What do your do with a degree in climatology? It’s not a good idea to get these odd degrees as they are not good for signaling to potential employers.
Ironically, I suspect a lot of them might end up in fossil fuel companies and do greenwashing R&D.
Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
21–30 of 214 posts
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's from Stanford, pretty much whatever you want. So, basically, investment banking or data science (those are still two separate jobs right?).
"If it's from Stanford, pretty much whatever you want." That not true at all. The name of the university can only get you so far. For example, if you have a climate-related degree, can you really compete with Stanford CS majors for a SDE job? Or with ME majors for a product design position? IMO if you get into Stanford and can pay for the degree, it would be a waste to spend it in a major like that unless you're real…
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Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#23I am concerned about the incredible concentration of money and resources into a few academic institutions. Obviously Stanford is an incredible school, but I am not sure Stanford will do more with $1B than 10 2nd tier schools would do with $100M each.
Isn't there a tax deduction aspect to a lot of these donations?
Anyways, 100 more Nature-level articles about climate change is not going to change the situation if there is no political will (or if it seesaws every 4-8 years at best).
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#24I am concerned about the incredible concentration of money and resources into a few academic institutions. Obviously Stanford is an incredible school, but I am not sure Stanford will do more with $1B than 10 2nd tier schools would do with $100M each.
> I am not sure Stanford will do more with $1B than 10 2nd tier schools would do with $100M each Absent data, it's difficult to say. There are economies of scale, even if just in experience administering such projects.
I haven't checked the numbers lately, so I could be wrong by now. But while I was a student there and for some years after (administrators / (students + researchers + educators)) got worse at a rapid pace. It's hard for me to imagine that Stanford is the best marginal bang for more bucks.
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's from Stanford, pretty much whatever you want. So, basically, investment banking or data science (those are still two separate jobs right?).
"If it's from Stanford, pretty much whatever you want." That not true at all. The name of the university can only get you so far. For example, if you have a climate-related degree, can you really compete with Stanford CS majors for a SDE job? Or with ME majors for a product design position? IMO if you get into Stanford and can pay for the degree, it would be a waste to spend it in a major like that unless you're real…
> if you have a climate-related degree, can you really compete with Stanford CS majors for a SDE job
For this specifically: Yes, depending on your extra curricular activities and interests. And if it was a graduate degree, then yeah almost certainly.
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#26I am concerned about the incredible concentration of money and resources into a few academic institutions. Obviously Stanford is an incredible school, but I am not sure Stanford will do more with $1B than 10 2nd tier schools would do with $100M each.
There's an old Malcolm Gladwell podcast where he interviews (and attempts to skewer) then President of Stanford University John L. Hennessy precisely on the topic of Stanford continuing to solicit donations and increase its ambitions despite having a very large amount of money. I actually think Gladwell's arguments are mostly ridiculous, especially his "accusation" that Hennessy is a "strong link" thinker. But the topic and the interview are interesting.
That podcast episode:
https://omny.fm/shows/revisionist-history/my-little-hundred-...
I found a partial transcript of the episode:
https://www.simonsays.ai/blog/my-little-hundred-million-with...
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#27What do your do with a degree in climatology? It’s not a good idea to get these odd degrees as they are not good for signaling to potential employers.
It actually does make more sense to pursue a physics degree with an emphasis on fluid dynamics (atmospheric and oceanic circulation being of great interest to future climate forecasts), or a chemistry degree with an emphasis on analytical measurement and kinetics (global elemental cycling, particulate dynamics, oceanic and atmospheric chemistry all being similarly important), or a biology degree with an emphasis on ecology and biochemistry (changing species distribution, methane biochemistry etc.).
This all goes under the rubric of 'planetary sciences' of which 'earth system science' is a sort of special case. Also means you could work at NASA on Jupiter's moons etc.
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#28[deleted]
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's from Stanford, pretty much whatever you want. So, basically, investment banking or data science (those are still two separate jobs right?).
"If it's from Stanford, pretty much whatever you want." That not true at all. The name of the university can only get you so far. For example, if you have a climate-related degree, can you really compete with Stanford CS majors for a SDE job? Or with ME majors for a product design position? IMO if you get into Stanford and can pay for the degree, it would be a waste to spend it in a major like that unless you're real…
> if you have a climate-related degree, can you really compete with Stanford CS majors for a SDE job?
Thankfully there are fewer Stanford CS majors graduating than there are SDE jobs available.
Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr
#30No post body was provided.