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University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

uopeople.edu

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Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#291
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cynical anti-intellectualism in this thread is bracing. All part of the zeitgeist I guess. News is fake. Science is fake. Schools are barriers. Everything is subjective, objective reality is nonexistent. How do we have productive disagreements going forward?

Or: Objective reality might exist, but it's not necessarily present in the universities, which are mostly there as an IQ test by proxy with a filter for the most lazy, with some social indoctrination thrown in. Any science or truth exists only at the whims of the social order of the day.

>Any science or truth exists only at the whims of the social order of the day.

This is not objectively true but I understand what you're trying to say. I'm sad to hear that your experience of science and truth has been only that which society has given you, or at the least that you feel that others are only experiencing it in that way

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kudos to you— having started coding QBasic in fifth grade, I definitely needed 3-4 years of undergrad to be ready for my first professional SWE job.

That's really funny. We first did Logo and then BASIC at that age (~10 years). Good times, eh? Back in the day? Everything was new and fresh.

I was _thrilled_ that I could program with something already on my PC. This was before the internet, and I was under the impression a C compiler was several hundred dollars that we couldn’t afford. Eventually, I even wrote “production” QBasic: my boss at the ISP would manually move spam to a spam folder in Thunderbird, export it periodically and kick it over to tech support. We used to manually look at IPs and enter them into the Cisco blocklist, until I wrote a super janky QBasic script to extracts IPs.

Two years later, I learned about regular expressions.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#293
Plagiarism is damning in many aspects of life and a critical part in learning the pros and cons of modern society. However without communication we are going nowhere fast. Simply put "Get right in what you know,say,and do in life or be left behind in the idiocy of the ones that are laden in ignorance" the don't give a shit group of people who do nothing but wait for the world to be handed to them on a silver platter. If you don't put your hands on it, trust and believe you will not gain the skills of what you are seeking to further yourself in life. Knowledge is power... Further more if you don't have failure in your life you are not going to learn anything either. Good intentions, everyone has them in order to be able to succeed in life, but some of the worst events in humanity were conducted with the best of intentions. Education and communication is fully important and key to get what you want in life. Without them were just dust in the wind.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#294
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is under the assumption that you see college is a program of self-betterment and not busy work for receiving a degree that says you can have a middle-class job. It feels like even the universities themselves see it as the latter these days.

The cynical anti-intellectualism in this thread is bracing. All part of the zeitgeist I guess. News is fake. Science is fake. Schools are barriers. Everything is subjective, objective reality is nonexistent. How do we have productive disagreements going forward?

> News is fake. Science is fake. Schools are barriers. Everything is subjective, objective reality is nonexistent. How do we have productive disagreements going forward?

Funny you describe it that way. I'd argue that young people in STEM fields, including IS/CIS/CompSci undergrad programs, think everything can be objective when that clearly is not the case.

You don't need to go to college to press buttons, fill out spreadsheets, or input code until you get the output you seek. You need to go to college to make the subjective decisions, which don't have a clear right/wrong answer.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#295
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At large tech co that pays well, writing is very important for career progression: 1. You often have to write design docs to communicate what you are making and gather feedback. These documents if badly written won't be as well received. 2. At many companies, you have a million things to work on, so in a way, you get to choose who you work with at some level. If someone communicates badly to the point of annoyance, i…

> And promo is often based on leadership of projects. And how do you become the leader of projects? You write compelling documents. This sounds somewhat idealized. As much as writing well is an asset, the understanding and ability to navigate office politics is what increases one's chances at career advancement. In the simplest form, just doing what the boss wants/expects one to do, not doing the unwanted things. No…

Nope, he's talking about actual tech companies. Competition is fierce there and "just doing what the boss wants/expects one to do" is the bare minimum or even underperforming. Being able to articulate your ideas and persuade others that your're right and follow your lead is crucial to rising through the ranks.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#296

The first question I always ask of these weird online universities is, are they regionally accredited? National accreditation is not really a high bar and isn’t considered competitive; all legitimate institutions of higher learning should qualify for and receive regional accreditation from an appropriate authority before considering such study in one’s best interest. This online learning site is eligible for regional…

I graduated from Bob Jones University. During my time there, BJU was Nationally Accredited and not Regionally Accredited.

This didn't personally affect me very much, but I know of many people who had difficulty getting into graduate school or professional work because of this.

A degree from a nationally accredited university limits your options. I'm not saying you'll be completely screwed if you get it, but not as many graduate schools will consider you.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#297
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is under the assumption that you see college is a program of self-betterment and not busy work for receiving a degree that says you can have a middle-class job. It feels like even the universities themselves see it as the latter these days.

The cynical anti-intellectualism in this thread is bracing. All part of the zeitgeist I guess. News is fake. Science is fake. Schools are barriers. Everything is subjective, objective reality is nonexistent. How do we have productive disagreements going forward?

Productive disagreement? I think to begin, we need to vet people we might have disagreements with. I don't think productive dialogue can be commodditized. Maybe it can after the fact via podcasts etc, but dialogues themselves are, I think, inherently analogue and highly personal. I think, given the realities of the attention economy, that we need to be much more selective about whom we let in to a conversation that might change our own mind. And this needs to be on a case-by-case basis, with everyone setting and updating their own standards on whom they'll let into dialogue.

I think people like the one you're responding to would agree and increasingly think that association with institutions of higher learning send a strong signal to avoid dialogue. It doesn't necessarily look like anti-intellectualism to me, any more than filtering out people who didn't graduate high school is necessarily elitism. I could see myself rationalizing either, depending on the kind of conversation I wanted to have.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#298
post #219
post #33

Hi. I attended this school and then got accepted to another more standard institution, which I applied at the same time to. The new institution, learning I had been attending U of the P, promptly told me that U of the P credits would not transfer. Universal transferability in question, I opted out. I did enjoy meeting people from all walks of life, all over the world. However, I also saw a grossly wide range of educa…

>there were a number of classmates whom could not grasp Sorry, pet peeve. It's "who". "Classmates" are the ones doing "could not grasp" instead of "could not grasp" being done to them.

Any easy trick I use to help remember which to use is to replace who/whom with he/him to see which makes more sense in the context.

"He" could not grasp. => "Who" could not grasp.

I should vote for "him" => "Whom" should I vote for?

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#300
post #294
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cynical anti-intellectualism in this thread is bracing. All part of the zeitgeist I guess. News is fake. Science is fake. Schools are barriers. Everything is subjective, objective reality is nonexistent. How do we have productive disagreements going forward?

> News is fake. Science is fake. Schools are barriers. Everything is subjective, objective reality is nonexistent. How do we have productive disagreements going forward? Funny you describe it that way. I'd argue that young people in STEM fields, including IS/CIS/CompSci undergrad programs, think everything can be objective when that clearly is not the case. You don't need to go to college to press buttons, fill out s…

I can't word this in a non-snarky way, but it's a genuine question:

Why do you believe that college can teach making subjective decisions?

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