[jacquesm]

Not to be rude or anything, but you asked for advice.

if you wanted better advice you should have provided more background, 'californiaguy' may not have been politically correct but that does not detract from the fact that he spent some time answering you.

If you have finished or built things academically or professionally you could point to them, which would give a more solid base for this whole discussion.

You are asking for inference, some of that inference is going to be on the spot, some of it will be wildly off the mark, if you supply more information you can guide the bandwidth of the results you will receive.

The last line of his post pretty clearly indicates that he realizes that he may be off in his estimate because he feels like coming across as an asshole. (I won't debate that point...).

Advice - any advice - is worth what you paid for it.