Ranking of CS departments based on theory papers • Hacker News Board

Re: Ranking of CS departments based on theory papers

#51

Post by tptacek » Fri, Mar 13, 2015, 7:14 PM UTC

timsally wrote: post #44

tptacek wrote: post #3

It is hard for me to believe that uchicago.edu should outrank illinois.edu. Illinois.edu is a famous top-tier CS program; uchicago.edu is a top-tier university with a relatively small CS program.

I can't say whether the metric in the article is good or not. What I can say is that Chicago being comparable to UIUC in CS theory is not an unreasonable position. Across CS it would be false, but Chicago's theory faculty are considered quite good. For example, a few years ago their department housed the only known credible effort regarding P!=NP https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1586091 . Also, if you look at the…

It's been a bunch of hours since I raised this objection and a lot is going on here right now but let me just raise a belated "I stand totally corrected".

Re: Ranking of CS departments based on theory papers

#52

Post by cynicalkane » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 1:03 AM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #47

cynicalkane wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At U Chicago many people believe in studying only academic theory. The attitude is that if you're smart enough, you can learn everything practical in industry... if you're one of those unworthy people who wants to go into industry. This attitude affects undergraduates the most, but permeates the whole academic atmosphere. It's not unexpected that a top-tier school that focuses only on academia would outperform in pro…

Lower selectivity? That may have been true a decade or two ago but their accept rate is under 10% now.

Seriously? When I went there it higher than 30%. That was less than 10 years ago.

Re: Ranking of CS departments based on theory papers

#53

Post by akhilcacharya » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 5:59 AM UTC

cynicalkane wrote: post #52

akhilcacharya wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lower selectivity? That may have been true a decade or two ago but their accept rate is under 10% now.

Seriously? When I went there it higher than 30%. That was less than 10 years ago.

Yup - it has decreased dramatically. Its not much different from Duke now.

https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/class-profile

Re: Ranking of CS departments based on theory papers

#54

Post by Tloewald » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 3:12 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #26

Tloewald wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like as a CS person you've peripherally processed politic science and come up with binary answers to complex ill-posed questions. Academia is not socialism and even communism is not completely lacking in value signals (otherwise it wouldn't be able to deliver excellent medical care, for example). If you're so convinced academia has no value signals it seems rather foolish (or at minimum hypocritical) of you to…

Just to be clear, just because something isn't optimal doesn't mean its not worth being a part of. You can be critical and not leave at the same time. Actually, the ones who stay are the critical ones who have hopes (founded or not) that the system can improve.

Having no value signals is a lot worse than being sub-optimal. Everything is sub-optimal.