Tag: tryharding

#TRYHARDSZN2024: Tryharding out of boredom

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Sauce: St. Louis #TRYHARD accepted into 40 different schools

I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is probably one of the weaker #TRYHARDs of the season, since of all this one’s 40 acceptances, there are no notables named, and from the cherry-picked humblebrag screen shots of her holding acceptances, none of the schools that I can see are particularly anything to ring home about.

Plus, no academic merits were listed anywhere in the article, which means that this kid didn’t have a brag-worthy SAT score, ACT score, GPA, AP class regimen or already begun amassing college credits.  But hey, she can wrestle and is a part of the step team!

Naturally the weakness of a #TRYHARD usually resorts to the cumulative amount of scholarship dollars they’ve been offered, and in this case, this #TRYHARD has amassed over $1M in offers but lest we forget that it doesn’t work that way and $1M does not go to the school of choice.

What really sets me off about this particular #TRYHARD is the seemingly flippant attitude demonstrated when it came to the college application process, to which anyone who’s ever done one knows, is a colossal pain in the ass where you might excited and optimistic when you start, but by the time you’re getting to the end, you’re over it and glad to just be done with it.  And to repeat that process more than 3-4 times, to the magnitude of 40+?  Yeah fuck that.

But for this #TRYHARD, applying to colleges is something that she seemingly did, out of boredom:

I would just be sitting in my room applying, just as I am with scholarships right now. When I’m bored, I’m just applying. When I’m not bored, I’m just applying,” the 18-year-old said.

For starters, I’m guessing there’s some amended process available to them, otherwise I don’t think they’re filling out 40+ college applications.  Either that, or they’re copy/pasting their personal essays, if they’re required to write one, and I’m sure colleges are as thrilled to be reading someone’s copy/paste as much as the kids are thrilled to have to write them in the first place.

But it’s the attitude of someone applying out of boredom that kind of irks me; now I didn’t finish college in the traditional sense, but I still know that there’s a lot of power in the degree, and I know the value of a strong education.  It make me feel annoyed that there are people who apply for schools out of boredom, and I’ve touched on this before, because if and when they are accepted, they’re effectively blocking someone else from getting the spot, and forcing people to be put on waitlists until #TRYHARDSZN winds down, people make their choices, and the scraps of slots are re-opened up to people who have had to wait.

Fortunately in the case of this #TRYHARD, it doesn’t seem like a lot of necessarily prestigious schools are being clogged up by her.  Based on her aspirations and what I can tell are some of her acceptances, there was a fairly mid-tier ceiling to all of her boredom applications.

Considering her top pick is Alabama State, I’m guessing they’re one of the schools that probably offered a full-ride, and there’s nothing wrong with phishing for that because school is an expensive endeavor, but I’m also allowed to opine that as #TRYHARD as applying to 40+ schools is, settling on a school like Alabama State might be reaching for some low-hanging fruit.

#TRYHARDSZN2024: Not Exclusive to America

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Reach for the stars, boy: 12th grader in Hanoi accepted into multiple schools in America, including two of Ivy Leagues

One of the primary differences I noticed about an Asian news outlet reporting a #TRYHARD versus an American one is that they don’t hide the fact that these kids might not be batting 1.000 when it comes to acceptance rates:

received acceptance letters from 11 out of 17 U.S. universities he applied to this admissions season.

So in high-expectation Asian dad logic, boy failed six times, full stop.  Disgrace get out of my house

The only consolation to this colossal failure is that among the schools that he did get accepted into, they were some notable places, like Yale and Cornell, two of the Ivy Leagues, as well as well-known schools like Johns Hopkins and Duke. 

But not Harvard, that was probably one of his six failures.  In fact, all six of those failures were probably the Ivies he didn’t get into.  SMH

The funny thing is that as altruistic as his ambitions are, his resume isn’t nearly as impressive as some other ones I’ve seen this #TRYHARDSZN2024.  Failed to get into six schools, didn’t get a perfect SAT score, 1540/1600, scored a 4 or 5 in all his AP courses, and the kicker, does not have a 4+ GPA.  He’s close, with a 3.95, but this SZN alone we’ve seen numerous kids with like 4.5+ which means this boy is clearly dicking around with his life way too much probably playing League of Legends or watching streamers and not studying instead.

