20/20 Hindsight for 2020s Career: Reimagining My Formal Education from 7th Grade to the Present

This post was last edited on 4/6/2022.

Secondary Education: Grades 7 through 12 (Middle & Upper Schools)

Magnet or Private

• From preschool through 6th grade, I attended a sectarian private school. From grades 7 through 12, I chose to instead attend public schools. If I could do it over again, and if the options were available at the time, I would have attended a magnet public school or nonsectarian private school from grades 7 through 12.​

College Admissions Exams

• In the summer between 10th and 11th grade, I would have created a schedule and study strategy for taking the SAT exam—no more than twice—through the fall of 12th grade.
• To avoid overkill and preserve school-life balance, I would take only the SAT and not the ACT.

Advanced Placement Courses

• Honors and AP courses should be chosen judiciously, not as an ego trip or status symbol, because these courses require more work than the regular version of the courses.
• To protect school-life balance as a student athlete, I would not take more than two AP courses during my senior year.
  • AP Calculus AB
    • or AP Statistics if I am one year ahead of this math schedule
  • AP English Language and Composition

• Hypothetically, if I had gone to high school in Hawaiʻi instead of California, without being raised in K-12 Hawaiian language immersion schools, I would plan on taking four years of Hawaiian language instead of Spanish or another foreign language. This is because Hawaiian is both the aboriginal and national language of the Hawaiian Islands (i.e., Hawaiian Kingdom). Hawaiian remains the national language of the Hawaiian Islands today because a treaty of cession has never been produced to transfer Hawaiian sovereignty and territory to another country.

Summer After Graduation from Upper (High) School

• I would study and sit for the first actuarial exam, in probability.
• I would get a head start on my upcoming college classes.

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Higher Education: Undergraduate School

Location

• As I did originally, I would only apply to undergraduate schools in California, my lifelong state of residence at the time.

Major

• I would major in (Applied) Mathematics for a Bachelor of Science (BS) or Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, depending on the school at which I would graduate.
  • ​I believe in choosing a traditional major that matches the name of an academic department which is standard at colleges and universities. Such majors usually have a name consisting of a single word. For example: Mathematics, Statistics, or Economics. Computer Science is an exception to that one-word rule. By the way, those are my favorite four quantitative subjects. Engineering would be my fifth choice for major.
  • In other words, I would avoid novel majors that are introduced to capitalize on the market trend of the moment. In today's economy, for example: Data Science, or Actuarial Science. Such bandwagon degrees may be perceived as attempted shortcuts to lucrative careers, as a way to circumvent the mathematical rigor of more traditional degrees.
  • Novel majors tend to be multidisciplinary and interdepartmental, which results in a tradeoff of depth for breadth. In that sense, a multidisciplinary degree is less rigorous than a traditional degree that is composed primarily of coursework in a single discipline that has its own department or school within the college or university.
  • No one dares call themselves a mathematician, computer scientist, statistician, or economist unless they have at least a bachelor's degree in that subject.
  • On the other hand, one only has to complete a short-term program or degree to call oneself a data analyst or data scientist, and apply for those jobs. The job market is being flooded with people who have certificates or degrees in data analytics or data science. Many of these can be earned through distance learning. This lowered barrier of entry into the profession can only lower the perceived value of a certificate or degree in data analytics or data science, and flood that job market with an excessive volume of competition compared to the number of job openings.
  • Similarly, colleges and universities have flooded the market with people who have certificates, bachelor's degrees, and master's degrees in actuarial science, creating an unreasonable amount of competition for relatively few actuarial jobs, which are also restricted geographically.
• I would not minor nor double major in another subject. Instead, I would invest more time studying for my major to make sure I graduate with at least a 3.75 GPA (A-), and to retain more of what I learned in the degree​. The choice to not have a minor or double major would also ensure that I do not take longer than four years to graduate, and it would reduce the total financial cost of my undergraduate education (including the possible opportunity cost of deferring the start of graduate school or career employment).​
• I would not take honors versions of courses, especially if attending a school on the quarter system (10.5 weeks instead of 15.5 weeks per class). There are two reasons for this strategy.
  1. To maximize GPA
  2. To maximize school-life balance​

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Degree Plan

Spreadsheet

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School

• I would apply to the following 9 schools, ranked in my order of preference, based on the US News rankings (as of the date of this blog post) of their graduate school programs in Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics, Economics, and Engineering. (These are consistent with the rankings of undergraduate school programs in Data Science today, which emerged well after my undergraduate years.)

