Appendix

##Appendix A: Online vs In-Person

COVID hit us like a brick wall and we were all forced into On-Line. That which was a subpar product packaged for people who couldn’t pass GRE or get good grades but claimed to be “too busy with work”, now became mandatory.

And what did we learn?

It sucks. It sucks just as much as we thought if not more.

Learning difficult subjects is not easy. Learning difficult subjects requires all of our senses to form memories. It requires an environment that sets us up for the learning we are about to embark on. We all tune in, we turn off our laptops (hopefully), we put away our phones (if we are serious) and we listen. After and before class we might ask a question of our peers and in class, we ask questions of the professors. We smell the chalk or the marker fumes, we move our heads from the board to our notes, we think about the matter and we read things before and after. We feel the paper that we turn in and we feel the graded paper returned.

And what do we get in an online class? NOTHING.

We “walk into the class” in our pajamas. We are on Facebook the whole time. The professor rarely asks a question, and when they do, we are almost always on the toilet. We barely do the reading and we certainly don’t interact with other students.

What does this mean? It is a waste of time and money.

If you can study this way? Great! You just saved yourself gas money and money on courses. If you don’t need a network ever? You’re probably an idiot and will never rise in an organization and this method is for you.

BUT. If you are serious about learning and applying what you learn, if you are serious about your future, if you are willing to invest in yourself, then for the love of god, avoid online and do it in person.

I might be an old man saying this, or behind the times. But if I am, prove me wrong!

Appendix B:

###My Categories for Picking UCSD

When I made my list of pros and cons I was 18 and didn’t know what was important, so here are some of the important things that were on my list and some which I would have added if I could go back and talk to my 18-year-old self.

Type: University, College, Community, Trade School.

Some people are afraid to spend time and money on a four-year school and if you are not ready (meaning you do not know what you want to study or who you want to be), a Community College may be a great place to go while you figure yourself out. The problem is, the vast majority of community college students never get their AA degree and don’t finish in two years. So if you are not doing this out of financial considerations, it may not be the best choice. Taking time off may be in your interests to figure out what you’d like to do with your life before jumping in.

Four-year Colleges generally offer a great small school feel, but at a University you will often have opportunities to work with faculty on interesting research projects. Finally, some people don’t care to have a traditional liberal arts education, they just want to know the skills they need to start working. For them, a trade school is the best option.

For me, UCSD was pretty much my high school with ashtrays and a pub. An Academic University with no football and near the beach.

Size: Small or Big

A small school will give you a sense of community and it generally will have a smaller student to lecturer ratio. Consider your personal likes and dislikes. If you hate being a faceless number and are easily overwhelmed by large campuses teaming with people, a 20,000 person campus may not be for you.

I preferred a smaller school, but the opportunities offered by a large University near home and the savings of lower tuition compared to pricey small schools meant that UCSD won out.

Money: Cost and Value

Going to a community college and transferring can help a lot to lower the cost of education. The main drawback is that you will not get to connect as much with classmates and not all Universities allow you to transfer. If you do not plan to go into a field that makes a lot of money, do not have scholarships, or wealthy parents, then logically it is not recommended to go to an expensive private school, especially if the major is not especially commercially viable.

Debt is a terrible way to start your life, and while money is not the goal of life, being poor certainly isn’t either. Plus, it is important to remember that some jobs will not make you enough money to allow you to survive while paying off your college debt, let alone afford to also afford that girlfriend, car, house, and kids.

My family was middle class. So it was either go into debt or pay 5k a year for a public institution.

What to study: Majors

This is a tough pick and many will change their major several times after entering college. Getting to know yourself, working in a field of interest, and creating life goals early on is the best way to find the major you like before you actually begin coursework. It is also important to realize that classes are not an exact preparation for real life, and the work you do will not be like the classes you take.

So if you like what you’re learning, that is a great plus, but remember that on the job you will be using your knowledge and not necessarily learning more about the subject. So learn in school as much as you can before you have to try to learn on the job.

UCSD had a great engineering school, one of the best. I applied to WPI in Massachussettes but there was no scholarship so again, the cost won out.

What are you paying for? Prestige!

I remember staying at my friend’s dorm room at Yale. We were going to bars with the kids of the most powerful people in the US. I remember seeing the president’s daughter across the bar and at the same time I remember him bringing a stack of books during Thanksgiving break. I remember him talking about family members financing other family members’ businesses. And this was when I realized that money makes money and that access to money is what can allow one to succeed in the US.

If you don’t have your own money, then at least through friends you should have a way to get money. Thus, if you are intent on being at the top, don’t kid yourself and realize that you will have to work hard and be there where the best is to get to the top. If you want to be the best in a field, go to the school where the best in that field are working. The prestige will carry you through life because your knowledge and ability will be clear from simply announcing where you got those skills.

