4 ms·

How did she perform at her job for 28 years? If OK, that performance is a far better guide to her quality than any bits of paper she may or may not have. If not

How did she perform at her job for 28 years? If OK, that performance is a far better guide to her quality than any bits of paper she may or may not have. If not OK, they should have sacked her. Once an employee has been working at an employer for a reasonable length of time (certainly a lot less than 28 years), the employer has adequate knowledge of how that employee performs at their job; and if the employee isn't up to it, they have the opportunity to end the employment. Therefore I think that after a certain interval (say a year or 2), an employer should not be able to use the accuracy or otherwise of an employee's CV to sack them.

tokenadult 16y ago
How did she perform at her job for 28 years? Her actual performance was at times quite controversial. I will defer to the MIT students and alumni here (remember, some of those will have been admitted when she was in charge of admission at MIT) to comment on what they think the pros and cons of her legacy are.
- rdl 16y ago
  I was at MIT during her reign as dean of admissions (I dropped out about a year or so into it). She was actually rather offensive, claiming that the generation after me cared more about fitting in than academics, and she did a pretty good job of skewering the extracurricular activities which were one of the major defining parts of MIT (at least for undergraduates). Actually, I have nothing good to say about MIT's administration above the individual professors and departments -- they spent huge amounts of money on pointless things, and mainly consisted of professional administrators (educated at e.g. BU) vs. alumni. During my time at MIT they destroyed the FSILG system (student-managed small housing groups) due to one fucknozzle drinking himself to death next door to my residence. I haven't kept up with MIT since around 2000, but it was definitely on a downward trend from 1996-1999, surviving mainly on past reputation.
  - ericd 16y ago
    Yeah, I chose MIT because I wanted to get my ass kicked, which didn't happen so much. It's still possible, but it seems that they've been watering down everything. They banned triple majoring, and I think they've even stopped granting dual degrees now. The administration has always seemed pathologically risk-averse, and mostly come from the wrong sort of background to run the type of school MIT should be.
    - rdl 16y ago
      It's still not a bad place, but I think I could put together a far superior program, attached to another research university (to have access to grad students), to educate undergrads for $15-20k/yr (vs. the $60k/yr MIT claims to be spending). Take risks! I think something like KAUST (in Saudi) could end up being what MIT should be -- or Olin (the free school which has lots of MIT SM/PhD instructors). If I had kids, I'd probably push toward an undergrad-focused school like Reed for pure science education, or Stanford or UC Berkeley for someone who wanted to be an engineer, just to have access to the silicon valley ecosystem. I think there is a strong case for "take 1-2 years between HS and college to work", too.
      - ericd 16y ago
        Yeah, I agree, I still enjoyed it, met a lot of great people, and (I think) got a good education. Just meant to agree that the administration seems to be almost more of a hinderance than a help to those things.
      - natrius 16y ago
        Olin isn't free anymore. http://olin.edu/admission/costs.asp http://olin.edu/admission/costs.asp
- ericd 16y ago
  I think she did an OK job, except for her recent campaign to admit more of the "well-rounded" type that most Ivies also go for. I think that somewhat diminished what makes MIT special. I think it may be part of the reason that so many of my classmates went into finance and consulting after graduating. Many seemed to be more in love with the name than with tech itself. This isn't universally true, of course, and much of it is based on hearsay, since I wasn't there to observe other time periods.
gojomo 16y ago
Having such a 'statute of limitations' on resume-lies would encourage a lot more lying, by everyone who thinks they can do a good job for the 'grace period' without their deception being discovered. This woman was the Dean of Admissions. To forgive her deception would have made it hard to object in principle to anyone lying on their MIT college application.

tokenadult 16y ago

How did she perform at her job for 28 years? Her actual performance was at times quite controversial. I will defer to the MIT students and alumni here (remember, some of those will have been admitted when she was in charge of admission at MIT) to comment on what they think the pros and cons of her legacy are.

rdl 16y ago
I was at MIT during her reign as dean of admissions (I dropped out about a year or so into it). She was actually rather offensive, claiming that the generation after me cared more about fitting in than academics, and she did a pretty good job of skewering the extracurricular activities which were one of the major defining parts of MIT (at least for undergraduates). Actually, I have nothing good to say about MIT's administration above the individual professors and departments -- they spent huge amounts of money on pointless things, and mainly consisted of professional administrators (educated at e.g. BU) vs. alumni. During my time at MIT they destroyed the FSILG system (student-managed small housing groups) due to one fucknozzle drinking himself to death next door to my residence. I haven't kept up with MIT since around 2000, but it was definitely on a downward trend from 1996-1999, surviving mainly on past reputation.
- ericd 16y ago
  Yeah, I chose MIT because I wanted to get my ass kicked, which didn't happen so much. It's still possible, but it seems that they've been watering down everything. They banned triple majoring, and I think they've even stopped granting dual degrees now. The administration has always seemed pathologically risk-averse, and mostly come from the wrong sort of background to run the type of school MIT should be.
  - rdl 16y ago
    It's still not a bad place, but I think I could put together a far superior program, attached to another research university (to have access to grad students), to educate undergrads for $15-20k/yr (vs. the $60k/yr MIT claims to be spending). Take risks! I think something like KAUST (in Saudi) could end up being what MIT should be -- or Olin (the free school which has lots of MIT SM/PhD instructors). If I had kids, I'd probably push toward an undergrad-focused school like Reed for pure science education, or Stanford or UC Berkeley for someone who wanted to be an engineer, just to have access to the silicon valley ecosystem. I think there is a strong case for "take 1-2 years between HS and college to work", too.
    - ericd 16y ago
      Yeah, I agree, I still enjoyed it, met a lot of great people, and (I think) got a good education. Just meant to agree that the administration seems to be almost more of a hinderance than a help to those things.
    - natrius 16y ago
      Olin isn't free anymore. http://olin.edu/admission/costs.asp http://olin.edu/admission/costs.asp
ericd 16y ago
I think she did an OK job, except for her recent campaign to admit more of the "well-rounded" type that most Ivies also go for. I think that somewhat diminished what makes MIT special. I think it may be part of the reason that so many of my classmates went into finance and consulting after graduating. Many seemed to be more in love with the name than with tech itself. This isn't universally true, of course, and much of it is based on hearsay, since I wasn't there to observe other time periods.

gojomo 16y ago

Having such a 'statute of limitations' on resume-lies would encourage a lot more lying, by everyone who thinks they can do a good job for the 'grace period' without their deception being discovered. This woman was the Dean of Admissions. To forgive her deception would have made it hard to object in principle to anyone lying on their MIT college application.