Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
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Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#2For being at an elite "best-of-the-best" school, these students sure sound like a bunch of spoiled children. The reasons for cheating seem to vary from "it was a hard course so I had to cheat" to "everyone does it" to "it's an open book test, so we should be allowed to cheat".
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#3For being at an elite "best-of-the-best" school, these students sure sound like a bunch of spoiled children. The reasons for cheating seem to vary from "it was a hard course so I had to cheat" to "everyone does it" to "it's an open book test, so we should be allowed to cheat".
Have you not been paying attention to the entitlement and attitudes of the global financial elite in 2009-2010? This was precisely their response to the mismanagement of the banks: everybody was doing it, it was accepted, now bail us out and leave.
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#4How much "cheating" was actually done here? Was it simply that people's answers looked similar? On a take-home test with open book, open Internet, you'd expect that everyone would probably Google the same sources.
I'm also suspicious of people who claim that sharing notes is in violation of some cheating rule. I posted the source code to most of my school projects on GitHub. If people want to crib off my code that's not my problem -- I did the work, whether or not they want to is their problem.
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#5The worst part is that cheating indicates a strong cynicism about the course and the value of learning the material. I thought elite schools were able to recruit people with intellectual curiosity and character. Clearly the admissions formula is broken.
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#6The worst part is that cheating indicates a strong cynicism about the course and the value of learning the material. I thought elite schools were able to recruit people with intellectual curiosity and character. Clearly the admissions formula is broken.
The admissions formula is broken or the way the class was structured was broken?
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#7For being at an elite "best-of-the-best" school, these students sure sound like a bunch of spoiled children. The reasons for cheating seem to vary from "it was a hard course so I had to cheat" to "everyone does it" to "it's an open book test, so we should be allowed to cheat".
Well, they don't want to discourage teamwork.
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#8For being at an elite "best-of-the-best" school, these students sure sound like a bunch of spoiled children. The reasons for cheating seem to vary from "it was a hard course so I had to cheat" to "everyone does it" to "it's an open book test, so we should be allowed to cheat".
Not to mention this bit: "...and some said that they will sue the university if any serious punishment is meted out."
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#9The worst part is that cheating indicates a strong cynicism about the course and the value of learning the material. I thought elite schools were able to recruit people with intellectual curiosity and character. Clearly the admissions formula is broken.
Universities teach in such a way as to encourage academic pursuit of knowledge, but the majority of students will be seeking field experience post-graduation. This mismatch happens regardless of whether a school is top-tier.
Re: Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted
#10The worst part is that cheating indicates a strong cynicism about the course and the value of learning the material. I thought elite schools were able to recruit people with intellectual curiosity and character. Clearly the admissions formula is broken.
> Clearly the admissions formula is broken.
As someone who attended an "elite" college, I can assure you that you only need 3 things to get into them:
1. A plan to follow (you can easily find great ones online these days) telling you what to do in high school (with respect to classes, extracurricular activities, volunteering, leadership, standardized tests, recommendation letters, etc.)
2. Money (i.e., live in an relatively affluent area with a good public school or attend a good private school)
3. Determination (lots of it)
Your personality doesn't matter at all for anything other than the interview, which you can also pass with flying colors as long as you have basic acting skills (which can be easily learned as well). Basically just smile a lot and don't act like a psychopath at the interview, and you're good to go.
As for getting into a specific college, that's a crapshoot. The admissions process is a black box, and there's no way to guarantee admission to a certain university unless your parents are big donors. But if you apply to, say, all the Ivies + Stanford + MIT, you're guaranteed to get into at least 2 or 3 if you have the 3 things I described above.