6 ms·
Serious question... Why don't these active adults just read some books and watch free online lectures instead? I fail to see the value a university is providing
by btdiehr 11y ago
Serious question... Why don't these active adults just read some books and watch free online lectures instead? I fail to see the value a university is providing here.
- VLM 11y agoName brand recognition
- fnovd 11y agoActual interactions with faculty and other students are what the university provides. Watching lectures and reading books isn't the same thing as "getting your hands dirty" with other people in the same room who are interested (or are experts) in the same topic.
- avs733 11y agoI'm sorry but that is terrifyingly shallow. The consumption of information is not nearly the same as the processing of information.
- btdiehr 11y agoAre you trying to imply that those who don't or can't afford university aren't processing information? Now that is terrifyingly shallow.
- alecbaldwinlol 11y agoYou're being downvoted by plenty of people who have devoted their lives to pleasing the spouse that beats them, aka the academic profession. Congrats on rattling the hornets nest!
- btdiehr 11y agoThe one thing academics love to do is argue about the merits of academics existing. You could devout an entire PhD to it!
- alecbaldwinlol 11y agoI love it. It's also why they are so against distance learning (Quartz has a poll out on it, only 30% of faculty "support" it). Academics have the gaul to set up an extortionist racket, and then find someone else to pay the costs of running it!
- bbcbasic 11y agoI can go to meetups and get a university experience for an evening in terms of the quality of talks, the people I can meet, the help I can get. IRC has loads of great channels to share information. Even Reddit. Flipside is at uni, I found most students more interested in beer and parties and not much support outside of tutor groups. I.e. not much different from watching a bunch of videos and reading books, with a bit of a meetup now and then. I am learning CS stuff online for free and because I can focus on the areas I am interested in, pace myself and not study for an exam it is much more fun. Funny enough it would seem weird to people to take 2 years off work to watch youtube videos about CS but OK to do a masters degree. I guess the piece of paper is defintiely worth something.
- snowwrestler 11y agoThe purpose of a Ph.D. is to create and advance human knowledge, not just to learn some stuff and get a certificate. You generally can't get a Ph.D. without conducting and then communicating original research. Watching videos and reading books might help with that but are not sufficient by themselves. In literature you of course do have to read in order to do your research. But the hard part is not the reading, it is the originality. That's what you need an advisor, committee, professors, and colleagues for: to challenge you to prove you're not just reiterating what someone else already said.