[SIM-2501407]

https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=5690135
You inspired me after reading your post.
I'll be updating mine soon.

[Androctonus]

You have yourself some great goals there, bud. I was going to suggest linking it in your sig but it looks like you're already on top of that. I made a goal thread a few years ago. I came back next year, cracked my knuckled and gave it a click. Only to be filled with an empty void feeling, and then I junked it. Worst of it is, I set realistic goals for myself. Here's to hoping you have a better success story. 😅

[Steve]

Hello all, this is going to be my first update for my Goals Thread.

I would like to thank everyone who commented with encouraging words. Usually I like to respond to each post on my threads in real-time, but with this thread every post I make must be on topic. I'll respond to a few quickly now, then move on to the update. 😁

https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=5690135
You inspired me after reading your post.
I'll be updating mine soon.

I read it and linked yours in my OP! Hope to see it updated regularly :)

You have yourself some great goals there, bud. I was going to suggest linking it in your sig but it looks like you're already on top of that. I made a goal thread a few years ago. I came back next year, cracked my knuckled and gave it a click. Only to be filled with an empty void feeling, and then I junked it. Worst of it is, I set realistic goals for myself. Here's to hoping you have a better success story. 😅

I'm always on top of it :) Life changes and shit happens, don't get discouraged. As for me I do hope I accomplish these. Onto my update.

So it's been just over a week since I posted this and I want to update the community/myself on what's been going on. While these are goals that I want to have completed within a year or two, I should be able to make an update at least once per week because you just don't get to where you want to be without working on it daily.

As far as obtaining my Computer Science degree by 2018 goes, today was a milestone. I took my final for my summer class (Database Management Systems) and it went really well! I've done well on the projects and the midterm so there should be no reason I don't pass the class. Assuming I pass, I only need to take two more classes until I graduate, which I'm doing this fall, so that's going well!

As for getting into a relationship, that requires moving first. I'm not a fan of the idea of beginning a relationship knowing that I'm about to move, and since I'm about to move I must wait.

Great segway into my living situation. My lease ends on Monday, August 14th which is when I plan on moving. I will be moving into my parents for what will hopefully be a limited amount of time. Although I can pay my own bills and have been doing it for 3 years, this will help me transition into a better financial state and give me time to find the right roommates and place for when I'm ready to move out. But I can tell you that living with my parents, especially after living on my own for 3 years, will make me crazy.

After completing my summer class and (hopefully) passing, my main concern right now is moving. For those who know, moving is a pain in the ass. What makes my moving situation worse is that all my roommates moved out after the Spring semester, despite our lease going until mid-August. Almost all of them are back with their parents out of the country and left their rooms trashed, which means I have to deep clean the entire apartment by myself if we want to get our security deposit back. They all completely fucked me but I've decided it's best to just clean the place instead of trying to argue about who did what, since I'm not the one initially getting the deposit back (one of them is getting it and is supposed to disperse it among us). Today I was able to get my shift at work covered and spend a lot of time getting cleaning done, which went well, but I have a lot to do still. Don't want to spend too much time talking about cleaning because that's boring and I know I'll get it done.

Between passing my summer class and cleaning I've pretty much completed the important short-term projects that I've needed too. All I really need to do now before I move on Monday is show up to my last few shifts at work. Then once I move I'll have a whole new set of things to get done. 😁😁

That's pretty much the update for now. What I also want to do in these next few updates is give some more background on who I am and so on. In this post I want to talk about how exactly I plan on getting 2 bachelor degrees between December and the following May. It's actually a neat trick so if you're interested here we go.

Bonus Content

I'll explain more about my particular background in future posts, but for this one all you need to know is that I initially attended a college in my hometown called Carthage (free dox). As I was attending Carthage I would visit my high school friends who had actually gone away to college and realized that I was missing something, so I decided I wanted to transfer. For reasons I'll get into in future posts I did not transfer and stayed at Carthage for what ended up being 3 years. By the end of the third year I still wanted to transfer (to get the college experience I felt I was missing out on) but I didn't want to lose all of the work I had done at Carthage, which is an expensive private school and transferring and losing credits in the process would be a costly mistake.