For real though, unlike a lot of these #TRYHARDS this one seems to actually be reaching for the stars and going to Yale, and not necessarily phishing for a free ride somewhere, and going to take what’s going to make the most economic sense, not that there’s anything wrong with that either.

Because unlike a lot of other #TRYHARDS, this one admits that he comes from a privileged family, which answers the question of how he might be able to afford Yale’s alleged $64K yearly tuition which probably doesn’t account for books, boarding, food and discretion.

And that’s the one big divide that separates this #TRYHARD from all others, because this one comes from money, and Vietnam is no America in terms of wealth, but they’re also no Nicaragua either; but that doesn’t stop him from being a #TRYHARD and applying to a boatload of schools that people without as much privilege but not too little and get their application fees waived, cannot afford to.

#TRYHARDSZN2024: That’s one way to get out of Arkansas

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Just 4?  Arkansas high school senior accepted into four Ivy League schools among numerous other acceptances

Not a lot of context given with this tryhard.  But at least 7 On My Side doesn’t question the intelligence of its readers by giving some superficial combined value of all her college acceptances and claim she’s miraculously in possession of $1.6M scholarship dollars, because that’s always bullshit in the grand spectrum of #TRYHARDSZN.

But 16 college acceptances, with four of them being Ivy Leagues, not bad.  Harvard, Colombia, Penn and Cornell, and with the article not even mentioning money, it’s my assumption that these are merely acceptances and good luck getting together the money to tuition sure hope daddy is a doctor of the variety that actually makes money.

Otherwise a good scattering of college acceptances that are actually named, which means that this kid isn’t just flinging college applications into the wind like Gambit throwing cards, with almost all of them being out of state, which is a safe assumption that this kid wants the fuck out of Arkansas.

Considering what her family name is, and the fact that her biliteracy is in Arabic, which I can’t imagine is particularly useful in a state like fucking Arkansas, I imagine the goal is ultimately to get out of the state by any means necessary, but if she can manage to get a decent education in the process, then that’s a double win.

Laughably, the article does point out that the one full-ride offer she has, is to Hendrix; not going to lie, I had to Google them, and it turns out that they’re a liberal arts college in, you guessed it: Arkansas.  And when decision time comes about, that full-ride is always a hard thing to ignore, especially from families of immigrants.

You know what they say though, sometimes if you don’t tryhard, you die hard, which I’ve literally never heard anyone say but one of my close friends.

#TRYHARDSZN2024: Never too early to start

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Source: 15-year old Texas girl has been accepted into 38 universities, amassing a combined $1.6M in scholarship dollars

I think one of the funniest tropes of #TRYHARDSZN is how often times those reporting on these tryhards, they always try to make it sound like their combined scholarship value is free and clear, and they’re eligible to use all of it on the institution that they ultimately choose.  

No, it doesn’t quite work that way, and just because someone has been accepted to 38 schools and the combined value of the offered scholarships is $1.6M doesn’t mean the person can take the offered scholarships from like Louisiana Tech, Furman, Oregon State and William & Mary and funnel them all into Columbia University.

The probably reality with most of these #TRYHARDSZN stories is that they’re accepted into a lot of higher-tier schools at little to no scholarship dollars at all, and it’s the lower-tier schools in which are offering up free rides or high dollar value scholarships, and the figures are extrapolated to whatever sounds the most impressive when combined together, but I digress.

Back to the story at hand, as tryhard-y as it is, the resume of this 15-year old is pretty impressive.  Graduating from high school at 15, already notching 51 college credit hours, with a 4.0 GPA, and a bunch of extracurricular resume-boosting clubs to boot.

It’s funny to me that one of quotes of someone to vouch for her character is coming from one of her elementary school teachers; considering she was there like four weeks ago, it’s safe to say that they were still a fresh resource to reach out to gauge the character of this student.