1. Stanford University
2. UC Berkeley
3. UCLA
4. UC San Diego
5. UC Davis
6. UC Irvine
7. UC Santa Barbara
8. UC Santa Cruz
9. UC Riverside​​

• Using the US News College Compass, I would refine my ordered list if necessary.
• I was admitted to UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside for the 1993-1994 school year, then by UC Davis for the 1994-1995 school year. Currently, UC Davis edges out UC San Diego in the US News rankings of national universities. Therefore, I am confident that I would have been admitted to at least one of my top four picks above.
• If not admitted to schools higher on the list, I would reapply to them as a transfer student for the following school year.
• I prefer the semester system over the quarter system, but the reputation—especially ranking—of the school and its program would take precedence in my decision.

Duration

• I would have started at age 18 like I originally did.
• I would have graduated within four years, by age 21.

School-Life Balance

• I would limit my extracurricular participation to a single activity such as baseball, disc golf, or Hawaiian language.
• I would participate organically in a normal, healthy social life to ensure an enjoyable and memorable college experience.
• I would avoid gratuitous courses, distractions and diversions.​

​I don’t think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college. I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but in a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day?

-- Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley. (1964). The Autobiography of Malcolm X (p. 207).
New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group.

Summer Breaks

• Additional activities would be reserved for summer breaks.
  • Prepare for upcoming courses.
    • Obtain required textbooks and their solutions manuals.
    • Pre-read assigned textbook chapters (at least the first few).
    • Work odd-numbered chapter problems (if answers are provided).
  • ​​Career preparation
    • Internships
    • Actuarial exams
    • Data science training and certification
    • Competitions in data science or actuarial science
  • Athletics
    • Disc golf tournaments
  • ​​Cultural enrichment
    • ​Hawaiian language: become as fluent as possible

Graduation and Employment

• Earn degree in no more semesters than necessary, and with no more units than necessary, to avoid incurring additional educational cost, including the loss of income from deferred entry into the workforce or graduate school.
• Enter the workforce and begin career upon graduation.
• The main reason for earning an undergraduate degree is to enjoy a great career that provides for financial independence, a good standard of living, and a good quality of life. This includes the ability to do the following.
  • Receive quality healthcare.
  • Save and invest money.
    • Retirement savings
    • Educational expenses of offspring
  • Maintain hobbies, sports, and other recreational pursuits.
  • Travel regularly.
  • Be a proud homeowner, spouse, parent, grandparent.
  • Be a supportive relative and friend.
  • Be an active community member.
  • Contribute to charity.

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Student Athletics

Baseball

• Baseball was my favorite sport growing up. I played for nine years, from ages seven through 15, ending with 10th grade in high school. If I had to do it over again, I would have played through 12th grade in high school, then for the team at the university of my choice if given the opportunity, then professionally if possible.

Student Athlete GPA Goal

• ​As a student athlete in a single sport, my goal would be to maintain at least a 3.25 GPA (B) in high school and college.
• Otherwise, I would reconsider being a student athlete.

Student Non-Athlete GPA Goal

• ​If not a student athlete, my goal would be to maintain at least a 3.75 GPA (A-) in high school and college.
• For the class of 1993 in high school, I graduated with an academic GPA (grades 10-12) of 3.67 (A-). This is consistent with my hindsight goals, as a blend of the two, given that I played on the junior varsity baseball team for grades 9 and 10.

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Higher Education: Graduate School

Master's Degree

• After earning a bachelor's degree in (Applied) Mathematics, my next step would be to pursue a master's degree in Statistics—which I am currently pursuing.
• I would begin the master's degree program at age 22 and graduate by age 23.
  • UC Berkeley: MA in Statistics is designed to be completed in two semesters (fall and spring). I would graduate at age 22 in May 1998, making this an ideal option.
  • Stanford University: MS in Statistics takes an average of five to six (5-6) quarters to complete. I would graduate at age 23 in June 1999. This would be worth the additional year compared to UC Berkeley, because of the higher prestige accorded to Stanford University.

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​After Master's

• Subsequently, I would consider obtaining one or both of the following career objectives along with commensurate employment.
  • Earn a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Statistics or Economics.
  • Complete the full series of exams to become an Actuary at the fellowship level.
    • This would have been before the bandwagon career that the actuarial profession has notoriously become today, with so many people aspiring to cash in on its lucrative income.

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Recommended Starting Points for Career Planning

• Occupational Outlook Handbook
• US News Best Jobs Rankings
• US News College Compass (for undergraduate education)