Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching • Hacker News Board

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#311

Post by bombcar » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

IncreasePosts wrote: post #282

buildbot wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every professor has their own style, most of the ones I had were very open that office hours were a pretty great way to get help/more targeted hints on what to study. This isn’t in my opinion, a problem. Their goal is to educate you as best as possible in theory, via classes, homework, and office hours. Students who take the time and effort to attend office hours clearly want to at least pretend to be putting in extr…

In an astrophysics class I had in college , the professor called on a student to solve a problem, he got it wrong, and the professor said "if you would come to my office hours you would know how to solve this" - the students response was something along the lines of "sorry, my parents are crackheads so I need to work two jobs to pay for school"

Plot twist - the student's dad was the professor.

I think once they start having homework in kindergarten "doing all the class work during class" is a goal that won't be reached.

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#312

Post by randusername » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

alpha_squared wrote: post #132

A couple things here: 1. This should have a 2022 tag 2. This is ripe "red pill" fodder and many of the comments here are "red pill" coded.

I guess it all depends on your perspective, I found the findings to be anti-red pill. Women with attractive faces lost their grade advantage in remote learning and men with attractive faces did not.

It suggests to me that good-looking men are socially valued for several reasons that are robust to distance education, but good-looking women are socially valued for their bodies if they are in proximity, the same way we value objects. Very limiting and frustrating.

If anyone in the red pill camp is looking to reexamine their perspectives in good-faith, "You Just Don't Understand: Men and Women in Conversation" (Tannen) is a good start.

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#313

Post by bombcar » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

kevinsync wrote: post #109

olalonde wrote: post #92

I remember in college there were always small groups of students chatting with professors after class or going to office hours. Many profs would drop pretty big hints about upcoming exams. I guess it was a mix of enjoying the attention, pitying weaker students, and wanting to reward "participation". Always felt a bit unfair to me.

It's always said that a lot of success and opportunities are attributed to being in the right place at the right time (aka "luck"), but in a lot of cases, those folks had the tenacity to be in the right place ALL the time; when opportunities arise, they typically go to whoever's present and available. Chatting with professors after class or attending office hours might be a grift, but it's not necessarily unfair. Spe…

What's the old saying? So much of success is up to luck, but you can make your own luck?

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#314

Post by anal_reactor » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

threethirtytwo wrote: post #202

anal_reactor wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that once people become aware how the society actually functions because of our biology, the social contract will collapse.

First, it's very unlikely all people will become aware of it. Our culture has made it taboo to even think in this direction. Second, nothing will change. People will still behave based off of their instincts and underlying biology. Awareness of the underlying biology doesn't change anything. Men are very much always attracted to young women with nice curves even though they are well aware that this attraction is just…

Not necessarily. IMO the current demographic collapse can be mostly explained by people asking themselves whether they want children rather than just blindly putting penis into vagina.

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#315

Post by mikkupikku » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:06 PM UTC

RugnirViking wrote: post #247

mikkupikku wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tutors barely move exam scores, particularly if they're only hired for test prep. You can crush tests without cramming, tutors or any of that if you just pay attention in class and do all optional homework.

you can also make a lot of money buy selling things for more than you bought them for, and lose weight by simply eating less. You can feel better by sleeping more, and going to the gym every day. You can get ahead in your career by becoming great friends with your boss and your boss' boss. It turns out that often it being easy to describe in broad strokes how to do something doesn't make it easy to do in practise.

Paying attention in class might be a legitimate issue requiring medication for some people, but otherwise it, and doing optional assignments, are a choice.

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#316

Post by phil21 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:07 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #108

TrackerFF wrote: post #68

People that have used to be fat, and then lost a lot of weight, will know how brutally different people will treat you. Whereas you'd practically be a ghost before weight loss, random people will suddenly look you in your eyes, smile, even start conversations with you. Some will of course argue that you losing weight will also make you more confident, and thus you become more approachable. I think there's a lot of bi…

> Whereas you'd practically be a ghost before weight loss, random people will suddenly look you in your eyes, smile, even start conversations with you. I watched something like this happen in a friend, but as an outside observer I saw a different explanation: The period when he got into shape involved a lot of changes for the better in his life, including becoming more outgoing, motivated, and disciplined (necessary…

I think there are too many variables to really control for well on this one. Obviously someone who does what your friend did is going to have many factors changing how people interact with them and it will accumulate into and even larger total effect.