Don’t get me wrong, on internet paper, this girl sounds like a very impressive person, to have accomplished so much at such a young age.  But whether it’s her decision or it came at the encouragement of her parents, I’m perplexed on this seeming determination to speed-run through contemporary schooling and get to the stage of adulthood, even if the age is not commensurate.

It’s stated that she was able to get to this point because she didn’t have to complete the eighth grade, fifth grade and kindergarten, by virtue of exams, and I’m thinking, skipping kindergarten??  I vaguely remember kindergarten being merely supervised playing, painting with my hands, nap times where I didn’t once actually nap, and occasional practicing letters and numbers.  

My oldest child who still sleeps in overnight diapers.  She throws tantrums when she thinks she’s getting the smaller half of anything in comparison to her younger sister.  She will be in kindergarten in two years.  I’m amazed that there’s even an option to try to exam out of having to do kindergarten, because I can’t imagine what they’d even examine given the criteria of what kindergarteners do.

The point is, Little Miss Tryhard has basically not been given much of a chance to be a kid in her lifetime, and as impressive as it sounds that she’s basically trying to be Doogie Howser academically, she might accomplish graduating college by 17-18, but when school’s all out, and the only thing really left in life is to pursue a career, she is going to be a guppy in an ocean of inexperience, and when she steps into the working world where everyone is competition, she’s probably not going to be remotely mentally and emotionally prepared for what awaits.

Sure it sounds cool, and I’m sure it feels good to be praised and get a lot of e-accolades from anonymous strangers on the internet because she got accepted into a bunch of unnamed schools, but this is a situation where being such a tryhard can have some severe consequences later in life.

All living things need to breathe, and unwind and decompress from time to time, or else  they’re going to work themselves crazy.  But if you’re tryharding and trying to speed-run life, it’s almost like you’re rushing to get into the rat race, where most everyone becomes miserable and really begins to feel like their lives are on a downward trajectory instead of upward.

#TRYHARDSZN2024: the blind veterinarian

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

No offense, but I’ll take my pets elsewhere: Texas woman accepted into the Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine

Okay, so this isn’t a story about some overachieving youth applying to all of the Ivy Leagues and 75+ other schools just to see how many acceptances they can get so that they can humble brag about them on the internet, but I still felt it warranted the pound sign, because the fact that someone who is legally blind is determined to be a veterinarian is pretty bonkers in my opinion.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect determination, perseverance and chasing a dream; but when it comes to the care of my pets, I most definitely am not thinking twice about looking for an alternate opinion if I knew that my veterinarian, were blind.

I admire this girl’s determination and her positive mentality, but the reality is that if I have a pet going through some health problems, I’m going to have a hard time accepting the words and analysis of someone who can’t really see what they’re dealing with, with my pets.  I can’t believe that they’re going to be like fucking Daredevil, and have the ability to sonar my dog’s kidney issues, or my cat’s urinary tract infection, and that their other senses will be hyper productive to where they don’t need eyesight to be able to do their job.

And she wants to be a mixed-animal vet, that cares for large and small animals, which is to say she wants to take care of horses and goats and other animals that are outside the typical veterinary realm of dogs and cats.  Like, what is she going to do when she is called to check up on a skittish horse or goat and gets the fuck kicked out of her because she can’t really see it escalating.

No offense, but it just seems like not the wisest career choice in the world in my opinion.  There are all sorts of other occupations out in the world that someone with limited sight can do, while not being responsible for the life of another living being.

But hey, I’m just a rando guy on the internet with no readers, typing away into the aether for over twenty years.  But what this girl is doing, insisting on following a career path where the ability to see is generally among the unwritten top job qualifications, definitely constitutes #TRYHARDSZN2024.

#TRYHARDSZN2024: 149 out of 149 accepted

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Jesus: San Diego high school senior applied to 149 colleges, accepted to all 149

Naturally, the first thing my mind thinks is, who the fuck is paying for 149 college applications?  But then I remember that when it comes to all of these #TRYHARDSZNers, they’re most likely not having to pay for ANY college applications at all because certain programs in this country are fair, balanced, and couldn’t possibly be exploited inequitably.

