poikniok's blog

Stories of Delaying Graduation for ACM ICPC
By poikniok, history, 7 years ago, In English

I am curious to hear if anybody has stories to share of people who delayed graduation in hopes of making it to ACM ICPC world finals, or doing better at world finals. Was it a success, or just more heartbreak for them?

As a somewhat unrelated aside, does anybody know what happened to Ferlon, of this livejournal fame?

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7 years ago, # |
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ngfam_kongu delayed graduation for 1.5 year. He went to WF (but did not do very well though).

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7 years ago, # |
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i am on my way to delay my graduation. i'll tell you then :)

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
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    Maybe there is restriction on age. Keep that in mind too.

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
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      yeah i know, i also asked Bill Poucher too on Quora, and i get positive answer :)

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7 years ago, # |
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I did it two times but unfortunately didn't make it to the finals. :(

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7 years ago, # |
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I delayed my graduation 2 years. Well, technically I had to drop 2 semesters as I didn't have enough money to pay, but I chose to only have a part-time job so that I could have some time to prepare for ICPC.

I cannot say I regret it, even though I never made it to WF, I am happy I was able to actually choose what I considered best for me at that moment. Also considering that I had almost no knowledge of even basic algorithms, I think I have improved a lot.

My advice for anyone would be to analyze carefully your current situation. If you have some kind of coach, professor or senior student willing to help you even a little bit, it is worth the try. Learning on your own is gratifying, but you may not get the required background to classify for WF on time. And also do consider getting a teammate with the same expectations as you, believe me, if you are the only one in your team that had implemented a DP before, you are not getting anywhere, unless you are tourist, Petr or TooDifficult :)

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7 years ago, # |
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I'm the one who participated ICPC over 8 years. I enjoyed it, but it may vary depending on the person or view. What's your point of asking this experience?

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