I lost 100lbs very rapidly. The difference in attention and little social things was noticeable almost immediately. Same style of dress, moderately kept hair, but otherwise decent personal care on both sides of the weight loss.

What is interesting though to me is that I hit my goal weight right around the time some major life events happened and I pretty much was operating at the lowest self confidence levels I ever had in my life. I was less social and much more withdrawn than before.

I still would notice the “second glances” from folks I never got before, and even friendly greetings etc that were a bit weird at first to me.

I don’t think you can really translate these changes into dating success or whatnot without other life changes though. They just Lower the difficulty level - you still need to put the work in.

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#317

Post by steve1977 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:09 PM UTC

xyzzyz wrote: post #297

pxc wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is what you're measuring. You can have a test that gives you whatever distribution of scores you like. But is the thing it measures competency in the subjects it tests, general intellectual ability, familiarity with the test format, etc.? The worst negative outcome is usually subordination of learning itself to preparing for the exam, which can happen even when the gatekeeping function of an exam still w…

All scientific research on this topic points to the conclusion that standardized test results are the single best predictor of subsequent academic performance. Some studies suggest that using GPA in addition to test results improves the prediction accuracy, but the marginal increase is very small, and it increases variance. Everyone is well familiar with the downsides of standardized tests, but so far, nobody has pro…

> All scientific research on this topic points to the conclusion that standardized test results are the single best predictor of subsequent academic performance.

And academic performance is measured how? With standardized tests?

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#318

Post by neilv » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:09 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #263

mikkupikku wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best way to get a manager position is to be a few inches taller than everybody else. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but pay attention to how often the boss is taller than everybody else on the team. Not always, but far more often than random chance can account for. (Incidentally, the best boss I ever had was barely 5 feet.)

This reminds me that SkyMall (RIP) always had those advertisements for height increasing shoes. Now that I think of it, the inflight magazines still have those ... Amusingly enough the best CEO and best salesman I ever knew (two different people) were below average height.

It could be that height says nothing about competence as a CEO, or it could be that the people who attain CEO and succeed despite height bias need to have an exceptionally strong mix of merit/will/effort.

I've heard the latter theory at least a couple times about US Navy SEALs.

The first time, it was a retired SEAL I knew (well over 6', and a brick wall) who one day out of the blue said something like, "You shouldn't feel bad about being short. The best SEAL I knew was a short guy, and he could kick my ass."

Later, I heard a similar anecdote in a speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70&t=440s

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#319

Post by kjkjadksj » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:09 PM UTC

jjk166 wrote: post #273

crims0n wrote: post #6

> When education is in-person, attractive students receive higher grades in non-quantitative subjects, in which teachers tend to interact more with students compared to quantitative courses. I wonder how much of this is less about attraction and more about social skills. Granted, higher attraction affords more opportunity to develop those skills, but I have met plenty of charming people who were not conventionally at…

And attractive girls social skills go away when classes move online but other students' don't?

It is because on zoom no one would participate in the in class discussions really. Everyone seemingly checking out. In class some people are seemingly compelled to engage.

Re: Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching

#320

Post by kapep » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:09 PM UTC

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #296

kapep wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A data point, though my situation is not even about weight: I used to be skinny fat in my mid-twenties until mid-thirties - so basically still kind of slim but some belly fat and not much muscles. Kind of average, unremarkable. After a breakup I started being more active again, I went bouldering once a week and gradually got into shape and then really athletic after about 2 years when I started going twice a week. My…

>After a breakup I started being more active again... Was it the changes or the breakup itself? Most men don't get "good" at dating until they become a certain amount of jaded. Hence the stereotypical freshly divorced man mopping the floor with the dating pool. The changes sure wouldn't have hurt, but still.

The breakup after years of relationship certainly was a big change in my live. I broke up but I don't think that made me jaded. I get what you mean though, I would say I got a bit more jaded after getting more confidence and that helps now. But that was long after I noticed increasing interest from women.