Education Inflation • Hacker News Board

Re: Education Inflation

#31

Post by pjw1187 » Sat, Oct 17, 2009, 4:46 AM UTC

RevRal wrote: post #24

Fixnum wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell, opening the universities to the masses damages the classes, standards, and student-faculty relations to the point where those who really 'ought' to be at university rather than at technical colleges don't benefit in the same way as previously. Perhaps this is just elitism, but I get the feeling that the 'bright' entering students are still the 'bright' graduating students, but gain much less dee…

Nice. I see another problem. The bright are bored, school is tedious, and they go unrecognized. Then the less intelligent "excel." Good thing AI research will need more and more intelligent people.

I could not agree more.

Re: Education Inflation

#32

Post by yannis » Sat, Oct 17, 2009, 5:13 AM UTC

From my own experience.

- B.Sc. Learn enough to enable you to get on the job training

- M.Sc. Meaningless, just a stamina test to check if you can focus adequately on a narrow field.

- Ph.D. A sort of a license to do research.

A 'degree' is just a 'key' to your first job. From there onwards its YOU, your capabilities and most important your character. In many instances a Ph.D. will be viewed by prospective Employers as a disadvantage calling you (theoretical) rather than (practical). The greatest benefit of a PhD to me was it developed my analytical and research skills, which I could apply in different settings (i.e. not just Engineering). Its downside being too analytical screwed up quite a few personal relationships :)

Re: Education Inflation

#33

Post by enthalpyx » Sat, Oct 17, 2009, 6:40 AM UTC

"As a side note, I am in no way bashing the cs program at UNCW... and the CS program is awesome."

At a top 10 CS school, your experience would probably have been very, very different.

Re: Education Inflation

#34

Post by bokonist » Sat, Oct 17, 2009, 3:15 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #26

bokonist wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If his peer group is in fact white, then it's not racist, just a statement of reality. And as for competition, most people only care about competing within their own peer/status group. And yes, it is bad for the economy if whites are significantly under invested in engineering. It's bad for the economy if anyone or any group is under invested in engineering. Anything "assumed" or implied by his post, is added by you,…

See now, you just equated peer group with status group. If you believe that "white" can be a peer group, then that seems to imply that you also believe that "white" can be a status group, which is a far more troubling scenario. Racism is not about making disparaging remarks about someone of another race. It's about prejudging, i.e. assuming that certain things are true, just because of that person's race.

I'm saying that one's peer group is almost alway's one's status group. People don't personally compare themselves/compare self-worth versus a random sample of the population. We compare ourselves to friends, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers.

Re: Education Inflation

#35

Post by barrkel » Sat, Oct 17, 2009, 6:36 PM UTC

bokonist wrote: post #34

barrkel wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See now, you just equated peer group with status group. If you believe that "white" can be a peer group, then that seems to imply that you also believe that "white" can be a status group, which is a far more troubling scenario. Racism is not about making disparaging remarks about someone of another race. It's about prejudging, i.e. assuming that certain things are true, just because of that person's race.

I'm saying that one's peer group is almost alway's one's status group. People don't personally compare themselves/compare self-worth versus a random sample of the population. We compare ourselves to friends, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers.

By TheElder's own admission, some of his co-workers are not white. Why would he then choose to describe his status group as "whites"?

The more I read in this thread, the more I start to believe racism is deeply embedded in the American psyche.