Of course, it can’t not be mentioned that the current value of all 149 current college acceptances is over $3M in scholarships; but honestly, that really doesn’t sound like that much, considering we’re talking about 149 colleges here.  Obviously, all scholarships are not equal, but even dividing $3M by 149, we’re getting an average of just $20k per, and assuming the higher-tier schools probably aren’t offering anything, while lower tier ones are offering more, $3M from 149 school actually doesn’t seem like that much in the grand spectrum of things.

All things considered though, this TRYHARD’s credentials are pretty impressive:

a 4.86 GPA, is taking AP classes and is part of the San Diego Police Department Cadet Program.

I don’t even know how these kids today get so high above a 4.0 GPA.  Even my high school class’s valedictorian was like a 4.3, and she got accepted into Harvard

But this TRYHARD is also on her high school’s varsity basketball, softball and lacrosse teams on top of her academics, and that probably doesn’t hurt her cause when it comes to all these applications.

Either way though, I roll my eyes when kids are getting into 50+ schools, but this chick has tripled even the local TRYHARDs with her 149+ applications.  Must be real nice knowing that you don’t have to pay any application fees, and now that schools all across America are ditching their legacy programs, I can only imagine how much more aggressive #2024TRYHARDSZN is going to get in coming months.

#TRYHARDSZN2024: At least he picked an Ivy

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Eyeroll: Chicago teenager accepted into six Ivy League schools among others; chooses Harvard

At first, I was about to go ha-ha about how he only got into six of the Ivy League schools, but supposedly this kid only applied to just six of them.  For whatever reason, he did not apply to Brown or Dartmouth, and my thought is that those are the two Ivies that are probably a little too far up north in New England for a black kid from Chicago to feel any comfort at, should he have gone to either of them. 

Still though, going six-for-six on the Ivy League schools he did apply to, yep, that’s still #TRYHARDSZN2024.

Stanford and Morehouse were also named as schools he applied to, and were accepted into, but they do say and more, so we have no definitive number of just how many schools he applied to, and were accepted into, but it’s irrelevant because he still went after 3/4th of the Ivy League and that alone is enough to make any kid a mega tryhard.

The thing is though, in most of these cases, a lot of these mega tryhards do what they do, because they don’t have to pay for application fees, which absolves the most primary of risks of applying to college, and the worst thing that can happen to them is that simply don’t get accepted.  Otherwise, they can sit back and amass acceptance after acceptance, and if the number is impressive enough, they make the internet, and I get to call them mega tryhards, and use them as fodder for the hashtag on a personal brog that nobody reads.

But what I was going to say is that in most of these cases, the kids apply to a thousand schools, get accepted into 50 of them, and ultimately only go to the ones that are actually giving them a free ride.  Sometimes, if the families of these tryhards have some money, they’ll go to one of the more prestigious names they were accepted into, but in most of these cases they’re really phishing for any schools that are willing to give them large scholarships, if not a free ride outright, and ultimately they usually end up going to a lesser-heralded school because free school > student loan entrapment imprisonment debt.

However, this particular kid, has chosen to actually redeem his acceptance into Harvard, of all schools.  This isn’t to say that he wasn’t worthy of some sort of scholarship, but usually in a lot of these mega tryhard stories, the underlying truth is that they were simply accepted, and not necessarily given any sort of incentive.  Such details are not disclosed in this specific story, but what is explained is that he will be playing basketball for Harvard, so there’s always the possibility that he’s getting some degree of scholarship from one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, because he’s decent at hoops.

To which I actually do give this kid some credit for actually cashing in his #TRYHARDSZN2024 ticket to go to one of the most prestigious schools on the planet, and not just doing it for the cheap attention as a publicity stunt.  Go forth, young man, and hopefully you will dominate the lesser-tier competition of Ivy League athletics, instead of getting boiled alive at a school with a real athletic program like the ACC’s Stanford (lol), while gaining one of the most invaluable reputable proofs of education in the world.

But you’re still a mega tryhard.