Too few people know about the US government’s own attempt to offer a better not-exactly-a-ranking system. It’s pretty good. https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
21–30 of 78 posts
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The UK, for instance, has the opposite problem, where becoming a doctor is much easier According to a friend who qualified in the UK and now practices in the US the _process_ of becoming a doctor is much harder in the UK: medical schools in the UK test students holistically (i.e. big exams which test all the topics) whereas American students are tested one module at a time (so lots of cramming). I agree that gainin…
> medical schools in the UK test students holistically (i.e. big exams which test all the topics) For reference, "holistic" is the opposite of "objective", not of "specific".
From webster - relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts
So it is more the opposite of specific than objective. I think your confusion comes from colleges using holistic to mean they looks at things beyond beyond objective measurements like test scores and GPA
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> medical schools in the UK test students holistically (i.e. big exams which test all the topics) For reference, "holistic" is the opposite of "objective", not of "specific".
From webster - relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts So it is more the opposite of specific than objective. I think your confusion comes from colleges using holistic to mean they looks at things beyond beyond objective measurements like test scores and GPA
I know what it's supposed to mean. I also know that it is never used in that sense. That meaning is gone.
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
any time I get an email from a .edu, it announces pronouns. where it really drives me crazy is dating apps: i spelled out my my preferences, why are you telling me your pronouns? shouldn't I know them by now, unless I clicked "takes all comers" in which case, why would I care? :)
It is frequently policy to do this in an email signature, with the desire to use non-traditional pronouns driven (from what I saw) initially by students themselves. I'm guessing dating apps probably have check boxes or something? If so then it could be necessary or useful if wanting to be exposed or find the broadest group of people that you might click with.
99+% of the people on dating apps are not looking for the broadest group of people that they might click with. They are looking for the site to actually provide them with some filtering and selection to narrow down the possibilities to good candidates. Pronouns are provided to make a fractional percentage feel "included" (and that fraction is not the population you might be thinking of, but the smaller populations of activists in same category), and (using politics as a guide) another 50% to feel good about their virtue, though they have no intention of swiping right on anything but a guy in finance. trust fund. 6'5". blue eyes. citations: the okcupid and tinder studies of who gets swiped when all the votes and chads are counted.
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
From webster - relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts So it is more the opposite of specific than objective. I think your confusion comes from colleges using holistic to mean they looks at things beyond beyond objective measurements like test scores and GPA
I know what it's supposed to mean. I also know that it is never used in that sense. That meaning is gone.
I don't know why you think this but you are incorrect.
Especially in health, wellness, and nutrition, holistic is used to mean 'concerning the whole' all the time.
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#26Modern US society seems to be layers upon layers of gamified results with little coherent vision. We blame other countries for having "stifling" regulation, "burdensome" oversight and "top-down" planning, but honestly - it seems we simply let problems precipitate for decades on end and in many cases think it's some sort of achievement.
Don't think you need to single out the US here. Gamification is effective against most human beings.
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Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#27My favorite thing I've ever heard said by the principal of our kids' elementary school: "Our test scores are down, which is great, maybe that will keep some of the school shoppers away this year."
Our city has a school choice program that includes a portal where you can look up these kinds of quantitative measures, and I think I agree with him. Tiger parents slosh from school to school as they chase after rankings, and, much like ill-contained liquid cargo in ships, all that motion tends to destabilize and capsize schools.
Sadly, I don't think smaller higher education institutions can afford to take such a relaxed attitude about it. They don't get to have an enrollment backstop in the form of a semi-captive audience of parents who live nearby and aren't hyperactive enough to commit to spending upwards of an hour every weekday trucking their kids back and forth across town.
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is frequently policy to do this in an email signature, with the desire to use non-traditional pronouns driven (from what I saw) initially by students themselves. I'm guessing dating apps probably have check boxes or something? If so then it could be necessary or useful if wanting to be exposed or find the broadest group of people that you might click with.
99+% of the people on dating apps are not looking for the broadest group of people that they might click with. They are looking for the site to actually provide them with some filtering and selection to narrow down the possibilities to good candidates. Pronouns are provided to make a fractional percentage feel "included" (and that fraction is not the population you might be thinking of, but the smaller populations of…
Putting aside pronouns in particular and given hypotheticals were a user doesn't care one way or the other about specific pronouns as long as they know the person they swipe on is identity-compatible as a dating partner:
Wouldn't it be beneficial, prior to fine-grained filtering, to start with the widest group that meets minimally sufficient criteria? That way the end group of people who meet a very aggressive and specific filtering has more options. Sure, beyond a certain size it's too unwieldy, but each user may want to min/max for different values of wieldy(ness?).
Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about modern dating or dating apps, and it seems things move too fast for even a person coming out of a 5+ year relationship to look at the current crop of temporary/permanent mate-finding tools and really know what they're getting into.
Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#29I agree mostly with the article, but this stuck out to me >Measure the proportion of graduates who pursue and are accepted into advanced degree programs. (adjusted for field of study so acceptance into medical school > masters in art history) The only reason, however, that medical school is more competitive than an art history masters (to be fair, most paid masters programs aren't super competitive) is because the me…
> The UK, for instance, has the opposite problem, where becoming a doctor is much easier According to a friend who qualified in the UK and now practices in the US the _process_ of becoming a doctor is much harder in the UK: medical schools in the UK test students holistically (i.e. big exams which test all the topics) whereas American students are tested one module at a time (so lots of cramming). I agree that gainin…
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Re: From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings
#30My favorite thing I've ever heard said by the principal of our kids' elementary school: "Our test scores are down, which is great, maybe that will keep some of the school shoppers away this year." Our city has a school choice program that includes a portal where you can look up these kinds of quantitative measures, and I think I agree with him. Tiger parents slosh from school to school as they chase after rankings, a…
It's such a strange way to evaluate schools.
My high school was inner city. But they had AP programs, computer science classes, advanced mathematics.
It's all about your child and the individual path they'll take within the school.
And if they have or two smart friends that they enjoy hanging out with, they're golden.