v3rt

Well, I'm an avid mixed martial artist, skier, and violinist on top of the technical stuff, although those might seem superficial since I have so many interests.

As for the gap year - wow, that could be a really good idea. I had considered that option, but I guess I didn't think about it enough. The lack of co-founders and money could pose problems in certain areas, but I could either just keep pushing the web app I've been developing to commercial release, or go to work at someone else's startup. Do those sound like potentially good ideas? (I can probably even defer enrollment to a college to have a safety net in case rejections round two comes around)

Also, what did you learn during your gap year, more specifically? (if it's not entirely specific to your case)

Thanks for the insight; I have a lot more thinking to do, but taking a gap year could be a very good option for me.

Edit: Posted before I saw your comment, fuzzmeister; that's probably a good way to have my cake and eat it too, although the downside is that I won't exactly be motivated to succeed with the startup no matter what if I have a spot at a college waiting for me.

How did you describe your plans for the future in your application? My major/career first choices were "undecided", although I sent Cornell, Rice, and Princeton an essay in which I explained how I wished to better the world through innovative engineering startups.

I follow a lot of math competitions, as a math coach. Which competitions were the ones you participated in most avidly? I narrowly missed the MA Mathcounts team in middle school, and have done well on other less prestigious competitions (HMMT, NEML, CML...), but my AMC/AIME results are probably the best. Unfortunately, my highest AIME score, an 11 (and presumably USAMO qualification), was just this year and therefore probably didn't factor in to decisions much.

What specific behaviors are your high school classmates observing as they come to that conclusion about you?

I focus on my work at the expense of an active social life, and I make an effort to really understand all knowledge that comes my way, rather than just working for grades (if that) and acting anti-intellectual (the prevailing culture). I did lack social skills in middle school, so the reputation carryover could be creating an additional gulf between my classmates and me.

I don't know if anyone else has played Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars, but I remember getting quite caught up in that game's story. It was as much an interactive novel as it was a story-drive game, although I was much younger when I played through it and my opinion of it may be drastically different if I play it again.

The thing is, though, there are probably non-zero-sum markets both for the "interactive novel" type game and the story-less twitch shooters. It just takes a different person or mood to appreciate the genre in question.

The job market is hardly a zero-sum game, though. By growing from a startup to a major player in an industry you helped found, you can do a lot more economic good than you would by creating one job and leaving one available in the existing market.

Funny how even INT(P) types and such enjoy celebrity gossip, just in a different bubble.