I guess there was academic prestige. I didn’t meet kids of Fortune 500 CEOs at UCSD, but there were plenty that has recently made it onto that list so there’s no reason why I couldn’t. Of course, that’s why I joined a fraternity because a nationwide network of successful people is not a bad thing to have.

Another ambiguous value: Connections:
Personal connections are great! Everyone uses them. They make the world manageable. No matter how small of a company you own or work for, you will always be more likely to choose someone on a good recommendation instead of a resume. This of course scales up to corporate jobs, government work, and business transactions. Friends do businesses with friends, and the higher the stakes of the game that you’d like to play are, the bigger the players you need to find. If you go to an Ivy League school, you will more likely be in a circle of those who will be at high levels of government and business, if you go to a top-tier technical school then you will be among those who will be the best in science.

The people you surround yourself with during college is the network you will rely on for the rest of your life, so choose wisely. The better the network, the better the jobs, and the easier it will be to navigate your career when times are good and when times are bad.

The people I studied with were the ones that I contacted and tipped me off to my first two employers. Connections matter and they can be made anywhere. Of course, my connections at UCSD were some of the best in the field.

Social Life (At “UC Socially Dead”):

Some schools are known for a rowdy social scene, some for their diligent academics, and some for insane sports fans and small-town support. In the next four years, your social skills will be put to the test and grow tremendously. So pick wisely what you can handle and still succeed academically and what is most important to you and in what kind of environment you thrive.

At UCSD you had to work to find parties, to make friends, and have a balanced life. Most people were not extremely social. So that was a big minus on my list, but lucky for me, I don’t have a problem meeting people.

Time-off or as we say, “figuring yourself out”

It is becoming more and more common for people to take time off between high school and college. I think that that’s a nice luxury for the rich, but it is also a prudent approach for those who have not yet matured or figured out what it is they want to do. If you work and save up (while still living at the parents’), you can always take a few months to travel, see the world and grow up.

College is expensive, it is difficult, and spending time and money switching between majors might be avoided by going out into the real world and finding out what is it that one likes, what is it that one is good at, and only after that entering college with focus and determination. If there is one thing that people need to succeed, it is good goals and focused. The good news for many students is that some colleges now allow for time-off for a year and that can be a big plus to some on the list of why to apply or to accept a college.

_Time off was working two jobs and taking Chinese and Weight Lifting at a community college. It may not sound fun but it got my head straight to work better when I came back. _

GPA, yes it is still important.

If you plan to get a well-paying corporate job or apply to a top-tier graduate school, the GPA from the school where you went will matter more than the actual GPA. But for most people and most colleges GPA is still an important metric. So study for the knowledge, not the grades but still consider wisely how well you study and what your after-school plans are before choosing a college. You never want to leave yourself with closed doors because college is only four years of your life, many years of success or failure may ride on where and how you spent those four years.

Mine was terrible, but at least it was terrible from a great school and a tough major.

Research: that work that pays little and requires sacrifice but brings in dividends:

Going to a college where there are a lot of opportunities to work alongside graduate students and professors can be rewarding and a huge boost to your professional life, career and it can help you get into a good graduate program. So don’t overlook working opportunities because, while every college has Greenpeace and study abroad or working as an usher, not every college has a lab where you can get your hands on real research and real experience in nanotech, neuroscience, or archaeology.

Probably the most important thing I did while in college. The technology I worked on and the skills I learned and the people I worked with were the best things that happened to me.

Sports, they are more important than you think.

If you believe that you can just do sports, you’ll have a tough time after graduation and if you believe that you can lock yourself inside the library and still do well you’re also mistaken. Physical activity is super important for stamina, health, and mental clarity. Thousands of college kids every year are diagnosed with depression, bipolar and other disorders that can often be dealt with the daily rush of adrenaline on the soccer field or in the pool.

So if you have a favorite sport, why not continue with it after high school? You’re not competitive? It’s ok, there are lots of club sports, intramural sports, and a million other options at most colleges. So take a look at those and put them down on your checklist. It will make you a better student and a happier person and probably better looking.

_This was not high on my checklist when going to school but being part of the Judo and wrestling club in my last year helped me keep my sanity and stamina during all-night study sessions.

So here we are: I have outlined my main checklist for how I would pick a school today. Examine carefully each of these categories because your future depends on them and your likelihood of doing well depends on your comfort level and your goals and then make your own!

Now you’re ready to apply and then pick yours from all the ones that will accept you. Good luck!

Appendix C:

####As You Go Off To College, Do Not Do This.

For anyone who is about to start college, try some drugs, smoke cigarettes, drink a beer but please abstain from one thing, no matter how much peer pressure you get. Don’t read anything written by Ayn Rand. I just read in “Raw Story” about the dangers of Ayn Rand, and I can tell you that reading her books as an 18-year-old made me a horrible person. Her beliefs take away the only thing around you that matters, and that is other people. All material things can disappear, but nothing is more important than your connection to the people around you, and nothing helps your happiness more than their happiness.

