The senior behind Columbia Confessions gives advice to us mortals.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Stan Liao, SEAS, Applied Math with a CS minor, Agoura Hills

Claim to fame: columbia buy sell memes, Ref Spotting @ Columbia, and Columbia Confessions

Where are you going? Doing quant trading in Chicago.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2025?

  1. Cherish your relationships with other people here, and don’t be afraid to reach out in general. This is a really unique experience where you’ll be forced to be stuck in a very small place with so many other smart people, so it’s a great opportunity to meet people. This is also a very stressful place, so reach out to your peers, TA’s, faculty, etc. for help and support – people are here for you.
  2. Exploring different clubs and groups is great, but also don’t sunk cost fallacy things. While four years is a long, long time, you still have a limited time on campus. Don’t spend your time doing something that you don’t want to do out of a feeling of obligation or sunk cost.
  3. It’s easy to get stressed out about the details and the day-to-day stressors of life here, but at the end of the day, we’ll all be fine.

“Back in my day…” buy sell was funny and widely used, Hewitt was bad, a lot of ramps and accessibility options weren’t there, Milstein was under construction.

Favorite Columbia controversy? The Band disbanding because I feel like that was, for better or for worse, largely on me.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? 
I liked a lot of classes here – 1006 & Data Structures for general usefulness, even for non-CS people, and Number Theory was probably the most fun.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? No comment, other than the fact that I am lactose tolerant.

Whom would you like to thank?
I’d like to thank my family; all of my friends and fellow students for being there through these four years at the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows; and my professors and TAs for hearing and helping with all of my dumb questions.

One thing to do before graduating: Get on Butler roof and hang out with my friends on the steps.

Any regrets? I can’t decide on which ones to put here, so I’ll just say being too indecisive.

alma grad pic via Stan