There's so many photos of just her staring off into the distance, and only one photo with her presenting the actual thing that she's supposedly famous for. I don't get the point of just all these random photos of this girl.
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At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
101–110 of 186 posts
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very few people are too “advanced” to be challenged by a sufficiently difficult undergraduate degree, ridiculous thing to say imho, I went to a UK university this decade and I can give you a laundry list of issues more significant than “exceptional students being slowed down”.
This woman is undoubtedly exceptional. But we don't know how exceptional, because she's an outlier, educated using different methods. We have no idea how many other people would achieve something similar with a similar background. Personally I'd bet almost anything it's a larger number than most people expect. I'd also be surprised if she doesn't already have a pretty solid background in undergrad-level math. The iro…
> everyone must follow the same path on the same timetable
We are livestock for corporations, that's why.
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see your point, but undergraduate degrees should provide a wide foundation, with little specialization. As you progress to a masters degree, you become more specialized. A doctorate is as specialized as it gets. It is entirely possible for people to intensely focus on a very, very narrow thing - and ignore everything else. Even to such a degree that they can write a doctorate on it. But I don't think that's a good…
No, that was the purpose of high school. As not practiced in public schools, as not practiced in the US
No, it's both.
The purpose of high school is to give you a wide foundation on everything.
The purpose of an undergraduate degree (in math) is to give you a wide foundation (in math).
In a (math) PhD, you are generally hyper-specialized in a very, very narrow area (of math).
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't know the foundations well, you don't belong in a postgrad program. That's the reality and how it currently works. Undergrad teaches you those foundations. Anyone can try doing research, even undergrads who half-know the foundations. However, trying research doesn't mean you have the background to do great research or to succeed in a postgrad program.
Let me ammend my statement. *"Anyone who succeeds at publishing research deserves to be in a postgrad program." Plenty of people in postgrad programs don't know the foundations. It's ok. You are there to learn. Completely unfair to expect someone already doing research to slog out 4yrs of classes not furthering their career.
You can definitely do research in an area without having a good background on other topics.
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see your point, but undergraduate degrees should provide a wide foundation, with little specialization. As you progress to a masters degree, you become more specialized. A doctorate is as specialized as it gets. It is entirely possible for people to intensely focus on a very, very narrow thing - and ignore everything else. Even to such a degree that they can write a doctorate on it. But I don't think that's a good…
No, that was the purpose of high school. As not practiced in public schools, as not practiced in the US
This is the entire premise of a liberal arts education. Not everyone pursues one, but it's certainly well-represented at the tertiary education level.
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#106> Only the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University were willing to welcome her straight into a doctoral program. She’ll start at Maryland in the fall. When she finishes, it will be her first degree. Jeez... what a damning indictment of today's Universities. She could just use her publication as a dissertation and be done with it!
I see your point, but undergraduate degrees should provide a wide foundation, with little specialization. As you progress to a masters degree, you become more specialized. A doctorate is as specialized as it gets. It is entirely possible for people to intensely focus on a very, very narrow thing - and ignore everything else. Even to such a degree that they can write a doctorate on it. But I don't think that's a good…
Most of that you can get with diligence in high school and a smattering of College classes as HS junior/senior IMHO.
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that was the purpose of high school. As not practiced in public schools, as not practiced in the US
This is the entire premise of a liberal arts education. Not everyone pursues one, but it's certainly well-represented at the tertiary education level.
I've not studied this, but my guess is that the liberal arts education as the foundation is necessary to allow young people a chance to figure out who they are. I certainly found this to be true for me and would guess for my closest college friends.
If a young person is exceptional, do we force them into a liberal arts box? Surely there is value in literature and history. But this one young woman had found her passion. I have to believe that is she found out about something else, she would take that on.
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#108> Only the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University were willing to welcome her straight into a doctoral program. She’ll start at Maryland in the fall. When she finishes, it will be her first degree. Jeez... what a damning indictment of today's Universities. She could just use her publication as a dissertation and be done with it!
I see your point, but undergraduate degrees should provide a wide foundation, with little specialization. As you progress to a masters degree, you become more specialized. A doctorate is as specialized as it gets. It is entirely possible for people to intensely focus on a very, very narrow thing - and ignore everything else. Even to such a degree that they can write a doctorate on it. But I don't think that's a good…
The woman is not being "made" to do anything. She's already world-class at math and wants to maximize the impact of her specialized talents, so she's going straight to PhD.
I don't think we need to nanny people who break the mold with extraordinary talents to conform to some generic correct educational sequence. They've proven they know how to make something of themselves and their own ideas should count for more.
Re: At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
The debt part is just a US thing, but the rest of us still have the other problems.
australia copied the US in that regard. they used to say we were the 51st state but i dont even think we qualify as that... a territory perhaps?
Australia's debt is in the form of HECS/HELP. It's indexed to inflation, and integrated into the tax system such that it's only repaid on income over a minimum threshold. The first threshold is 1% of income above $56k. The last threshold is 10% of income above $166k.
My understanding is that US student loans accrue interest at rates above inflation. They do have repayment plans based on income, but because the interest rate is higher than wage growth, the debt just keeps growing if you're on these plans. They also don't have progressive thresholds like we do and the repayments tend to be higher.
Australia has a similar but less severe problem. Inflation and wage growth are closer together but they aren't the same. Still, the situation in the US seems worse.