makes sense

[thorny viper]

well there's a way to adapt it to basically any smooth function between any two smooth manifolds, using something called a jet

[thick seal]

fuck i’ve been saying algebraic when i mean analytic

i am actually crazy

[thorny viper]

these are basically operations which take smooth functions and turns them into polynomial approximations

[soft barn]

nick this is random but do u know sami?

[thorny viper]

the precise formulation of them is a little more complicated than that depending on the setting but that's the overall gist

[thorny viper]

no sorry

[soft barn]

nah dw just curious

[thorny viper]

yeah we pretty much have the best one , MIT has one only open to grad students and it has rotten bananas in there

[thick seal]

makes sense

[thorny viper]

and harvard has one but it's always empty and kind of awkward

[thick seal]

do you know katie

[thorny viper]

not off the top of my head no

[thick seal]

lmaoo

[thick seal]

all the kids ik at princeton are like

english majors lol

[thorny viper]

basically MIT has this stupid tradition of ordering massive crates of bananas for math students, and a lot of them are eaten but the rest just sit there and rot since they aren't able to dump them all

it's literally disgusting

[thick seal]

what

there can’t be that many mit grad students

or they have to realize that they don’t need that many right

[sharp rover]

orz MIT!!! MIT AOs, if you're reading this, please defer --> accept me 😭.

[polar moss]

me as a politics major

so true

its the perfect liberal arts college to drink coffee and read books lol

[slender citrus]

really????

i thought Princeton was stem heavy

rip i should've applied

[thorny viper]

not at all 💀

[thorny viper]

F. Scott Fitzgerald nepo baby core

[polar moss]

do you know what ivies are

by definition they are liberal arts colleges

princeton has a thorough core liberal arts curriculum to teach you how to be a citizen of the world

[polar moss]

me core

except without the money and connected parents

[thick seal]

i honestly think that aside from engineering most good liberal arts schools are amazing at stem

but of the crazy stem state schools only like berkeley and ucla are amazing at humanities

so there’s not a huge reason not to apply to liberal arts schools except if you really want to have an easier time in engineering job placement

[thorny viper]

Uhh not true

At least in math, there are probably only 3 schools in the US which I would call “amazing” for math.

Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard.

[slender citrus]

well yeah they're def one of the best but i personally prefer more humanities leaning schools like uchicago and brown

[thorny viper]

How is brown better in the humanities than Princeton

Like if you said Yale that would make sense

[polar moss]

boooooo

im studying politics / political economy here and its so nice

they just let you do whatever you want

tbh

[quaint parcel]

got a princeton interview LOL

the guy is not from my state??

[glass drum]

Gl! With the right interviewer it's honestly pretty fun

[quaint parcel]

hes from like the east coast and im from rural midwest?

[glass drum]

Shouldn't matter too much as long as you come across as a genuine and passionate person

[thick seal]

yeah but

the average student from those schools isn’t going to be terence tao

they’re more likely to be a grant sanderson in which case you can get that from most good schools in math

like columbia/chicago/williams/hmc

i mean ig it might be like “amazing” if you look at phd program placement?

but you have to ask what an undergrad math major is looking for to some degree

idk you probably know more than me

[pale sonnet]

I got the same thing REA my interviewer was not from my state FL she was from NJ and lived in NYC

[uneven bloom]

They try to interview everyone so sometimes the locations get pretty creative lol

[pale sonnet]

agreed! creative indeed

[quaint parcel]

ah makes sense

so weird to see tho

they're a doctor so im nervous

[uneven bloom]

i was nervous too but it turned out to be a very pleasant conversation

just be yourself

my interviewer told me it's more of a two-way conversation where you get to learn about each other

[pale sonnet]

are you pre-med?

