The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by faust1706

Let me start off by stating that my life will be forever better after doing (4 years) of FRC. I made life long friends (looking at you, yash), and it exposed me to things I may have never known existed.

But there is a somewhat darker side to it. It makes students too hard ahead. We have all seen it. The brightest kid in middle school wash out and become a c average student in high school.

The statistics on my team don't lie. Yeah, nearly every senior goes off to an engineering school, which is great, don't get me wrong, but how many finish it out? There are a surprising number of our alumni who had to hit the restart button on life after high school. I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere, and it probably has never been discussed.

Allow me to introduce myself, I am a freshman at MST, it is THE engineering school in Missouri. I learned how to program my sophomore year under a boeing engineer, for whom I am forever grateful for, and I didn't stop learning there. I published two papers in the field of computer vision and placed third at the international science fair. Where am I now? Bored out of my mind academically at a supposedly amazing school. I am too far ahead of my peers. I am working in a graduate level lab doing computer vision and I am seeing what the grad students are doing wrong.

What I'm trying to get at is sometimes what seems like an advantage can be a (minor) disadvantage. Keep that in mind.

So, you're bored? Are you involved in clubs? Idk MST but I'd be willing to bet they have a handful of great programs for students (Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition was big in Michigan).

Have you approached any faculty about research they're doing? Maybe you could get involved there.

Heck, get a group of friends together and prep for next year's Sparkfun AVC.


If you're bored in college it's your own $@#$@#$@#$@# fault. It's not a disadvantage of being an alumni, it's just a reality of not having every minute of your life scheduled and having to be responsible for your own life. Sounds like your team/school is doing a pretty mediocre job of preparing folks for this reality.