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Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

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Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#161

Post by zumu »

watertom wrote: post #103
saas_co_de wrote: post #9

It is somewhat amusing that they give scholarships to people with financial industry background, who are the least in need, and who will receive the highest salaries on exit - and then claim that their scholarships are need based. At least they are teaching their students the ethics they need to succeed in the financial industry.

It is need based, the needs of the university. The people who go into finance and make the most money contribute more to the University.

I wonder if this is primarily an American thing, or if this phenomenon exists in other countries.

Seems like one could solve this issue by making university cheap or free.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#162

Post by toyg »

zumu wrote: post #161
watertom wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is need based, the needs of the university. The people who go into finance and make the most money contribute more to the University.

I wonder if this is primarily an American thing, or if this phenomenon exists in other countries. Seems like one could solve this issue by making university cheap or free.

It likely exists anywhere universities rely on alumni’s donations, i.e. anywhere universities are private businesses, like in UK. Probably not a big deal in places where unis are state-funded and places are not limited.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#163

Post by baybal2 »

zumu wrote: post #161
watertom wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is need based, the needs of the university. The people who go into finance and make the most money contribute more to the University.

I wonder if this is primarily an American thing, or if this phenomenon exists in other countries. Seems like one could solve this issue by making university cheap or free.

Not only American, but not common either. The best analogy to American business schools will be party (communist party) schools in Soviet Union and China.

I can't pick words to express just how similar are these two systems.

And in all of those countries, you have huge masses of clueless parents seeing these institutes as something that magically, effortlessly make their children "big men" of higher socioeconomic standing overnight once they graduate.

As for me, my own experience was that it takes a lot to convince parents that Western "big name business school" is a gigantic waste of money if you go there for actual skills and knowledge. And the argument "you go to business school to make connection with kids of other rich people" does not hold water either. All of such students are well connected people to begin with, and are very class conscious themselves. If they see no use of socialising with you, what will make them want doing so?

I wrote another post below explaining how it was for me.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#164

Post by elmar »

What's the perception of HN community regarding MIT?, personally I think they have a different culture than other top 5 universities.

For example they don't give Honorary degrees and you only have to disclose your financial status and if you need financial help only after been accepted.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#165

Post by fundingshovel »

1_2__4 wrote: post #102
matt4077 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or get her into Stanford, where she'll get a $170,000 starting salary after four years, and can buy a rather pretty new car every quarter.

You vastly underestimate how far that money goes in the regions where these graduates are hired.

You mean overestimate?

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#166

Post by EncipheredBy »

zumu wrote: post #161
watertom wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is need based, the needs of the university. The people who go into finance and make the most money contribute more to the University.

I wonder if this is primarily an American thing, or if this phenomenon exists in other countries. Seems like one could solve this issue by making university cheap or free.

An MBA in the U.S. honestly doesn't even feel like "university" in the traditional sense.

It is essentially an exchange where the student pays a massive amount of tuition money and the university gives them two years to network with people. I believe the goal is to make friends with the folks who were going to get that finance job through their connections anyway, and then maybe they can get YOU a finance job too.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#167

Post by sytelus »

TLDR; Stanford says they only give aid based on need. Their data shows this is true for "base" aid but then they also do "increment" on this aid (without knowledge of students) which is to make class more diverse. So you end up with some students with more need but less total aid and vice versa. They say they will look in to this and make process more transparent. Interesting part of the story was that this was found out by student who got hold of unintentionally accessible data and spent months analyzing it to discover how Stanford gave aid.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#168

Post by trophycase »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #139
georgeecollins wrote: post #116

I am surprised people are surprised by this. I went to B school over twenty years ago, and my experience was after I applied and was accepted and passed on going, they offered a scholarship. It was clear it had nothing to do with need, they wete just trying to persuade me to go. Tuition amounts are just sticker prices that you can negotiate down based on your bargaining power. If you don't know that you don't belong…

When a business person lies about a product he is being unethical and committing fraud. Are people surprised that other people and institutions commit fraud and lie? No. No one is surprised. However when a criminal commits a crime, people react in kind.

Especially when they are subsidized by the federal government.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#169

Post by bArray »

>But it does discriminate — often favoring female applicants, international students, and those with backgrounds in finance, says the report by Adam Allcock, a Stanford business school student from the United Kingdom who found and analyzed the data.

The comments about the rich not needing aid isn't entirely true, having rich parents doesn't automatically mean the child is rich. I would want to see the report in order to draw my own conclusions.

The over looked point - if this had been favoured against females or internationals, you can sure bet there would be massive public outcry, calls for people to quit their posts and protests at the University.

Re: Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships

#170

Post by richardknop »

CapacitorSet wrote: post #159
jack9 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aristocracy and privilege are about as far from communism as it gets. In theory. In practice (history is full of it), the castes develop overnight. A group of individuals has to make decisions and manage the oversight and record keeping, etc. This leads to corruption and a de-facto aristocracy.

Castes are about as far from communism as it gets.

You keep repeating this but as somebody from former Warsaw Pact country let me tell you there was a real caste system during communism. Party members were basically royalty. And the ruling caste (top, most loyal apparatchiks) were just like Louis XIV, having completely unlimited powers over other people.
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