[quaint parcel]

nope, applied to public policy and af am studies (prelaw)

[pale sonnet]

doctor as in doctoral degree, my mistake. It will be fine an intelligent interviewer can have a lot of interesting things to say. Good Luck with the doctor

[quaint parcel]

ahh thanks

[polar moss]

there are only 40 per class and i know like 10 of them

they are some of the most accomplished and intelligent people ive ever met

my roommate is one

[thick seal]

i’m sure this is true but i’m not sure it’s obvious that they’ll need princeton’s resources

[polar moss]

most of the ones i know are planning to get phds and go into academia iirc

[thick seal]

yeah

but i feel like the only huge difference between princeton’s grad placements and like chicago’s

[polar moss]

well the value is the professors

peers

being around the best makes you the best

[thick seal]

is truly like the most crazy professors

[polar moss]

research resources

really easy to get through the administrative bureaucracy

funding for summer research or work elsewhere

[thick seal]

i think it balances out though

[polar moss]

for social sciences research our IRB is really quick

[polar moss]

no one's forcing you to apply to pton lil bro 💀

[thick seal]

i mean i want to go lmao

i’m just not so sure that the academic difference really hits that hard for the vast majority of people

[polar moss]

depends on how determined you are to make something of yourself while youre here

[thick seal]

yeah ofc

[polar moss]

if you arent particularly interested in research and academia then it doesnt really matter

its an academic institution not a country club

[thick seal]

i mean fair

[thick seal]

i just don’t tend to think this point is true for math specifically

[thorny viper]

https://tenor.com/view/blinking-eyes-white-guy-blinking-meme-what-huh-gif-26334322

[thick seal]

lmao that’s fair

but i feel like in some respects a lot of mathematical ability develops in almost any decent math curriculum

collaboration’s super important but 1) people collaborate across campuses and 2) i feel like it’s not a clear-cut advantage to collaborating with the faculty of one school over another

[thorny viper]

Princeton math students get letters of rec from fields medalists regularly. We can either walk down the hall, or take a walk to the IAS to attend the most sought-after/prestigious lectures in real time, whenever we feel like it. I’ve already seen talks from 3 separate fields medalists in just one semester, and most serious math people don’t see one in their entire lifetime.

Our math students are actively involved with grad students, and professors read books with us and teach us constantly outside of class. It’s its own separate ecosystem on campus that’s hard to enter, but amazing to be apart of. That’s why it’s #1 — there isn’t a university in the world that has a math building 14 stories tall

[thick seal]

i’m just not sure you couldn’t have gone to pomona and come out an equally good mathematician

[thorny viper]

All love to Pomona, but a school like that would be a complete joke compared to Princeton for math.

[thick seal]

i can only really believe that princeton would expose you to more areas

[polar moss]

bro insulted pton math in front of nick 💀💀💀💀💀💀

bro bout to feel a wrath unknown to mankind

[gaunt shuttle]

just finished my pton interview

[late pollen]

did you mog your interviewer

[gaunt shuttle]

that was probably the toughest one I had so far but we enjoyed it

[gaunt shuttle]

duh

[late pollen]

good shit

[soft barn]

hi aka

[late pollen]

HELLO

[polar moss]

lfggggg

baby tiger soon

[gaunt shuttle]

bro she asked why princeton and then why you and that was a tough one

[late pollen]

bro

"why you"

idfk man why YOU

🫵

[polar moss]

i’m gonna open with this when i’m an interviewer

[late pollen]

WHY YOU. WHY DID YOU GET IN.