Ayn Rand took anti-communism to the extreme, takes the thoughts of a petulant teenager, and helps them stay in that stage of development through adulthood. Most people grow out of it, but not after they do some serious damage to their psyche and those around them.

Her ideas led to Regan dismantling the mental healthcare system in the US, Greenspan’s deregulation of the finance industry, leading to the Great Recession, and Bush and Rumsfeld’s war in the Middle East. That’s on the large level, on the small level I’d say the entire thought that we are not responsible for the poor and that somehow our spouses are to make us happy and that if they don’t we can cheat or divorce has ruined millions of families.

Ayn Rand may have been the worst thing to have come to the United States.

Rand offered a narcotic for confused young people: complete certainty and a relief from their anxiety. Rand believed that an “objective reality” existed, and she knew exactly what that objective reality was. It included skyscrapers, industries, railroads, and ideas—at least her ideas. Rand’s objective reality did not include anxiety or sadness. Nor did it include much humor, at least the kind where one pokes fun at oneself. Rand assured her Collective that objective reality did not include Beethoven’s, Rembrandt’s, and Shakespeare’s realities—they were too gloomy and too tragic, basically buzz killers. Rand preferred Mickey Spillane and, towards the end of her life, “Charlie’s Angels.”

So if there is one thing I can recommend to you before you head to college: “experiment”, “have fun”, “meet people”, and experience life with others, not by yourself, and 100% not with Ayn Rand.

If you don’t believe me, believe John Oliver.

Appendix D: Our Book Page

One of my favorite teachers in high school, Mr. S, had all of his students make a page in his Our Book. Instead of a small picture inside the yearbook that said nothing about you, we had one page where we could write anything we wanted. I wrote this page and it is interesting to see how little I changed- how ADD I was back then, the king of quotes, and run-on sentences (I and still am). I was cocky yet nerdy and had a lot of ambition and smugness, and the same insecurities that I carry today. You may change a lot after 18, but not as much as you think. (This is page is unedited, just as it appeared in the “Our Book”)

** This is a San Dieguito Story from a Rushin Point of View

I want to say that San Dieguito men are very fortunate. We have some of the most beautiful and intelligent girls of all schools in the world. Men of other countries would kill to be in our seats, and what do we do, we waste that chance. San Dieguito girls are not that picky, I mean look at what they have to pick from, at San Dieguito a guy is considered to be hot if he’s better looking than a gorilla. Guys take a chance, ask them out, what do you have to lose?

** TV is a Waste of Time, Read a Book and Get Rid of Your Ignorance_

I did a lot during my senior year, sometimes I failed, but in the end, I managed to do fairly well. However, the main thing that I learned is that “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” It’s ok to try hard, it’s ok to fail, you are a failure if you do nothing. As long as you learn from failed attempts, and learn to succeed. As my short experience shows; being successful is not a one-time thing, it’s a habit.

“In the Life of Garp we are all terminal cases.” (_The World According to Garp, John Irving) That may be so, and for some reason, this belief causes everyone to either to live in the fear of death or constantly try to meet because after all “we all die sooner or later.” I believe that the secret to life is to know where you’re going and know how to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, there are too many of us that would rather sit in front of the TV rather than bother to think about the direction, and these misguided people end up rolling around in circles, never really getting anywhere and disappearing as if they never existed.

In my opinion, life should be safe, eventful, and always fun, the hardest part is to do so without wasting it.

In the words of Dale Carnegie, people want recognition; they want the feeling of being important and known for their deeds. When someone messes up on my name or gives credit to someone else for my work, I become enraged. I am evolved in almost every aspect of school: from the nerdy NHS and Physics club to the famous jock sport that I helped create at this school, Wrestling. All because I want to be recognized, I want to have that feeling of achievement. However, making someone else feel important will raise you that much in their eyes and make them feel good about helping you because once a person has gained the feeling of self-importance in someone else’s eyes, they don’t want to drop that feeling.

“Always Smile,” Carnegie said. In some cases, a smile is worth a million dollars because people don’t like to deal with angry people. In high school, everything is about grades. At the same time, everything is about the parties. Next time you receive a bad review or bad grade, come up to the supervisor with a smile, it might make them want to listen to you rather than tell you to leave, honestly, this works. Not only did it work in changing a teacher’s opinion about my grade, but also it changed an admission counselor’s decision at a college, trust me it works.

Academic Decathlon Vice President 3rd team all-county

SDA Wrestling founder and 2x Captain 6th at CIFs

NHS, CSF, yadda, yadda, yadda.

This is all to make me feel better about myself, I think id did the trick,

I feel good. 5-21-2000