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Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

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Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#281

Post by emodendroket »

tr0ut wrote: post #274
emodendroket wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's all well and good. There are plenty of companies who do not feel that way (even though they almost all put a CS degree as a "requirement" in job listings). In fact, I've never encountered my unrelated degree being an obstacle. I have no idea what you mean about ruling myself out of a lot of opportunities for "anecdotal and intangible" reasons.

I know there is work for people like yourself to be found. Having an unrelated degree but being capable of working in tech. However there are quite a lot of really good companies that will not even give your resume a second look with out CS degree or equal on it. This is what I'm arguing for. I don't think it matters. I've worked with people like yourself and others with no degree or drop-outs. That worked people fro…

Well, my argument is a little different than that. I am saying my university education is, in my mind, part of the reason I was able to go from having the notion of learning programming to following through and learning enough to make it my career. I don't think my education makes that much of an impression on my resume after five years of work as a developer except as a curiosity, but if I weren't able to learn in the first place that would be the least of my concerns.

Most of the hard-luck stories I've heard related to degrees were people who'd had decent careers and then weren't able to get a promotion because of a company policy saying managers all needed a bachelors, or something to that effect, where the subject wouldn't really be what's at issue. If I'm really being shut out from interviews because my degree is in the wrong thing I have not noticed the effect -- even at tech companies.

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#282

Post by emodendroket »

heedlessly2 wrote: post #272
emodendroket wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a pretty weak argument. Join a large church and you can probably meet people in every city too, and you won't need to take out huge loans to do it.

you completely missed the part where i said "while not necessary" > Join a large church and you can probably meet people in every city too, and you won't need to take out huge loans to do it. most people only go to their local church. Many people from my uni were from out of state

I went to school in Massachusetts and I made a lot of friends who live in Massachusetts but I didn't exactly meet a world-wide network of friends. I was thinking you were talking about something like an alumni association, where your connection isn't really any less tenuous than with people belonging to your same denomination.

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#283

Post by bllguo »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #114
bllguo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because it's more efficient? The services will help more people because of population density. I mean, the math is obvious. I'm not sure what the argument is. Nobody is saying city folk are more important. There are simply more of them.

>The services will help more people because of population density. You're assuming a centralized distribution model and that the overhead of centralization is more than made up for with economics of scale. edit: is that not the implied assumption?

Well I didn't downvote you if that's the implication :)

Sure, I suppose it is.. do you mean to suggest that the assumption is false?

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#284

Post by bllguo »

eric_b wrote: post #120
bllguo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because it's more efficient? The services will help more people because of population density. I mean, the math is obvious. I'm not sure what the argument is. Nobody is saying city folk are more important. There are simply more of them.

I've lived in cities - they typically failed to provide better services than lower density suburbs, despite having a bigger tax base and "efficiencies". There are many reasons for this, but cities do not become magically more efficient or well run with more people. Sadly, the opposite is usually true. I think you've bought a bill of goods that a certain group of people are selling, without actually having lived it.

I live in a city as well. I thought we were comparing cities to rural areas, not suburbs? My belief would be that suburbs are not good for society - they're land inefficient and get more resources than they should because more affluent people live in them.

Anyway I was just offering a basic justification for why society would focus on improving lives in cities as opposed to rural areas.

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#285

Post by tropo »

lxmorj wrote: post #208
jjeaff wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you mentioned having a gun, this is one of the huge differences between your average liberal elite and the average rural dweller. People on the left simply don't understand the difference of living on your own. The independence is completely at a different level. You may very well need a gun to fend off some crazy banging at your door that won't go away. In the city, you have the assumption that the cops will s…

The gun you want for reasonable home defense / deterrence in a rural setting is a shotgun, no? Very different to the assault rifle proxies typical used in mass shootings.

Unlike a shotgun, the AR-15 is usable by frail people. You can be 90 pounds, be on blood thinners, have weak muscles and bones, and still practice with an AR-15. Essentially, a requirement to rely on a shotgun would be discriminatory, particularly toward women and the elderly.

Last April in Oklahoma, a home defense situation with an AR-15 made the news. There were 3 armed intruders that got killed with only 2 rifle shots. That is a great example of just how effective the AR-15 can be in home defense.

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#286

Post by stevenwoo »

prewett wrote: post #129
stevenwoo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The little town in Texas that voted to put libertarians in charge is a decent cautionary tale. https://www.texasobserver.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-frees...

After reading the article I'd say that the problems were caused primarily by personal conflicts. Any problems with libertarian philosophy did not have a chance to surface because they were completely swamped by the dysfunction of town leaders.

A weird tangent - this may be the mother of all libertarian - libertarian conflicts - Nick Denton versus Peter Thiel. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/hogan-t...

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#287

Post by tropo »

jonathankoren wrote: post #180
vanilla_nut wrote: post #43

As a graduate of a very rural American school (to give you an idea, my entire pre-k through 12th grade school was housed in a single building, with below 500 kids total; my graduating class was just over 30 students, and I was one of 3 who went on to a 4-year school -- fewer than 10 of us went to any college at all)... this article isn't very good. Like some other commenters have pointed out, the author failed to int…

A million upvotes if I could. I also had a similar experience. (53 people in my HS graduating class, with a high school population of approximately 200.) While I have no reason to believe that the school wasn't trying their best, the fact is that the school just didn't have the same academic opportunities as other schools. My parents made it clear that I was going to go to college, because neither of them did. They g…

It shouldn't surprise you that you "find them still working as a cashier at Walmart". This isn't even a rural/urban issue.

Urban environments are full of people who work retail and never move out of the city. It's the same thing! You'll find plenty of self-destructive culture in our urban environments. If anything, the retail workers are doing better than typical. They at least legally earn a living, which is respectable if not impressive.

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#288

Post by heedlessly2 »

emodendroket wrote: post #282
heedlessly2 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you completely missed the part where i said "while not necessary" > Join a large church and you can probably meet people in every city too, and you won't need to take out huge loans to do it. most people only go to their local church. Many people from my uni were from out of state

I went to school in Massachusetts and I made a lot of friends who live in Massachusetts but I didn't exactly meet a world-wide network of friends. I was thinking you were talking about something like an alumni association, where your connection isn't really any less tenuous than with people belonging to your same denomination.

some of my friends were already from those big cities. others were from the suburbs and moved to a big city after college.

I don't contact random alumni, unless we already have several mutual friends in common. Or were part of the same student associations.

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#289

Post by _acme »

wutbrodo wrote: post #200
_acme wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is a "needy person"? Usually that phrasing is meant in a derogatory way; is that what you mean?

I think it's rather obvious from context that he means low-income. There's no need to go desperately searching for something to be outraged about.

I meant that referring to someone as "needy" is needlessly derogatory and offensive, regardless of what the poster meant. If he meant low-income, there are less offensive ways to express that which he should use instead of "needy".

Re: Who's Missing from America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates

#290

Post by _acme »

token_throwaway wrote: post #218
_acme wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given your atrocious grammar, I sure hope you didn't waste your money on a college degree. Comments are generally taken more seriously when the author takes the time to write properly.

We're not doing this anymore, dude. We all agreed on that years ago.

I was trying to provide constructive criticism. As written, the comment is nearly incomprehensible. If someone is going to take the time to post, he or she should take the time to do a minimum of proofreading his or her writing so that others are able to understand the point of the post.
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