mwhuang2

Right, the key difference is that children are below the age of consent. I was just comparing how both were given unfair negative stereotypes for having an orientation different from the norm.

Interesting perspective. I've always thought of pedophilia as being just another orientation, not necessarily tied to sexual abuse. That'd be like assuming a straight male has perverted tendencies towards all women. Homosexuality was perhaps also treated with these kinds of unfair assumptions before becoming accepted by mainstream society. People have a narrow range of perceived normalcy, anything beyond which is seen as deviant, but that range is evolving constantly.

How much is your rent? I know you don't want to accept money, but I may be able to send a donation.

I recommend the book "Worthless: The Young Person's Indispensable Guide to Choosing the Right Major" by Aaron Clarey for a brutally honest, if exaggerated, take on higher education and employment.

I'm from a Chinese family. Many of my friends and I were raised with this mindset. They went off to attend elite colleges, but I couldn't stomach the endless hoop jumping and toxic achievement culture, so I just did my own thing and went off to my local state school. While I've had some ups and downs, my life experiences were unique and I prefer not to form regrets about the past.

Good to hear that engineering is less dependent on institutional prestige. As someone who doesn't attend a name-brand university, I hope to be evaluated more for my skills than for the school I went to.

Sure, I'll share. After my rejections, I kind of fell apart during senior year of high school. I was extremely depressed and ended up almost failing all of my classes. In the end, I barely made it to graduation and was more relieved than happy about finishing.

Post-graduation, I went straight to college and tried to put the past behind me. I started off pretty strong, but it was clear that I still lacked maturity, and my grades took a nosedive during my second semester.

I ended up being disqualified from my scholarships, so I left school for a year to figure things out. I worked full-time and took courses at community college to keep myself busy. It took a lot of effort and introspection, but I finally transferred back to college and started working on my computer science degree.

Now I'm doing much better, having grown a lot as a person. I've also landed two internships since then and gotten involved with plenty of extracurriculars and social activities on the side. My path wasn't as smooth as it could've been, but I don't regret much about my experiences. Failing at a young age taught me to shrug off shortcomings and made me a stronger person for the future.

Growing up, it felt like I was raised with the sole purpose of attending an elite college. I took AP classes, did SAT prep, and signed up for all the right extracurriculars, but my heart was never in it, and I couldn't force myself through in the end.

I ended up getting rejected from all but my safeties when applying to colleges. It felt like I was dead inside; I'd go through my daily motions, but I basically lost my interest in living for a while.

Wonderful message. I agree 100% with Pichai's stance on diversity.

It's like a newspaper for techies. The community is also polite and intellectual, and I feel more comfortable here than on other sites.

It just seems like trouble. I like to keep a low profile and minimize the drama in my life.

Brian Chesky (Airbnb) attended Rhode Island School of Design.

Both my parents were programmers. It was useful because they could help each other with learning and career advancement.

Personally, I'd prefer a non-programmer girlfriend. I like variety and I think it's really important to be exposed to different kinds of people.