The main reason was for better positioning for rationality outreach. A group of Harvard and MIT rationalists would be awesome, so that’s what I’m aiming for. Harvey Mudd already had a group, and it was isolated from other schools.
I’m also less certain that I want to be an engineer growing up. In fact as of right now, I pretty definitely do not want to be one. Maybe a programmer. Academically speaking, Harvard gives me more options than Harvey Mudd or MIT.
If I absolutely couldn’t give up becoming an engineer, I’d probably have gone to Harvey Mudd, and done grad school in Boston.
On the gap year…
Originally my parents wanted me to do it so that I could get a job and make some money before going to school. I’m kind of doing that now, but that’s not why I would recommend taking a gap year.
Basically, I’m using it to prepare for college and life.
So like, most people try to get a degree to fit a job they might like. Other people try to stay flexible, and get a more general degree.
This is silly, because you can find out what you want to do right now. So I’m trying out a few different possible jobs before going to school.
I’m also having fun learning skills that I think would be useful, that I probably would rationalize not learning while I was in school, like NVC or IFS. There’s a bunch of information like how to interview that you can learn so that you’ll be more prepared to get a job out of college, rather than hope that your degree/resume will speak for itself (it probably won’t).
What did you eventually decide, and why?
Oh, awesome question.
I’m taking a gap year, and then going to Harvard.
First, I decided to go to Harvard.
The main reason was for better positioning for rationality outreach. A group of Harvard and MIT rationalists would be awesome, so that’s what I’m aiming for. Harvey Mudd already had a group, and it was isolated from other schools.
I’m also less certain that I want to be an engineer growing up. In fact as of right now, I pretty definitely do not want to be one. Maybe a programmer. Academically speaking, Harvard gives me more options than Harvey Mudd or MIT.
If I absolutely couldn’t give up becoming an engineer, I’d probably have gone to Harvey Mudd, and done grad school in Boston.
On the gap year… Originally my parents wanted me to do it so that I could get a job and make some money before going to school. I’m kind of doing that now, but that’s not why I would recommend taking a gap year.
Basically, I’m using it to prepare for college and life.
So like, most people try to get a degree to fit a job they might like. Other people try to stay flexible, and get a more general degree.
This is silly, because you can find out what you want to do right now. So I’m trying out a few different possible jobs before going to school.
I’m also having fun learning skills that I think would be useful, that I probably would rationalize not learning while I was in school, like NVC or IFS. There’s a bunch of information like how to interview that you can learn so that you’ll be more prepared to get a job out of college, rather than hope that your degree/resume will speak for itself (it probably won’t).