I realized eventually that Carthage partners with a few other colleges through a 3+2 "dual-degree" program in which you study Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or CS at Carthage for 3 years, then transfer to a second school to do engineering for 2 years, then by the end of it you have a degree from both schools. The problem for me was that despite finishing up my third year as a Mathematics major (with having a triple major in math, computer science, and physics for a few semesters) I was missing some chemistry requirements for the 3+2 "dual-degree" program. That wasn't so bad because I was more fond of transferring than actually studying engineering, and I don't know if I would have succeeding in engineering.

Anyway here is how I still managed to transfer while not wasting my 3 years at Carthage (tl;dr): Because of all the AP credits I got in high school, I actually completed Carthage's Mathematics program by the end of my third year - I could have graduated. The catch is that at Carthage each student my write a senior thesis for their major, which I completed but did not turn in. By not turning my thesis in, the school could not force me to graduate despite having all of the requirements completed. This is important because if you graduate you cannot then transfer those credits into another undergraduate program. This is because you could just keep using the same credits at multiple schools to get multiple degrees in a short amount of time.

What I then did was transfer UW Madison to study Computer Science (I'll explain much more about why I chose this school in a future post). Almost all of my credits transferred in so that knocked out almost all of my general education requirements at UW Madison. As far as the CS requirements went, at least 1/3 or more of them are Mathematics courses which I had already completed and transferred in. I also had a few basic CS courses that transferred in, so all I really needed to do to get my CS degree was complete 8 CS courses and a few general education requirements.

At this point, as explained earlier in this post, I only have 2 classes left. When I pass those 2 classes I will graduate with a BS in Computer Science from UW Madison. After I graduate the plan is to go back to Carthage and turn in my already-completed senior thesis and claim my BA in Mathematics from there. Now even though I said earlier that if you have a degree you cannot transfer those credits to another undergraduate program for another Bachelor degree, this works for me because I don't need to transfer anything back from Madison to Carthage. Remember I completed all of Carthage's requirements at their own school, so whether or not I have a degree from another school doesn't matter. Theoretically, Carthage doesn't even need to know about my UW Madison degree. I should just be able to show up, turn in my thesis, and claim my degree.

Whenever I explain this to people they usually don't understand right away, so let me know if I need to re-word it. Anyway, that is how I plan
on getting a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Mathematics within the next 9 months. This is not like double-majoring because with double-majoring you still only get 1 degree. Overall I'm excited to almost be done here at Madison and go back to Carthage, because I realized I actually like my hometown college better - but that's a story for another day.

All in all things are going as planned so far. I'm still trying to figure out what this thread actually is. It might turn into a weekly blog of sorts, but we'll see. I'll just kind of go with the flow. Thanks for reading if you did, but if you didn't it's not a big deal because this is mostly for my own sake.

See you next time!
~Steve

[Percyi]

life updates here

Glad to see everything working out, Steve! Must feel proud that you have 2 more classes before graduating. This turned out to be a very positive and outgoing thread for you.

[Horus God]

Good Luck with your goals, i wish u done them.

[King of Hearts]

Good luck with your goals.

[Conor McGregor™]

I really feel writing goals down like this helps you stay focused on what you really want. Very interesting, considering making my own for the school year..

[Vossen]

Looks interesting, I'll follow this.
You should divide these goals into smaller goals to reach, by doing so you can see your progress much better.

[RRRaptor]

Posting here to bump this up. I'd love for more members to join in on this as it can be so beneficial. Good work Steve, hope you're working on smashing these out.

[K l a u s]

By the end of today

• get high
  

End of this month

• get high
  

End of 2017

• get high
  

[funtela]

Good luck buddy. You got this :)

[Steve]

Hello everyone, I appreciate those who are both wishing me success and bumping this thread to hold me accountable to keeping progress logged, so here's an update!

Main things I need to touch on today are my living situation, relationship update, and school.

