Making the Grades • Hacker News Board

Re: Making the Grades

#11

Post by slavik81 » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:18 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #10

alanwatts wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If they aren't giving an education and people can still get jobs "for years" what exactly is the point of $200k education again? Its purpose is more symbolic than realistic. Symbols are easily faked. An example of this is how Frank Abagnale was able to fake having gone to medical, law, and flight school, among many other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale

Yeah, but Abagnale never tried to fly an airplane.

Wikipedia says he was sometimes invited by the actual pilot to take the controls. Presumably that was just holding it steady. Apparently, he knew enough to switch it to autopilot.

He also didn't do a very good job as a doctor (supervising the residents doing the actual work). Wikipedia mentions that a baby nearly died because he didn't understand what the nurse was talking about.

Re: Making the Grades

#12

Post by swanson » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:32 PM UTC

Ethics aside, what a great way to leverage market demands/incentives.

Re: Making the Grades

#13

Post by bduerst » Tue, May 31, 2016, 11:13 PM UTC

This article rambles a bit and seems a little thin.

There's a lot on the accusation side to spin up uncertainty and doubt about the school, but I was expecting some hard hitting evidence behind the story outside of the line items on their 990.

Re: Making the Grades

#14

Post by ivraatiems » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 1:05 AM UTC

beachstartup wrote: post #9

why single this school out from the rest of their peers? i.e. Phoenix. the entire system has incentives completely mis-aligned at every level. it you look at how the subsystems of immigration, finance/loans, for-profit education, and corporate sponsorship interact, how could you expect anything other than the corrupt clusterfuck we see today?

Right or wrong, I think it might have to do with NPU being a non-profit. There've been plenty of articles on the scumminess of for-profit universities; far fewer on non-profits. Plus, the immigration angle is an item with high public interest today. I think the focus on NPU here (though perhaps warranted given the seriousness of these allegations) is also part of Buzzfeed's pattern of desire for high-profile stories.