Hi everyone!!! It’s been literally ages since I last posted on my AoPS public blog, but I just randomly felt like it today. So what’s changed since 2022?

Short answer: A lot.

Long answer: Let’s break it down school year by school year.

2021-22 (13th grade/undergrad freshman): You’ve seen quite a few of my posts from this school year, so you know around 1/2 to 3/4 of how it went. In short, I still had an interest in creating mock contests even after graduating from high school, and I was still a student at UIUC. My grades were mostly fine except for B+’s in Spanish and… probability (???), but I’d like to believe I got better at school since then.

2022-23 (14th grade/undergrad sophomore): I slowly lost interest in AoPS and creating mock contests. I transferred to Georgia Tech, where I still am today. My focuses slowly shifted towards classes and extracurriculars. I also got introduced to competitive programming for the first time. It simultaneously felt similar to math contests and very different; notably, the toolset for solving problems is very different. Like, figuring out what data structure to use, what the most efficient algorithm would be, etc. can be hard. I got all A’s except for a B in analysis 1 with the hardest professor possible.

2023-24 (15th grade/undergrad junior): This was where I became more interested in academia. I started doing math research with a professor, I added two majors in computer science and Japanese, and I took on 24 credit hours both semesters (don’t do this!). I barely did any math outside of my math classes. Fall 2023 was a busy semester and got pretty rough towards the end with poor exam scores (55 on my operating systems midterm let’s goooo), but Spring 2024 eventually became fun. I also interned at a big tech company as a software engineer in the summer that followed. I got all A’s except for a B in operating systems in the hardest semester possible.

2024-25 (16th grade/undergrad senior): To this day, my Fall 2024 semester was the WORST thing I have ever experienced. Bossy and toxic capstone teammates (capstone is basically a senior group project that takes a whole 1-3 semesters), hard classes (grad graph theory and capstone), constant busywork, homework, and meetings, and annoying social situations. I don’t want to remember it, and I don’t want to talk more about it. Spring 2025 was much more chill, and I could finally focus on research, working out, and learning math. I studied abroad in Japan in the summer that followed, and then I graduated with my bachelor’s degree. The only good news is that I got all A’s.

2025-26 (17th grade/master’s first year): This school year, I began my master’s program, also at Georgia Tech. Fall 2025 was pretty chill in terms of classes, but oh my gosh was my life outside of classes miserable. I don’t want to talk about it, but basically I became paranoid that everyone was scared of me because of my appearance. Spring 2026 was harder in terms of classes, but I could actually focus on those instead of things outside of classes. I especially enjoyed my grad probabilistic methods class. I also interned at a financial company as a software engineer in the summer that followed. I got all A’s except for a B in grad algebra 1 because I bombed the final exam due to me being in a terrible headspace.

2026-27 (18th grade/master’s second year): We finally made it to my final year of college (unless I do a PhD)! This fall, I am interning at another big tech company as a software engineer while taking one Japanese class online. In addition, I returned to AoPS to #RunDMC and DIME. In Spring 2027, I’ll return to campus to finish my final semester of college. After that, who knows where I’ll go…

Takeaways: College math classes are actually hard. I originally went into UIUC thinking my 10 on AIME and little proof experience would carry me, and although it kind of did through honors calculus 3, it didn’t with honors proofs… and then when I took my first grad math class (graph theory), I was humbled yet again. Although it takes a certain level of maturity and knowledge to #gitgud at these classes, it will grow with practice, as contest math did for me in high school.

Well, now that I got all that out of the way, you can feel free to ask me anything! If you’re curious about my college life, contest writing, or anything else (as long as it’s not too personal), feel free to ask away!

Edit: I forgot to talk about Putnam. Oh yeah, I never made the Top 500 because I kept getting blocked by poor explanations and not seeing tricks that I should have caught.

2021: 5/120 (Rank 1142) - 4/0/0/0/0/0 0/1/0/0/0/0

2022: 13/120 (Rank 676) - 0/1/0/0/0/0 10/2/0/0/0/0

2023: 24/120 (Rank 606) - 10/10/0/0/1/0 3/0/0/0/0/0

2024: 15/120 (Rank 713) - 10/3/0/0/0/0 2/0/0/0/0/0

Yeah most people probably wouldn’t share their scores but I’m fine with it so whatever.