“Best universities” according to which measure? I find it super difficult to come up with a hard set of criteria that measure the performance of an educational institution. Number of graduates? Number of research papers published? Amount of grant income? Can all be gamed. Strength of character and depth of personality of graduates would be a good metric, but is impossible to measure.
> Can all be gamed. Yeah, it’s uncomfortable that often the fame comes before the actual quality, because they gamed it. But then there got to be a start. Self-PR is one major critical weapon in the country that pushes freedom to the maximum extent.
Why the United States has the best research universities
71–80 of 262 posts
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
It hasn’t always been this way. Prior to the 1900s the wealth was outside the US. Capitalism existed in the world before the US, possibly in more extreme forms. It seems like you’re discounting the possibility the US education system & government contributed to the current economic situation. To what do you attribute the change?
Didn’t the rise of the US as a superpower mainly came down to financial gains during World War 1?
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think so. I’ve seen time and again that it leads to completely unpleasant nationalism flame war. Did anyone read the article at all?
I'm surprised the trajectory of the forum would make you think that way. Also meta-conversation is very dangerous to focus.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
It hasn’t always been this way. Prior to the 1900s the wealth was outside the US. Capitalism existed in the world before the US, possibly in more extreme forms. It seems like you’re discounting the possibility the US education system & government contributed to the current economic situation. To what do you attribute the change?
Didn’t the rise of the US as a superpower mainly came down to financial gains during World War 1?
However, despite its immense economic prowess, the US did not play a major part in international affairs, often explicitly choosing to stay out of European debacles. (This is often called isolationism, but that's not a wholly accurate description of foreign policy). For its part, Europe also generally ignored the US: a posting to the US would have been seen as a punishment rather than an honor, taking the person involved outside of the social circles of Europe.
When WWI strikes, the US stays out of the war in the initial phases before changing its mind and getting involved. As the only party involved which didn't eviscerate its population by war, it gained a lot of leverage over the peace treaty... which it promptly squandered by going isolationist again and staying out of the European squabbles. During WWII, Roosevelt again takes a leading role in dictating the terms of the peace treaties and post-war diplomatic order, with the US actually staying in the role afterwards, unlike WWI.
The term "superpower" is usually only used to analyze the roles of countries in the post-WW2 order, with the US and the USSR (and, briefly, the UK) afforded the role of superpower since they dominate the world political sphere. Before WWI, the analysis is in terms of great powers, and is mostly looking at their influence within the idea of the "Concert of Europe." Here, despite the US's economic strength, its noninterest in Europe renders it outside of most discussions of great power politics. And between the wars, pretty much the only analysis people care to do is in how the stage is set for WWII.
This is a long-winded way of saying that the answer to your question is "no."
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#75Research focus in US and EU seems a bit different. Europe produces a lot of high quality science. Research in US is on the other hand increasingly application-focused (something that EU is not very good at). This is my observation as a former researcher who has experience in both regions; I don’t have references. It’s partly driven by culture, and economic system. The strong public system in Europe supports longer te…
I've noticed EU CS grads are on average much stronger scientifically than US ones. With notable exceptions, the typical US undergraduate curriculum is more of a trade school. That’s fine of course, but definitely not the skillset needed for novel research or even properly applying recent research. Edit: Apparently I’ve struck a nerve. But this has been my experience working and hiring at two of the FAANGs. The teams…
Not sure why you're being downvoted, that has been my experience as well.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#76My impression: Europe does pretty well in non computer-science areas.
Exception:INRIA.
Where are the successful, world-changing company spinoffs?
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#772. Because they won the WWII and took by force the best scientist in Germany that was the leader in the world in science and technology at the time. The other half was taken by the Soviet Union. The lingua franca in science was German, not English.
3.Because after the war, Europe was devastated and living conditions in the reconstruction were very poor(with things like having to work for free for the Government X hours a week) for scientists(and the rest of society) while crossing the Atlantic conditions were much better so the best scientist did.
4. Because after Breton Woods and Marshall's plan, the US became the hegemonic power in the world with the biggest market in the world and started transforming scientific ideas into products that generated wealth and became cheaper as they were mass produced.
5. Because they didn't have a socialistic economy like most of the world had and the best, most ambitious and brightest minds from socialistic countries fled there expecting to share some part of the wealth they created and have the freedom they lacked in their countries.
Remember in the block countries being educated in the old bourgeois system,having accumulated wealth in the past or being son or grandson of one who had was a crime, making you a candidate for suspicion and prosecution (and eventual extermination).
Stalin had a plan to exterminate all Jews in Russia(almost all revolutionaries like Lenin or Trotsky had Jewish origin), he did not complete his plan because he died before he could.
It is incredible that making an analysis they could not see the most obvious and basic geopolitical events.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is funny to hear, because a lot of the CS research I care about, namely compilers, comes from Europe, particularly IIRC ETH Zurich.
There will always be exceptions to generalizations. One or a few exceptions dont't make the generalizations less valid.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#79Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#80Because they have the most money.
Agree, but then you've got to dig deeper: where does the money come from?