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MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

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Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#381

Post by Ericson2314 »

the-dude wrote: post #92
Ericson2314 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an exception for some international students as stated elsewhere in the thread, but yes I still agree. Even the domestic churn of thousands of schools from various schools going home is no good. Massachusetts surely has one of the highest hospital densities in the country, too. I would cancel classes, but allow everyone that wants to to stay put.

You want to know what is going to happen? They will party all night long.

Not every night the whole quarantine, but perhaps long enough to so that they all get sick.

Surely this, along with general hot-potato risk management, is what MIT's administration had in mind.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#382

Post by an-allen »

samatman wrote: post #77
JPKab wrote: post #2

One of my coworkers daughters is affected by this. The big question this begs: If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all? Is room and board going to be refunded? If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all? Edit: Understood that infinite sized classes aren't workable for human intensive grading, inter…

Most of the value of an elite education is signaling: it proves the student had what it takes both to get into MIT, and to graduate. If MIT switched to an online-only format, that would erode the value of the latter (which, remember, is social proof, not something which is notoriously rational), while open enrollment would obliterate the former. A semester of remote teaching won't damage the brand.

Categorically disagree with that. The most valuable aspect of an elite engineering education IMO is getting to participate in a culture of elite professional academics. The spirit and energy which you learn to tackle REALLY ABSURDLY HARD problems is the most important thing I learned from my Rice EE education. Being able to find folks who were putting probes on Mars and Titan and being able to work with them to help build algorithms and visualisations to show insights from the data collected from these foreign worlds... that was the most valuable thing about my elite education... Honestly, most people don't even look at the school or even recognise it when I apply for jobs... The experience and participating with really smart people tackling really hard problems remains the most valuable thing for me 15 years after the fact.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#383

Post by lsllc »

kyeb wrote: post #219
CydeWeys wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of fast food places/corner stores/restaurants/groceries in Cambridge within walking distance of MIT dorms. So the "no way to eat" part is a bit dramatic.

The closest grocery is Target in Central square, which is extremely limited or maybe Trader Joe's, which also isn't the same. The Star Market that was right behind campus closed a couple years ago. It's not so easy, in my opinion.

Amazon Fresh will deliver groceries from Whole Foods within 2 hours, there's Uber-eats, DoorDash, Grubhub etc. There are a ton of inexpensive bars and restaurants all around Kendall and Central Squares (and yes, certainly some expensive ones!).

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#384

Post by ohyeshedid »

jimmaswell wrote: post #364
ohyeshedid wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be jumping to conclusions without any supporting information. You've done it twice in this thread already. I understand that the world can be an ugly place right now, but filling in your lack of firsthand knowledge with negativity from your imagination doesn't benefit anyone. That also seems like an exhausting way to operate.

Coming to the conclusion there will be no refunds based on the article not saying anything about refunds is jumping to conclusions how?

Yes, coming to the conclusion that they're screwing the students out of money, accusing them of crony capitalism, and hoping there are lawsuits all based on your own conclusion with no supporting information is definitely jumping to conclusions.

You're being disingenuous now, so there's no point in paying any further attention to you.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#385

Post by [deleted] »

newtoday wrote: post #256
ComputerGuru wrote: post #192

The focus has all been on colleges and universities announcing that they're closing face-face-instruction for the month/quarter/semester but we're scrambling trying to find something that works for K-12 schools. * Students at the college level can be counted on to self-study /to an extent/ if you make accommodations and provide the resources they need * Internet access can be taken for granted when dealing with colle…

Yep, this. The US public school system is in no way prepared for remote education, or any solution to supplement the impact we're facing.

[deleted]

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#386

Post by geddy »

an-allen wrote: post #372

Imagine paying $50,000+ a year for education that provides no labs, no campus experience, and no personal interaction with other students and professors.... Now imagine that 50k a year landlord telling you to pack your shit and get out in 2 weeks.

I have a feeling that many of the students aren't paying anywhere near that $50/year.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#387

Post by kopochameleon »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #85

Isn't it way worse to make everyone travel? If any of the students had contracted the virus wouldn't it be better to keep it contained at the University rather than bringing it to where they're from?

From what I understand the mitigation strategy has moved from "containing the virus" to reducing peak transmission rate — spreading out.

In your scenarios:

1. "keep it contained at the university" would probably look like: thousands of students, staff, businesses get the coronavirus rapidly over the course of the next two months (possibly overwhelming local hospitals), proceed to spread across the other densely populated area universities, Boston, NY, Spring Break, summer internships, travel everywhere happens post-mass-infection phase. Many deaths attributable to the campus being open likely.

2. Single person brings it to where they're from - same effects of a single sick person traveling we're seeing in the US every day (including what brought it to Boston). Unless they're going to another densely populated university or conference, which if more measures like this take place they should not be, the impact will be far less.

At this point they aren't aware of any students who have it, so a likely scenario if nothing is done is that the student population GETS it from the Biogen outbreak in Cambridge, AND spreads it at a much higher rate across the local area, country, world.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#388

Post by an-allen »

toss1 wrote: post #89
neets wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't undergraduate ivy league programs more about signaling status than actually becoming educated?

NO Perhaps for some, but everyone I knew while I was an Ivy undergrad was doing their level best to take advantage of the benefits of that amazing environment of smart, educated people, both the profs, the visiting speakers, and the other students. Since then, it has been what I've learned, not what signaling I could do that has helped me most (tho I'm not the most social person, so YMV). One thing I really learned t…

This comment. All this nonsense about elite universities being just about the degree and signalling is absolute rubbish. Elite universities are elite because they are made of some of the most influential thinkers, scientists, engineers, and professors in the world. Getting to participate in problem solving with these people is what makes these educations valuable in my opinion. I learned more from watching my professors tackle hard problems and reason themselves through them than I did from the actual material they were attempting to tackle. There is something to be said about the techniques and culture of the worlds best academics.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#389

Post by fudged71 »

pbourke wrote: post #114
smallgovt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I think it's likely going to be seen as an overreaction in hindsight by the general public (even though it may not be). If these actions are successful in curbing the virus' spread, most people won't appreciate how bad things could have really gotten.

Yeah, I've been thinking something similar. In the American context, a successful response would be seen by the uninformed as an overreaction. The administration responsible (federal or state) would be blamed for the economic damage and voted out. It would take a very strong leader who was willing to act without thought to reelection to really meet the crisis head on. That would be ... rare.

>a successful response would be seen by the uninformed as an overreaction

This is what worries me the most. Is there a name for this bias? Seems similar to survivorship bias, I'm sure it's seen across all kinds of contexts.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#390

Post by roywiggins »

secstate wrote: post #370
protomyth wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US colleges earn money off the meal plan and tend to be liability shy so having a full kitchen is a non-starter. Heck, it was against the rules to have a microwave in dorms (even room not in actual dorms) where I went to college. It was a pain in the butt.

Pretty sure the ban on microwaves was an electrical fire risk, not them being predatory about students eating at the dining hall. Can you imagine if even every other room had an appliance pulling 1000W whenever the hell a student felt like warming up some soup?

The main problem with the provided dorm microwaves when I was in school was burned popcorn sending the entire dorm outside at 4am until the campus security could come and turn off the alarm.
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