So firstly, I passed my summer class with a mark of 'AB', which is great! Now I only have 2 more courses to take, which I am currently enrolled in. They are CS 475: Combinatorics and CS 577: Algorithms. I am currently procrastinating on doing homework for 475 which is due tomorrow, but I know I'll finish it. 577 is supposed to be one of the most difficult courses in the major so I'm not too pumped for that, but as long as I keep focused I should be able to earn a passing grade.

Now for living. I moved back into my parents home about a month ago and have been saving a lot of money. The problem with living at home is that I have to commute to school, which is about a 1hr and 45min drive each way. Both of my classes are Tuesday/Thursday so in order to make the commute easier I've been driving up Tuesday and crashing at friends houses through Wednesday and Thursday so I only have to make one round trip per week. I've only done this once and I already know it's a horrible plan. Crashing on uncomfortable couches and not knowing where I'm going to sleep is a bad situation to be in. I've also been losing focus on doing homework by being off campus so much. On top of all that, it's only a matter of time before my car takes a shit, and if that happens then I need to figure out a place to stay up there for the rest of the semester. Plus making the commute in winter can cause major problems.

For these reasons I have decided to just move back to campus for 3 months to finish the semester and graduate. Too many problems can arise from me living so far away, and being on campus will definitely improve my grades. Finding a spare bedroom to rent for just 3 months after the semester had already started was hell, but I managed to find one, which is also at a steal of a price. So when I go to campus tomorrow I'll check it out and meet the roommates, and likely move in Wednesday. This will help me keep focused and I also don't like living with my parents very much for obvious reasons. So that's pretty much the shitshow with my living situation that's been going on.

As for a relationship, I mentioned that I wanted to wait until I moved home to find a girl but now that I'm moving again I don't know what to do. I'll only be back on campus for 3 months and I don't really want to get into a relationship until I know that I'm not moving around so much. I guess I'll just play it by ear for now.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll be busy the next few days between homework and moving. I hope this all gets sorted out so I can focus on finishing my last 2 classes and graduate in December.

I'll write another update when I feel it is necessary. Thanks again :)

[sʟᴀᴄᴋᴇʀ]

If you need help in mathematics let me know bro. One of my good friends is currently about to complete his doctorates in mathematics and actually works as a professor as well. He helps people out alot with math and shit.

[Steve]

Hello all! It's been about 2 months since my last post, so I'd like to update everyone on what's been going on!

I am far enough into the semester to know that I will pass both my classes, which means the only thing standing in my way before graduation is simply time (31 days, to be exact). To my surprise, I'm actually having more trouble with Combinatorics than Algorithms. I project that I will earn a B in Combinatorics and an AB in Algorithms, but that is subject to change. That doesn't matter too much, though, the main point is that I will most definitely earn a C or better in both classes (minimum requirement to graduate). As you could tell from my previous post, I was very intimidated by algorithms, but my homework partner and I have been killing the homeworks, and I did 10% better than average on the mid-term. On top of that, it's definitely one of the most interesting classes I've ever taken. That being said, I am very lucky that I only have 2 classes. We spend at least 10 hours per week on the homeworks (sometimes more), and one of the reasons I'm doing so well is because I don't have too much other stuff going on. All in all, I am on track to pass my classes and graduate in December!

I did also get the apartment that I mentioned in the last post. The price of the room should be nearly double than what I'm paying, so I got a great deal on it! This place has eliminated many stressors from my live. I no longer have to worry about my car, where I'm going to sleep, driving, and I'm also more focused by staying on campus. I really do prefer to live in my hometown and not here, but I just need to be patient for now.

As time passes, my desire to get into a relationship has been growing. I don't want to get into details as to why, but in general I would just like a special someone. That definitely cannot happen until after I graduate, so that's another reason why I'm excited to graduate.

Once I graduate, I do have to finish my senior paper at my old school and turn it in, then I will graduate from there as well in May. I do not have to take any classes there, but I do plan on being on that campus a lot and catching up with professors, friends, and my fraternity brothers. I plan on this spring being an amazing semester where I do not have to do much work, and simply celebrate the fact that I graduated in December and have another degree coming in May. In order to accomplish that, I need to get my own place ASAP. After I graduate this December and move home, I will be with my parents, but I do have 2 friends ready to move out so all we will need to do is find a suitable place for us. Hopefully neither of them will bail on me and we can find a place shortly after I graduate.

