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A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

president.mit.edu

61–70 of 756 posts

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#61
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, it’s called a brain drain and it’s why until recently America held a vice grip on groundbreaking research and its commercialization.

A brain drain means the intelligent population emigrates to other countries. The narrative and data do not support Americans going abroad. I think you're referring to a lack of competitive education for those coming outside of America and choosing Europe / China to study. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight

I mean, brain drains work TOWARDS the US as well, word meanings are not an American centric thing.

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#62
Yeah. It's called brain drain. Talent has options. It weighs pros and cons. When the relative attraction of a country and thus institutions within it drops, they choose to go there less.

To be clear, I would still choose to do my PhD in the US. But this is a marginal effect, people weigh many factors. If you think, for example, you're going to be constantly worried about visa issues, you may just choose Europe or China over the US.

Edit- sorry NZ and australia, forgot about you

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#63
post #39
post #5

MIT Current Graduate Student are 41% international. https://facts.mit.edu/enrollment-statistics/

Would be nice to see if this number dipped from before. International students typically end up paying out of station tuition and is a huge source of income for the univs.

But not a factor for private universities

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#64
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, it’s called a brain drain and it’s why until recently America held a vice grip on groundbreaking research and its commercialization.

A brain drain means the intelligent population emigrates to other countries. The narrative and data do not support Americans going abroad. I think you're referring to a lack of competitive education for those coming outside of America and choosing Europe / China to study. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight

They are saying the opposite. People have been coming to America for higher education and staying here and that has historically benefited the US. And that seems to be changing.

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#66

Good. The US is reaping what it sows, and other research institutions will become the new leaders. Stinks for Americans, but the world will be better off overall.

Not at all, the US is still the world leader in research institutions. And I say this as an European, we’re miles behind really. You have to make a lot more fuck ups for us to catch you.

Most of Europe is behind because the money there has dried up. (Except for Norway)

> You have to make a lot more fuck ups for us to catch you.

The main issue is the 40TN debt that the US has which will soon matter. But the expected action that they will do is to continue printing and debasing the US dollar until they cannot.

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#67
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, it’s called a brain drain and it’s why until recently America held a vice grip on groundbreaking research and its commercialization.

A brain drain means the intelligent population emigrates to other countries. The narrative and data do not support Americans going abroad. I think you're referring to a lack of competitive education for those coming outside of America and choosing Europe / China to study. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight

I took the previous comment to mean that the US has benefited from brain drain so far. If we turned off that benefit, that could handicap the US.

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#68
post #5

MIT Current Graduate Student are 41% international. https://facts.mit.edu/enrollment-statistics/

It’s due to fewer positions mentioned in the link though right? MIT would always have more applicants than positions. The only thing that would drop total numbers of students should be fewer positions. Which of course is just as much of an issue since it highlights a blatant attack on education in general.

I assume it is due to less federal support in the form of research grants that support PhD students, labs, etc.

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#69

This is actually good news for society as a whole. There are way too many people who spend time in grad school only to discover that society doesn't have a job for them. Yes, it's not nice for the people who don't get in, but there's been way too much overproduction.

This is certainly true for 80% of universities and degrees. Even most bachelors degrees in my opinion. But if I’m being fair, maybe that’s not as true of places like MIT that teach tough and much more in-demand skills compared to universities where most students are studying things there is no demand for, and paying $150,000 or more for the privilege.

Re: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

#70
post #7

And this is only the beginning. I wonder what a good white-collar career path will be post-AI? What is your opinion on this?

Very few people are paying their way to MIT's graduate programs, so it's not as if it's a matter of AI scaring people into not paying for expensive education or anything. Graduate programs are full of international students that used them as ways to enter the US job market. With that road getting harder for a variety of policy decisions, there's just less reasons to consider it.

Now, if you want AI-influenced decisions, that might have to do with undergrads and expensive institutions. If you are a high school senior now, and you aren't getting major rebates, you have to consider whether a degree at an expensive college, which might be be a quarter million dollars sticker, is going to be all that wise of an investment. If AI really has a big effect on hiring knowledge workers, any bet you make can be quite wrong. But this isn't affecting MIT, Harvard or Yale, which could fill their freshmen classes 100 times over with very good students if they felt like it. It's just deadly for 2nd and 3rd rate liberal arts schools though, as high prices, the international student drought and fewer american children are just wrecking havoc.

But again, the AI bits just don't matter to top schools like MIT in the slightest. Too much demand of American students for undergrad.

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