6 ms·
Just reinforces my belief that an ivy league degree is much more an indicator of socioeconomic class than it is intelligence or aptitude.
by jcadam 8y ago
Just reinforces my belief that an ivy league degree is much more an indicator of socioeconomic class than it is intelligence or aptitude.
- bobthepanda 8y agoAs of 2013, the median grade at Harvard was an A-. The mode was an A. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/04/harvard-colleges-median-grade-is-an-a-dean-admits/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a8ff4f750887 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/... Anecdotally, I have heard of places that refuse to hire Harvard grads for this reason.
- anoncoward111 8y agoAgree. Anecdotally, I had a sales manager who graduated from Harvard. He was literally no different from any corporate manager I've ever had and just parroted whatever unattainable goals trickled down from the top, providing no clear way to meet said goals
- maxxxxx 8y agoI have worked with people from MIT media lab. I didn't notice them being better than any other engineer. The VCs loved them though and talked pretty much only to them when they visited.
- tehlike 8y agoTry mit csail, or some other depts. Some undergrads in particular made me feel rather stupid :)
- lcuff 8y agoIt's a bizarre situation. In grad school, at least where I went (no place elite), a 'C' was a failing grade, because we were supposed to be doing outstanding work by virtue of being in grad school. I suppose elite schools could argue analogously. "Being here means your work is top drawer". Personally I'd solve the problem by giving written evaluations, which is what my undergrad school did. Useful, nuanced information.
- ohyes 8y agoSimilar situation for me, if you were getting anything lower than a B you probably couldn’t hack the coursework.
- Jd 8y agoGrade inflation is a relic of the Vietnam war era where grades were systematically inflated to keep people from the draft. Also happened uniformly across top tier schools and its hard to do a rollback (especially at one institution only).
- adamnemecek 8y ago> As of 2013, the median grade at Harvard was an A-. What do you conclude from this? > Anecdotally, I have heard of places that refuse to hire Harvard grads for this reason. That does sound anecdotal.
- failrate 8y agoIf everyone is receiving an A, that indicates that everyone receives As regardless of merit.
- adamnemecek 8y agoOr it means that everyone works their ass off. Or that they went to high schools that prepared them well.
- kasey_junk 8y agoWait is non calibrated scoring the norm now? When I was in school (a terribly long time ago) classes were judged by the people that took the classes. That is the % were based in the people that took the tests.
- adamnemecek 8y agoYou mean curved? It depends on the class I think? And what if like, you end up with a difference between A and B being 2%.
- kasey_junk 8y agoThen you had a bad time & you commiserate over drinks? Basically every class I had in college was graded amongst your cohort. Is that odd?
- adamnemecek 8y ago> Then you had a bad time & you commiserate over drinks? The dynamics are a lot more complicated than you make it seem. > Basically every class I had in college was graded amongst your cohort. Is that odd? I've also had classes that were graded on a curve. But that doesn't fully capture the dynamics.
- dilyevsky 8y agoConsequence of paid, for-profit education - they want their grads to get high paying jobs. C-grade alumni with a shit job doesn’t make a great donor.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- smrtinsert 8y agoOr drive.
- medill1919 8y agoOf course.
- willart4food 8y agoYes. You pay for the network, the education is free and optional. However: I have worked with a handful of Harvard MBA graduates and . . . they were the smartest people I have ever worked with, and I have worked with a lot of people.
- kasey_junk 8y agoIf we are doing anecdotes the job I had that was predominantly sourced from Harvard was full of bad employees. I work hard at not trying to extrapolate from that small sample size.
- mikemotherwell 8y agoMBAs or just grads?
- kasey_junk 8y agoMBAs. Though to be fair there was nothing about that gig that made sense for a business degree. It was a cs research position. [edited]
- seibelj 8y agoThe best engineer I ever worked with went to a tiny religious university that didn’t have an official CS Major. There are smart people everywhere. He is also a super cool dude, and TBQH a lot of Harvard grads I’ve worked with have been... hmmm... “less than cool”
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoThe dim ones don't have to work.
- spydum 8y agoThe only cool Harvard kids dropped out