That's about all for now. I might add another BONUS CONTENT post shortly, but I'll have to think about what I want to write about. Thanks for reading! #31Days

[Steve]

Wow has it been a long time since I've updated this... Just about 4 months.

First I'll address the previous post. The first half describes how I was fairing in my last 2 courses to complete the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at UW Madison. I'm proud to say that I passed the courses and graduated. I ended up getting the expected B in Combinatorics, but only a BC in Algorithms. The grade I earned in Algorithms was frustrating because I got 99% on homework (30% of grade) and 10% above average on the first exam (30% of grade), but did poorly on the final (40%) of grade. Honestly I should have gotten at lease a B, but its not worth arguing about. At the end of the day my time at Madison was a success.

Graduation was on December 17th. I packed all of my belongings into my car 30 minutes before the ceremony, went to the ceremony, took some pictures afterward, then immediately left the city. At the time I was ready to leave ASAP, but in retrospect I do miss it in some respects. For the most part I just wish the city wasn't so politicized, but the city consists mostly of far leftist extremists living in the state capitol of a state with a Republican governor, so there's lots of triggering happening. Anyway I did make 3 really good friends there. We're actually going to New Orleans for spring break later this month. I haven't seen them since I moved so I'm extremely excited.

As for relationship status, I am still single with no current prospects. I have been living with my parents ever since I moved back, which has been awful (for someone used to complete independence) in general, and I definitely want to wait until I move out before getting serious with anyone. I tend to make a lot of excuses when it comes to relationships, so I am working on being more open and pulling the trigger. Once I move out I will have no more excuses.

Since I graduated I also applied for a programming job in MN. An HF member who I've known since high school gave me a referral for the company she works at. This position would satisfy my income goal for 2018 I have listed in OP, but unfortunately I did not get the job. I made it past the phone interview and went for an on-site interview. I had to take a math test and logic test, which I aced, but a week after the interview I got an email saying they're pursuing other applicants. This company has been hiring people with Mathematics degrees to do programming, yet they don't hire me, who has a BA in Mathematics with a 3.852 GPA PLUS a BS in Computer Science form the best school in Wisconsin. I was easily more qualified than most candidates, which leads me to believe that the interview did not go as well as I thought. I was fluent for the most part and touched upon all of my projects, experience, and skills, but there were definitely questions I could have answered better.

I was pretty bummed that I didn't get this job. It would have solved all of my problems. It was my very first real interview though, so I can't blame myself. I wasn't even ready - I only applied because the girl who gave me the referral said they're almost done hiring. Next time I'll have my LinkedIn and a website set up, as well as my projects and responses more organized and ready to go.

So now I'm back in my hometown. Despite living with my parents the whole time I haven't quite got all of my finances in order. As many of you may know, living with your parents is not ideal. Great news though: 2 days ago I just put in a deposit to rent a house, and will be moving in April 1st with 2 friends from high school. Not only will I have my own place again, but the kicker is that its the exact same house that I rented before moving to Madison (the house in which I made my HF account LOL). You guys have no idea how much this means to me, so I'll probably make a BONUS CONTENT to explain it further, but long story short that house was amazing. I have a lot of great memories and grew up a lot there. I did not want to leave it, but had to because I knew transferring to UW Madison would greatly benefit me. That whole situation living there ended in a mess, so having the opportunity to go back to the was things were is beyond amazing. I am a bit bitter about not getting the job when they hire people much less qualified. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't want it - because I did. But sometimes things happen for a reason. If I got this job I wouldn't have gotten this house back. It really means a lot to me. BONUS CONTENT for that coming soon, maybe after I move in.

Oh, also I have been finishing my senior paper at Carthage. It is almost done and I am set to graduate in May with a BA in Mathematics.

Anyway that's what has been going on with me lately. Things are progressing slower that I would like, but getting my old house back is such a motivating stroke of luck.

Thanks for reading and watch out for BONUS CONTENT.