[polar moss]

i’m gonna have so much fun with it

[soft barn]

LOL

[polar moss]

only 3 years away

[gaunt shuttle]

she was interesting

[late pollen]

man how do u terrorize random hs seniors like that

[soft barn]

for fun

[polar moss]

me soon😈

[late pollen]

[soft barn]

i cant wait for the grade below me to apply so i can see them suffer

[late pollen]

bro u were in that position like x years ago

can't do that to a homie bro

[soft barn]

😊 👍

[gaunt shuttle]

pton french major from the class of 2000

[late pollen]

FRENCH

[pseudo oar]

i think u still can but its easier in pton w its resource and environment

[late pollen]

https://tenor.com/bsirV.gif

[polar moss]

dw bout it

[thorny viper]

Princeton math students start at what Pomona would call “junior level math.” Our lowest level first years start out in advanced real analysis, and some of our first years (say 4 other kids in my year including me) enter at the senior to graduate level

[pseudo oar]

i think that's what college is mainly about

[polar moss]

once you make it out you don’t look back

[soft barn]

black

[late pollen]

one of the craziest typos of all time

LOL

[polar moss]

💀

[soft barn]

LMFAO

[polar moss]

fuck

[soft barn]

caught in 4k

[late pollen]

KILL HIS ASS

RACISM DETECTED

[polar moss]

i’m asian don’t cancel me please 🥺

[late pollen]

Death sentence.

[polar moss]

LMFAOO

[soft barn]

omg

[thick seal]

i just don’t really get why you can’t do this at columbia also

[late pollen]

u rn

[soft barn]

@polar moss https://www.trueasiantest.com/

[thorny viper]

Because Columbia institutionally won’t let you do this

[polar moss]

it’s funny bc i’m pre law

ish

[thorny viper]

Just look at their curriculum

[polar moss]

guys brainstorm fun interview questions with me

[late pollen]

what do u do if ur not at that level

💀

[thick seal]

eh i don’t know if i agree

[late pollen]

like what if your ass has just never written a proof

[polar moss]

i wanna be like “if you were to get a nobel prize what would it be in”

[late pollen]

or interacted with one

[thorny viper]

It’s not debatable lol

[thick seal]

there were a ton of freshmen in the analysis class when i shopped it this fall

[late pollen]

does princeton do enough to support those students

[soft barn]

hmmm

what are some of your weaknesses/challenges?

i feel like that is a hard one

[late pollen]

i doubt every single math student incoming to princeton is able to say yes i am prepared for a rigorous analysis course

[late pollen]

i'm not going to lie idk how to answer these except for being completely deadass

it's joever if they ask

i don't have any strategies

i legit just walk into the essays and interviews and just spill my guts

https://tenor.com/bim3h.gif

[soft barn]

LOL lowkey same

[late pollen]

if they don't like me gg

[polar moss]

this mars dude is walking on eggshells rn💀💀

[soft barn]

ik nick is silencing him

[polar moss]

this is like when people try to tell me spia is better than politics 💀

[late pollen]

what particularly makes princeton stand out to current students

[polar moss]

you are an adult in college you should be expected to figure most things out yourself

it’s not kindergarten blud💀

office hours

and meetings with profs

that’s the resources you get

[late pollen]

bro 💀 if u just finished ap calc bc and get sent into a difficult real analysis dcourse it's just fucked

[thick seal]

sometimes that’s really not enough

[late pollen]

like you're going to get analed

hard

[polar moss]

beyond that you are expected to learn and practice

textbooks

past problems

it’s all available

[late pollen]

💀 maybe not the right place for me then gg

[polar moss]

but it’s your responsibility to learn it

[thick seal]

at which point i feel like it ends up being a “if the people in that class were already good” question

[late pollen]

yeah but like

[polar moss]

like for my multi final last semester

i jusr went thru and practiced all the material they gave

[late pollen]

imagine u finished alg 1 and u just get sent to linear algebra

[polar moss]

and went to review sessions

[late pollen]

it'd be like ?

