3 ms·
We want only people who have talent (top 1-5% of population) to pursue science. Majority of "science" produced by Ph.Ds outside of top 10-20 programs is complet
by smm2000 10y ago
We want only people who have talent (top 1-5% of population) to pursue science. Majority of "science" produced by Ph.Ds outside of top 10-20 programs is complete junk that contributes very little if any to humanity.
- _delirium 10y agoAt least in the fields I'm familiar with, the top 20 universities don't have anything near a monopoly on major advances. Especially if you consider advances that were actually made there, vs. people who did their important work elsewhere and then were hired away by the top-20 university once they were already famous. I could see it being true in some small fields where there are only 20 serious programs to begin with, but in a big field like CS it's not the case.
- pm90 10y agoAgree completely. One of the best things I found about American Research System is that good research happens in many universities and not just the top/Ivy League ones. The benefits from this cannot be overstated: research is a speculative field, and the only way to increase the probability of "success" is to have many different people trying different approaches.
- return0 10y agoUnpopular opinion , but very true