If you didn't already know, I'm going to UT Austin in the fall. These are some college-related things I have on my mind right now!

1

I do not want to be a broke college student. Sure, I have money saved up from birthday/graduation gifts, and I've invested a good portion of it into the stock market. But if I didn't work during college, I would probably run out of money in less than two years.¹

So I made a little spreadsheet in about 30 minutes with my estimated monthly expenses and income. I plan to work for ~40 hours/month in college², and plan to save as much money as possible³.

Of course, I haven't started college — so I don't know whether my monthly spending estimates will be accurate. Will I end up spending way more than $20/month on clothing? Will I need more groceries than I can buy for $70/month? (Thankfully, my parents are paying for my meal plan, so I won't have to buy that many groceries.)

Not only will I be budgeting in college — but I'll also get my first credit card! My parents have told me the golden rule of having a credit card: always pay it off in full every month.⁴ I've heard that's the only responsible way to use a credit card.

2

I had a lot of appointments this week⁵:

• Monday — doctor's appointment: My doctor told me I was pretty healthy! Standard suggestions: make sure you exercise, eat healthy, manage stress, etc. I also grew about an inch taller.
• Tuesday — dermatologist's appointment: My dermatologist encouraged me to use more sunscreen. She also checked two of my moles and verified that I didn't have skin cancer (woo!), used liquid nitrogen to freeze off a wart on my hand, and constructed my new acne treatment regimen.
• Wednesday — dentist's appointment: My dentist told me I had a lot of cavities :( It's a shame, because I don't drink soda, eat pretty healthy, and my dental hygiene is good (yes, I floss 1x/day).

I'm thinking about how to take care of my body, skin, and teeth throughout college. I'll definitely need to build some good habits.

I want to nerd out quickly about the ultraviolet (UV) index. I went to Estes Park, Colorado last week for a church retreat, and the UV index was very high at midday. The cool thing about the UV index is that it's linear. You'll get almost the same amount sunburnt if you:

• spend 45 minutes outside when the UV index is 2
• spend 15 minutes outside when the UV index is 6
• spend 9 minutes outside when the UV index is 10

Why is this so cool? Well, given any UV index graph for a day:

You can approximate how much you'll get burnt. You'll be sunburnt proportional to... (deep breath) ... the sum of the integrals of the UV index curve, where each integral is calculated over the period of time you are outside without sunscreen.

Don't worry if that made no sense at all. Remember that this blog often composes the ramblings of a soon-to-be applied math major. What even is applied math anyway???

3

What will I take to college? I've got a ton of crap in my closet and bathroom that I'm excited to leave behind. But I'll have to be conscious about the items I do take. My on-campus room is small, and I'm sharing it with my roommate!

I definitely want to take three decorative LEGO sets:

They are beautiful sets. But they have a lot of parts that could easily be broken off when I move into my dorm.⁶ Maybe I'll take some of the parts off and put them in a plastic bag so they don't get lost.

4

BONUS: this isn't related to college, but I've been playing a lot of Ticket to Ride: Europe lately.

My friend Hudson, who just finished his sophomore year of college, is staying at my family's home because he's interning at a tech company here in Austin. My dad, Hudson, and I have played five full-length games of Ticket to Ride: Europe in the last four days.

Hudson has won three out of five games so far, which is a very good win rate for our three-player games. He's developed an interesting strategy: draw tons of routes at the beginning of the game and then craft a "master route" that goes through all of the locations you need to connect.

I haven't even won one out of the five games! My typical strategy of "route branching" (ie. complete your long route than repeatedly draw routes to go for a lot of points) isn't working. I may need to adopt Hudson's strategy.

Footnotes

¹ Given my estimated monthly expenses.

² I think ~40 hours/month will be a reasonable amount of work. After all, that's only like 1.33 hours/day, and I think I'll have more free time in college than I did in high school.

³ Because the earlier you invest money, the better! "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” –Albert Einstein

⁴ Because if you don't, compound interest works against you, instead of for you. Plus your credit score takes a huge hit.

⁵ I think it's funny how these professions all start with 'D' — seems like an interesting coincidence.

⁶ Honestly, it probably won't be too bad, as I don't have to transport my belongings via plane.