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Comment by croemer | Hacker News Reader

One half of me is sympathetic with you, the other wonders whether you're trying to get attention for a job (this is how the end of your LinkedIn post makes it sound).

It's hard to judge from the outside as you haven't shared the actual writing from UW.

I would probably cut this from the end of the LinkedIn post, this makes you look like you're possibly trying to blow this out of proportion for attention:

> I'm scheduled to graduate in a few months and am eager to move on to projects that don't need to be cleared with the UW Registrar. If you know of anyone looking for a full-time software engineer with a knack for getting the attention of senior leadership, please send them my way! I can start full-time in June

Your LinkedIn profile states you graduated high school mid 2023 and started at UW mid-late 2023. How can you graduate in a few months already? That would mean you'd just take 2 years instead of the normal 4?

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> One half of me is sympathetic with you, the other wonders whether you're trying to get attention for a job (this is how the end of your LinkedIn post makes it sound).

Why not both. I hire, and it crossed my mind to reach out to him when I read the ending. The project shows ambition and independent thought, two virtues in my book.

He's smart to leverage the attention. Might as well get some benefit out of the university's heavy-handed policing here.

I'm not sure whether I can trust the story as he presents it. The fact that he might be out for attention is a reason to have doubts, because he might have made the case look more extreme than it is so it trends better.

There are a couple of other question marks:

- Says he'll graduate this year, but he's only started at UW 1.5y ago, his project team mates also started 1.5y ago, so the course does not seem to be super advanced

- Claims he did the project on his own in the LinkedIn post, when in fact it was coursework by a team of 6

- The docs promise stuff that are entirely unimplemented, I couldn't find anything related to talking to the UW API

In general I worry about ragebait stories that trend on HN.

They're sometimes legit, but way too often there's a quiet coda where someone figures out it was all a sham, but that discovery occurs after the story has already been drawing attention for 24 hours or more, and the recall doesn't get the attention the initial rage did. So people walk away remembering a story that was a lie, while the truth gets quickly forgotten.

I also worry about this which is why I've been researching things and posting my findings here. I wish this got picked up by at least the student newspaper. UW should be able to present their side. Hard to predict whether we will ever know the truth.

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uw-and-computer-science-studen...

> 1.5y vs 4y

That's pretty common. Details vary, but having 1-3y of credit you can transfer in and then only having to stick it out for 1-3y to navigate the maze of upper-level course requirements happens all the time.

In my case, MN heavily subsidized AP and CLEP tests at the time and didn't require you to take the class to take the test. A couple heavy weeks of testing later, and 2yrs of college was banged out. Toss in the fact that the credit cap per semester is just a guideline the dean is happy to override, and finishing early is all but guaranteed.

A hundred or so of my high-school classmates had other paths to similar endings. They took AP courses almost exclusively in HS, and their last year or two they'd spend a lot of their HS getting dual credit from a local community college. They all started with at least a year done, usually much more.

It must have been a survey course. Frankly, I found the course rather elementary.

What's a survey course? It turns out that at least another team in the same course had the exact same app idea: https://www.sammybharadwaj.com/huskyswap - even same name. Sounds like this idea was either given by the instructor or the groups cooperated on choosing it.

Hence the idea of swapping must not have been the problem here, otherwise surely the instructor should be more in trouble than OP, and this other website shouldn't still be up.

I remember that class - it was just between recess and lunch!

It's possible there's deception here, but I also knew a few kids in high school who graduated with their Associates (equivalent to 2 years of college). This can allow a student to skip the general education courses and focus exclusively on major coursework, which depending on the program and how well the student can schedule classes can mean finishing in 2 years.

Their profile also mentions "Stanford Summer Session" in Jun 2022, which does give college credit, so Associates or not they were definitely more active in pursuing a degree than most high school students.

> That would mean you'd just take 2 years instead of the normal 4?

FWIW my wife was a fourth-year the start of her second year at uni because she'd tested out of a ton of basics or taken dual-credit courses in high school. I was a fourth-year the end of my second year.

I AP'd my way out of 6 hours of English, 14 or so hours of Spanish, 8 hours of physics, 8 hours of calculus, and a hodgepodge of psych, sociology, etc., plus I'd taken some uni courses as a high school student as well.

I basically spent two years taking nothing but upper div math classes + a year living in Japan working on a second degree.

AP classes, my friend, save you so much time and money.

Only saves time if you consider being in university a waste of time instead of an opportunity to be free to learn what you are interested in and surrounded by like-minded people.

Oh it’s great. But depending on what country you are in, it could be the difference between a lifetime debt, and economic freedom.

University is an expensive credential to check off a box for most people. I'm not one of those people, and sounds like you aren't, but for most people, it is.

University is definitely not a place where you are free to learn whatever you want, unless you already have all your credit points.

If you have all the credits done within 2 years you can spend the other 2 years learning whatever you want :)

Something definitely smells.

>the other wonders whether you're trying to get attention for a job (this is how the end of your LinkedIn post makes it sound).

Good, this market is brutal and I don't think it'll get much better in June. Gotta do whatever you can to stand out as a junior.

>How can you graduate in a few months already?

Various factors. Assossiates degree. Hyper accelerated program between AP classes, certain CC programs in high school, and high college workload. Simply grammatical errors on dates.

Washington state (and many others, I'm assuming) have systems in place that allow high school students to take collegiate level classes in lieu of high school classes.

Done to completion, it is possible (and becoming more common) to exit high school with an Associates degree and the first 2 years of college completed.

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