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Considering that students are more akin to customers than worker bees, the obvious questions to that line of reasoning are: What is the MIT administration atte

Considering that students are more akin to customers than worker bees, the obvious questions to that line of reasoning are: What is the MIT administration attempting to measure by using graduation rate as a metric? Why has the administration chosen to optimize for graduation rate? And the more general elephant in the room: What does/should a research university in general, and MIT in particular, seek to accomplish? And How does/should the administration classify emergent behaviors of the large group of people into helping/harming those ends?

matt4077 9y ago
"Citizen" might be the best analogy for students: Neither the pay-and-be-served attitude of consumers, nor the shut-up-and-work of labor. Instead, a sense of both empowerment as well as responsibility.
Animats 9y ago
MIT tries to select students who will make it through MIT, and then get them through. If you get in, you have a 93% chance of graduating. That's an unusually high success rate for a serious engineering school. (That may be the influence of Harvard, 97.5% graduation rate. It's hard to get into Harvard, but it's not hard to get through Harvard.) There are lower tier engineering schools with huge drop-out rates. Cal Poly flunks out about half their engineering students. It's much easier to get in, but the first year is designed to get rid of the unqualified students. MIT is trying not to go there.
staunch 9y ago
All of the exclusive universities sell degrees for a fortune. Their delivery rate is their graduation rate. The admissions process is gamed to hell by wealthy people and the graduation rate is still 95%+. Hmmm... The whole thing is a scam where the truly deserving students are a cover for the majority. It's the same reason they don't worry about giving away online courses. Education isn't their product. Their product is a piece of paper that ensures your child won't be serving burgers alongside Will Hunting.

matt4077 9y ago

"Citizen" might be the best analogy for students: Neither the pay-and-be-served attitude of consumers, nor the shut-up-and-work of labor. Instead, a sense of both empowerment as well as responsibility.

Animats 9y ago

MIT tries to select students who will make it through MIT, and then get them through. If you get in, you have a 93% chance of graduating. That's an unusually high success rate for a serious engineering school. (That may be the influence of Harvard, 97.5% graduation rate. It's hard to get into Harvard, but it's not hard to get through Harvard.) There are lower tier engineering schools with huge drop-out rates. Cal Poly flunks out about half their engineering students. It's much easier to get in, but the first year is designed to get rid of the unqualified students. MIT is trying not to go there.

staunch 9y ago

All of the exclusive universities sell degrees for a fortune. Their delivery rate is their graduation rate. The admissions process is gamed to hell by wealthy people and the graduation rate is still 95%+. Hmmm... The whole thing is a scam where the truly deserving students are a cover for the majority. It's the same reason they don't worry about giving away online courses. Education isn't their product. Their product is a piece of paper that ensures your child won't be serving burgers alongside Will Hunting.