[polar moss]

you choose your own math

and also

[late pollen]

oh i see

[thick seal]

this isn’t really applicable to what nick was talking about

[late pollen]

ok i was gien the impression that you're just like

thrust into a difficult real analysis course

[polar moss]

you should have at least some calc done if ur going to pton stem

[late pollen]

and i was like what the fuck

[soft barn]

lake what are u studying

[thick seal]

you can’t really practice math beyond a certain level except to remember theorems

[polar moss]

political economy & sustainable energy

[soft barn]

goat

[late pollen]

i mean

proofs are a skill

[thick seal]

you kind of get it once

[late pollen]

it's like a diff language and you can def train it

[thick seal]

that’s fair

[late pollen]

i think there's a sort of ingenuity that also comes with practice

e.g. you might just not know how to approach an epsilon-delta proof at all to begin with

but there are certain tricks and generalizations about functions' behaviors that you can apply to some of the more noob-killer questions

idk i think math is practiceable but like

[thick seal]

it comes easier to some people

[late pollen]

ye

unlucky

i am the dumb,

i am the are have be dumb

[thick seal]

which is why it’s hard to teach if you’re smart

[late pollen]

i'm NOT gonna lie this IMO silver medalist is not the best teacher i've had

[polar moss]

😤

[late pollen]

she's really nice though so

🤝

my fucking goat

[soft barn]

yeah i realized a lot of people r naturally goated at math

[late pollen]

ye

help

[thick seal]

i think teaching math is also a practiceable skill

[soft barn]

in lin alg and multi when i took it last year

[late pollen]

bro there's this random mf taking real analysis at uchicago in his junior year

https://tenor.com/bkhTF.gif

my bad og

[soft barn]

there's someone in my grade who took lin alg and multi in 9th

[late pollen]

these mfs r diff.

i wont lie.

[soft barn]

they ran outta math classes for him so they had to add one LOL

[late pollen]

💀

i mean kind of lit that the school can just add a course for him tho

[rose lava]

what math course did you take last sem curious

[late pollen]

i think the worst part of math

[soft barn]

well ya also enough people signed up for it too

[thorny viper]

I took MAT 365

[late pollen]

is that they keep naming this shit the same thing how dare these mfs fool the 12-year-old me into believing that i'd learned algebra and then send my ass back to algebra

[rose lava]

oooo topology king

[thorny viper]

I was one of 2 first years in my entire 30 kid class

At University of Florida for example, that’s offered for seniors or grad students (they use the same textbook but cover half of the material)

[thick seal]

this is a good point

[polar moss]

nick don’t apply to the admissions office marketing pton job 💀

cuz i did

and you’d blow me out of the water

with all these facts

[soft barn]

LOL

[thorny viper]

Not after neuro 201 💀

[rose lava]

some girl in my COS 126 precept was taking 449 somehow

she was a freshman too

[polar moss]

💀💀💀

no one’s perfect

[thick seal]

eh idk

[polar moss]

i mean i got into an energy engineering 420 class for juniors and seniors that isn’t open to freshman

jus cuz i knew the prof and he said it was fine

[thorny viper]

Idk mars I don’t really have to persuade you cause Princeton can do it on their own if they feel like it haha

[polar moss]

u can bend a few rules here and there 🫡

[thick seal]

no i believe you

i’m half coping as it is

[thorny viper]

It’s not like I go to some other school with a math program and I have to constantly defend it

[late pollen]

can u give like

quick recap on the most salient points about princeton's math

💀

my reading comprehension is too ass

im sorry bro

[thorny viper]

Like anyone I need to impress or know for connection-related purposes already knows how good the program is relative to everywhere else

[thorny viper]

It’s #1 in the US, that’s the TLDR

[late pollen]

💀 but why

is it just like

wait do u play video games

[thick seal]

research output probably

[late pollen]

randomass question

[polar moss]

does it sound like he does 💀

[late pollen]

idk man people are allowed to have fun

[thick seal]

wiles proved flt

[polar moss]

nick and i being a kind of “grind or die” vibe to the “eating club” that the “ nepo babies” don’t really like

@thorny viper

[thick seal]

the school is pretty good at doing crazy impossible stuff

[polar moss]

or in some cases his beautiful single dorm over asian tea for silent study

[late pollen]

grinding is too fucking ahrd bro

💀

idk i've been burnt out for the past like

idk how long and im beginning to wonder if im just a lazy ass

🤨

[thorny viper]

Most fields medalists on staff in the US (3, 6 if you count IAS), most elite coursework granted to most undergraduates, elite job prospects, most prestigious letters of rec (basically all fields medalists or revolutionaries in fields), etc etc

[late pollen]

i see

[thorny viper]

Hardest psets bar none

[thick seal]

not mit?

