u/tuffman12567

I saw a ton of ppl recommend these books for me but im not able to buy them online for reasons i cant talk abt and my local libraries and school libraries dont have them. Does anyone know where i can access it for free?

When i look at online sites that offer either one, i can only find old versions of the college panda math one from 2015-2020 (no new ones were offered) the same with my libraries they didnt offer the newer ones even when asking and they offer 0 of the Erica Meltzer ones.

Also i prefer it to not be download required since my parents locked out downloading random files on my device due to safety reasons.

What if i got accepted to nyu ed2 (qualified for nyu promise) but got into yale/harvard regular? How would I escape the contract without risking the yale/harvard acceptance going away?

Or is that not possible at all?

Im a current 11th grader right now in NYC and ive been planning what colleges to go into. I was recently accepted to NYU STEP (fee waivers fully covered) and ill be attending classes at the actual campus for the school year (its starting next week) and ive been to washington square park before with my parents and i love the whole vibes of it. The area is pretty calm, the whole events that happen within the middle especially the yearly festivals which ive been to for 2 years now and the actual buildings near it is so cool. Im considering either majoring in comp sci or comp eng (my ecs are mainly in comp sci but i have a few that are eng related with decent/good stats). Im leaning more towards comp eng since ill have the opportunity to both code stuff and work on physical hardware. The job market for comp eng majors is supposidly very well compared to comp sci majors. And I believe (might be wrong) that its less selective compared to CAS since there are way more people interested in comp sci compared to comp eng.

I havent been to metrotech at all since its not an area that i ever needed to go for anything and looking at images online, its so quiet and lifeless? It doesn't have the whole festivals, the random street preformers, and not many people there. I saw on a diff post that most tandon students move to the washington square park campuses and do most activities there. I would like to have most classes in washington square park but at the same time idk how would I do a comp eng major if all eng majors are in tandon and most if not almost all my classes would be at tandon.

What is best option and more advice on this?

Im a low income 11th grade Bengali Hindu student in nyc in a economically disadvantaged school according to nyc data.

I have transportation issues as a big thing since my dad is the only one in my family to drive and he works constantly from around 10am to 7-8 (sometimes 9) and on his free days, he is working on his finances alongside my uncles since currently they are trying to get one of my uncles from my home country to the US. And even when hes not busy with work, he cant rlly afford to get into the programs im interested in that much since going from different buroughs costs a fare which adds up a lot. Also i know some people from NYC will say to get a student omny card (school provided subway cards for free), I am not eligable for it since i live under 0.5 miles from my school and even with programs im in, i was told by basically every staff member that handles with the OMNY cards that they cant physically give me one due to their system not allowing them to.

I tried to do a summer job this year at Chuck E Cheese, the only area near me that allowed 15 year olds to work and with my constant applications being sent and calls and arrivals to the area, they never accepted me or even declined me. I just got ghosted so i ended up giving up since it lasted over a month with 0 result happening. No other area was even hiring 15 year olds u had to be 16+ everywhere else even for a beginner role. :/

Im a interested CS/CE student right now and my school (only close option that i can attend activities) doesnt offer much cs related clubs and the ones they do offer got introduced in my 10th grade-11th grade year and has limits on what grades can participate.

So far the clubs im in at my school.

Chess Club (9th and 10th):

It was a casual club that i joined in start of 9th to end of 10th since i thought chess would be my thing since many of my family members play chess and gotten into competitions and won a lot. I think the teacher for it said that there could be competitions with local schools but that never ended up happening. I ended up not joining chess this year in favor for these clubs. I did however gain a lot of experience in chess and am actually not that bad (thats what i think) at ches. Also made some pretty good friends that im still close with today so id say it was somewhat worth it.

Game Design/St John's university Game programming college club (a partnership with my school):

Got introduced this year by my AP CSP teacher and I was able to be president (got confirmation by teacher) since I managed with the club fair for it and brought a lot of my friends and random students to be interested in the club and most if not all of them actually came on the first day. Its basically sorta a course while making games.

At the start (right now) you learn the steps to the programming language (Java) on how to easily navigate and get used to. Later in the year, we will start creating projects such as games which my teacher did say could be published into unity if he wanted to. There is also a big hackathon that happens with St Johns university with my school and he selects specific students (like me) to code a project and it will be judged and tested. Also this club gives 3 college credits since it technically is a course since you learn coding from undergrads and professors. And you also get a stipend at the end :) (not sure how much but this could help my family with groceries and stuff)

Drone Club:

Got introduced in 9th grade. I tbh didnt want to join in 9th grade since i kinda wanted to do chess ngl and was focused to achieve 90+ on all classes (which i did lol). However that is kinda a good thing since 11th and 12th graders in Drone Club have the opportunity to take and pass the FAA Part 107 certified exam and get a drone certificate which allows students to fly drones commercially LEGALLY and be able to get paid for it (which i think also provides an internship alongside). Those main perks were locked for only 11th and 12th graders which was perfect for me. Im already in the club and i tried to ask the teacher if there was any roles available like president, and i was told that there was already one but I could ask them if I could either be vice president or a different role (idk which).

The club basically involves controlling drones and coding their movement. This year, the club now added the ability to make the drones now which sounds so cool. There is also competitions from local schools and schools from other states like New Jersey, and Conneticut.

CS and Software Development courses/York College (a partnership again with my school and a college for cs courses):

Now idk if you could count this as a ec but it happens afterschool and its a 2 year program. Its only allowed for 11th and 12th graders taking AP CSP which i am right now. Ive already spoke with the teacher for the club and my guidence counselor saying my interest in joining. I was told that they reached out with York College to see if they can accept me. Most likely they will since i asked them to RSVP me. I take i think 4 CS and Software Development courses taught by both the CS teacher at my school and by college professors at York College. This interests me since this could rlly help me learn much more of the world of cs and introduce me to software development and the credits gained from this could rlly help me in college.

NYU STEP:

A selective program in NYU that i got accepted to for this fall (going to oreintation next tuesday :D ). It basically half academic courses in science and math and SAT to help students with their regents (final exam for science and math) and with getting a higher SAT score. It mainly has a elective section in the afternoon that involves STEM subjects (you get to choose) and ive chosen CS since it interets me the most. You get to work with professors at NYU and undergrads and NYU STEP students in a collaborative project which by the end of the program could be selected for the final STEP conference which takes place in Albany and is a very important conference. You present your project with the people there and you could i believe get to publish the project if it wins. This is the main program that I can attend thats not near me since im able to recieve transportation assistance from NYU.

Im also trying to join an internship my school offers but the guidence counselor and even principle dont know who is doing this internship since the previous teacher that did it just quit so a new teacher that filled their place is doing it but was told to wait a few weeks for a official responce.

Might sound bad that im not in like more then 3 clubs at my school but im mainly/only interested in anything cs related and those are the only ones that my school offers that are cs related that I could care to enjoy. I also seen that being the jack of all trades and taking a lot of clubs is bad and also a lot of the clubs interlap so couldnt rlly do more than 3 without risking that happening.

But so far are these ecs that im in/planning to attend ok or good for Columbia or NYU if i kept untill 12th grade? Planning to do ED1 Columbia and ED2 NYU if Columbia rejects. Please be brutally honest. Interested in feedback from ivy leauge/t20 alumni or current accepted mainly in those 2 schools