Hey all,

Recently got offered a place at UCL for Social and Geographic Data Science and at UvA for Computational Science (joint degree with VU Amsterdam).

I’m currently working in Hong Kong as a Software and Data Engineer in a globally well-known financial firm. I have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. I would say I’m an intermediate to expert level programmer with good professional experience making data pipelines.

My primary motivation with this Masters Degree is to pivot more into the applications of computation to social sciences. I don’t know yet what kind of job I want after I graduate and this degree’s secondary purpose is to allow me to move out of Hong Kong.

I want to keep the door open to pursue PhD research in the same field and if possible allow for a nice salary bump once I graduate.

The programs are a little bit different but both have the multidisciplinary nature I’m seeking. UCL program is 1 year and UvA is 2 years. Financially I am able to pay for both programs without a scholarship, so that’s not really a factor.

What program should I choose? I really can’t make a decision, but I would love to hear your opinions.

I missed out on the sale but I can see some tickets are still available on ViaGogo. Are these legitimate tickets or would I not be able to enter with these?

Price is 2x but I am wondering whether to swallow the pill or not

I've just purchased the 3-day pass from Ticketflap but on my ticket it says the following:

Your ticket is currently suppressed.

You will be able to download the ticket 48 hours before the event.

​

Is this normal? I've never seen anything like this on a ticket before.

Any insight is appreciated!

I’ve never seen the Foo Fighters live but they’ve been my favourite band since grade school. Unfortunately I was a child during the 2000s and didn’t have the money to go watch them in concert but when I heard they were playing in Japan or literally anywhere within a 6000km radius I immediately bought flights and tickets.

None of my friends are fans enough to drop everything for a weekend to go to Japan so I am reaching out to see if someone is! Maybe we can connect and hopefully see one of you in Japan!

Hi, I graduated from college in 2021 with a decent GPA and a computer science degree and was able to get a good job in the same city as my university. I work as an entry-level data engineer for a top-25 Fortune 500 company making about $70,000 a year. Although I like what I am doing on a task-by-task basis and the money is great, I don't feel completely satisfied in working with this company as I don't particularly relate to their business (financial services). Another issue is that I definitely feel burned out and underutilized at the same time in the office, and am essentially a paper pusher. I also want to move out of my current location possibly into the US, Canada or Europe.

The way I see it, I have 3 options, but I am having a lot of trouble deciding owing to a lack of a mentor and my inability to take any leaps of faith in general:

1. Go back to school in a different country: Ideally I'd like to get a masters degree in a mathematics and statistics based data science field. If I take this path, I would like to pivot into research and would most likely end with a PhD eventually. I also plan on founding my own business in the long-run so being highly educated seems like a good idea since I want it to be a tier 4 information services business. My concern with this is that my younger brother will also start university at the same time as me, but as an undergraduate. I financials support the both of us so this might not be feasible given that my savings are somewhat limited living in one of the world's most expensive cities. Scholarships may be an answer but neither my brother nor I are very likely to get one. I could apply for student loans for the both of us, but I would ideally not like to get back under the yoke of debt as I just paid off my undergraduate loans last month.
2. Take another job in a different country: This is also a solid option but I am not sure about the resources that are available for me to apply in different locations. This way I will also be able to support my younger brother financially while I work in the same location as him. As my passport is quite weak, work visas will be a massive headache to deal with although that comes after applying for a job lol. If you have any advice on how to look for jobs abroad, I would really appreciate the help.
3. Keep my current job: My current job has a yearly wage increase of about 10% and I regularly invest in ETFs, MPFs and Index funds. I feel like I am in a very financially stable position to build a good life out of. Although this wouldn't be a life I enjoy particularly, in only 4-5 years I can amass a considerable amount of wealth to support my brother with by the time he graduates from college. I don't quite like this solution but this option requires me to take no major steps.

I apologize if these issues that I am raising don't seem very immediate or threatening in any way - but I am only 23 right now and I would like to maximize the value of my life in the next few years, while providing for my kid brother in the best way I can since we only have each other and no family. I would appreciate any advice you have to give, however flippant it may seem.

Thanks for reading all the way down and I wish you a good day/night/morning/evening haha.

Hi everyone, a bit of context first, and a bit of a confession - I'm a recent computer science graduate (2021) who messed up a little bit after college. I started chasing money instead of what I wanted in the beginning, a better future for everyone and to spread love. I thought that the first step to make a change was power and money is the easiest form of power. I was misled and joined up with the most ecologically devastating financial institution (I won't name it but you should be able to guess) that pumps more money into fossil fuels than any other investor in the world. At the same time I also started coding for a bunch of NFT projects (yikes) but I thought that as long as I was robbing the ultrarich (yikes) it was all fair game. I did this for the last year.

Recently however, I returned to my village in India, where I grew up and later abandoned to go blindly chase bags abroad. My ancestors have all been farmers, as far as they can remember. Growing up, all I wanted to do was to escape that see the world and be someone and change the world, but in doing that my dream got corrupted. I realised after talking to my parents and grandparents that all I'm doing is making the world a worse place. They lovingly cultivate saplings into great trees, whereas I contribute vapidly to oil spills and ecological collapse. The same ecological collapse that my grandmother has witnessed firsthand.

Crop failure due to climate change has already started in India and other dry sub-tropical nations as a result of bad monsoons. Wildlife diversity has disappeared - my grandma says there's so many kinds of birds she just doesn't hear anymore. Water is scarcer underground as a result of devastating monocultures in the regions. And the worst thing is that no one in the entire village is richer because they destroyed the environment.

The amount of guilt I felt walking through the fields was too much to take so I quit my job and withdrew my crypto. I sulked over it for a month or two but I've now decided that it's time to quit sulking and figure out a way to make up for all the bad that I have done. I'm ashamed and disappointed, and more than a little jaded about the world changing but I realise now that the only way to make a change is to try. My comfort will be in others and not vapid materialism. As long as we just try we will all make it.

I have a few skills I am planning to use - primarily programming, to achieve this. I just wanted to reach out to (now) like-minded individuals and see if there are any ideas you all might have to begin on this journey. I am looking for organisations that may be doing some work in the space and I shall reach out to them to see if I can help in any way. I'm open to all suggestions in all nations across the world.

Thank you very much if you read this far.

I just moved back here after 5 years and everything seems to be closed haha. Any help is appreciated, thanks!