[thorny viper]

absolutely not

[thick seal]

ig i don’t know shit abt mit math

[thorny viper]

They allow you to PDF your entire first year

[thick seal]

or uchicago?

[late pollen]

pdf?

[thick seal]

doesn’t mean the coursework is easier

[thorny viper]

UChicago is not nearly as good, only a few of them take what our intro analysis course is

[thick seal]

i mean psets specifically

[thorny viper]

And you have to take all of these stupid placement tests to do it too

[thick seal]

is pton intro analysis baby rudin or am i crazy

[thorny viper]

Not it’s Robert Gunning’s book

[thick seal]

oh ok

[thorny viper]

Written at Princeton for the class

[thick seal]

i don’t actually know what the difference between chicago’s honors calculus and analysis courses is

[thorny viper]

Almost all of our textbooks are written by our own faculty save for a handful of classes

[late pollen]

mfs making bank off of u guys wtf

💀

[thorny viper]

Just look it up on your own, it’s just objectively true

[late pollen]

how the fuck do you learn how to write a proof

🗿

real question

[thick seal]

you just do it a lot

[thorny viper]

Like none of this is my opinion, if you surveyed most elite math people (not contest math kids) they would all tell you this

[thick seal]

and you don’t ever cut corners

[late pollen]

do u just

copy what u see

[rose lava]

whoever at research computing decided that only one cluster can be GUI based can take a tumble ngl

[late pollen]

like in terms of form and stuff

[rose lava]

linux is annoying

[polar moss]

NICK CAME W THE RECEIPTS

this man is an absolute legend in the math department

[thick seal]

it’s just a writing style

[thorny viper]

It takes time, usually by being taught the style of the genre

[thick seal]

yeah

[polar moss]

yeah lmao… for example i did some reading over break and the first book i picked up literally cited the research of my politics professor from last semester

[thick seal]

i’m not an expert

[thorny viper]

Like analysis proofs rely on different tricks than stuff in my field for example

[late pollen]

oh

is it troll if i applied for math but im a noob

[pseudo oar]

i thought uchi honors analysis is harder than 216

[late pollen]

like i'd like to learn more

[thorny viper]

To glue things, you need something called flowouts (to get collar neighborhoods) and partitions of unity, and to extend you can usually use something called a bump function

[thick seal]

honors analysis is the hardest first year class in the country

but it’s also not worth it from what i hear

[late pollen]

uchicago?

[thick seal]

i’m not counting pton bc it’s open

[pseudo oar]

nah math 55 is worse

[thick seal]

easy now

have friends at harvard

[late pollen]

is that a first year class? i thought the general first year thing is 130/150/160/180 for uchicago

[thick seal]

heavy grade inflation

[pseudo oar]

oh

icic

[late pollen]

im not gonna lie 160 is a little inflated 💀

i took it and got an A at 50th percentile

i think inflation everywhere is just

way more prevalent than it was before

[thorny viper]

I literally looked at Uchicago’s topology midterm and laughed out loud

[late pollen]

this is probably true everywhere

[thick seal]

uchicago isn’t a topology school

[thorny viper]

Doesn’t matter???

[thick seal]

i mean i think it kind of does

[thorny viper]

No it doesn’t

[thick seal]

you don’t think it matters that a school is better in certain fields of math?

[late pollen]

im not gonna lie i wouldn't be mad if i got into either uchicago or princeton

[thorny viper]

I mean if we’re comparing which school is the best, then it can’t be a “something” math school

[late pollen]

like just a little bit not mad fr

potentially even a little bit happy

[thick seal]

i don’t know

most schools don’t require topology

[thorny viper]

Princeton is literally great at everything except algebraic topology, that’s literally the only thing we don’t have (they’re at the IAS though)

[thick seal]

ehh maybe i’m lying

[thorny viper]

Uhhhh yes they do!

It’s a requirement to graduate in a lot of schools

For math

[thick seal]

good to know

[polar moss]

💀

[late pollen]

what the fuck is a topology and where is bottomology

[thorny viper]

Topology is the study of topological spaces, which are sets “you can’t escape from.”

[thick seal]

in fairness i’m tapped out of the math community

[polar moss]

a lot of the math majors at pton are gay actually

i have a theory for why

[late pollen]

wtf

goated?

[thick seal]

and i’m taking a class at columbia which is easier than my hs linear algebra class so

[soft barn]

LMFAO

[thick seal]

this is true everywhere

[thorny viper]

My point exactly

[thick seal]

math majors are just gay

[thorny viper]

It’s trivial

[late pollen]

why the math majors so gay fr

[soft barn]

topology seems impossible

[late pollen]

i mean

[thorny viper]

It’s not bad

[late pollen]

most things seem impossible unless you've worked your way up to it

you don't ask a 6 year old to write a 50 page thesis

they've just never done it before

unless they have

then mb og

[thick seal]

but i’m also sure that that’s a fluke because chicago’s equivalent class is a lot harder

[late pollen]

i wont lie

[thick seal]

like my hs linear class was axler

[late pollen]

i'm slapping the shit out of math 160

💀

really

is it good

[rose lava]

lowkey random thought, i wonder how many math majors start off at like 104/201 or something

[late pollen]

i've heard good things abt it

[rose lava]

if any

[thick seal]

i don’t think axler is that evil

[late pollen]

it's evil?

💀

what

[thick seal]

like it’s not that difficult

[late pollen]

mfs wrote the satanic texts

oh

[rose lava]

@thorny viper maybe you know lol

[late pollen]

i am bad at math

is axler a good text for math noob

and the corollary question is

where the FUCK can i legally obtain

[thick seal]

it’s everywhere just look it up

[thorny viper]

Not a lot

[late pollen]

nice.

ewait a min

bro gives it out for free

[thorny viper]

We use axler for MAT 217, which is the lower level intro proof course for first years

[late pollen]

😂

[thick seal]

yeah so what i mean is

[polar moss]

have you tried bottoming instead

[rich kelp]

MIT, Caltech?

[late pollen]

what the fuck

[thorny viper]

uchicago tries to compete with the best but it’s just cringe they need to stop now

[late pollen]

im about to get bodied

[soft barn]

ohhhh ur right

[polar moss]

mit my beloved

[thorny viper]

For math?? Not undergrad

[soft barn]

didn't even consider it

[polar moss]

our story aint complete (i rejected their waitlist)

[late pollen]

bottomology fr

[polar moss]

i actually love mit so much

[rich kelp]

why

elaborate mr nick

[polar moss]

they tell their waitlistees they "would love to have you"

[late pollen]

ok real question man do you just perceive people at "lesser" schools for math as being dumber

you're giving those vibes

[thorny viper]

Name one famous math professor at MIT other than Peter Shor (who doesn’t even do math)

[soft barn]

i too am a lover of mit

[tough eagle]

i too am a lover of mit

[thorny viper]

MIT used to be great but then everyone went to Princeton lol

[tough eagle]

yo nick

[rich kelp]

ah i was more so referring to curriculum rather than professors

and ability of undergrads

[tough eagle]

nick do you want to get into academia

[thorny viper]

Not necessarily, keeping options open

[tough eagle]

ok fair

[rich kelp]

quant path 🙏

[urban sinew]

yea

[thick seal]

ik a lot of mit primes/mathcamp kids at mit

which makes sense right