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The lines about Harvard having "outreach" programs is entirely out of touch. The problem is money. It's always money. In the U.S. we simply don't care about edu
by devwastaken 5y ago
The lines about Harvard having "outreach" programs is entirely out of touch. The problem is money. It's always money. In the U.S. we simply don't care about education. It's expensive, time consuming, and heavily unoptimized. Only those with a support system (of money) can accomplish a degree at even the most affordable universities.
Scholarships do not exist in tech. The largest tech companies give out the fewest, and they are heavily competed for. Microsoft chooses 4 women a year. Less than 0.1% of students will ever receive any sizeable scholarship, and have to depend on private loans ontop of government student loans.
Scholarships are designed against low income students. They depend on good recommendations from teachers, long perfectly written essays, and all manner of ridiculous extra requirements. People in city schools of thousands of students rarely, if ever, can get a legitimate recommendation. Students can rarely even stay after school because their parents can't afford to pick them up later. Meaning they can't participate in after school extra curriculars.
I know of multiple women that are going to drop their freshmen degree in CS because of this. Cant afford it. No support network. Nobody cares. Kind of hard to focus on studies when you have to work to even exist at a university if your parents aren't paying for it.
- chrisseaton 5y ago> In the U.S. we simply don't care about education. The US has many of the best educational institutions in the world.
- alistairSH 5y agoThe two statements aren't mutually exclusive. As a society, we do a shit job of ensuring everybody has access to quality education. Its starts young - poor school districts struggle to provide the services they were created to provide. Hell, even relatively wealthy school districts tend to be overcrowded, with faltering infrastructure, and are prone to leaving children behind. This continues into post-secondary, where you need money, and lots of it, to get a degree. Sure, the flagship schools are some of the best int he world. But, take VA's flagship state schools... they average nearly $20k/year for tuition alone. And given their locations (UVA - Charlottesville, W&M - Williamsburg, VT - Blacksburg) the vast majority of students will also be paying full room & board, driving costs beyond $30k/year. And that's just the flagship schools - there are a whole host of mediocre colleges that charge the same or more. And then there's the for-profit schools that are a case study on their own.
- ovi256 5y ago> As a society, we do a shit job of ensuring everybody has access to quality education. Is there any society that does a good job with that ? The US richly rewards education in the most important aspect - great salaries for the jobs that come after the education. Almost no countries compete with US salaries. For the best tech salaries, it's fair to say none do.
- alistairSH 5y agoFinland? Yes, the US rewards those that manage to get an education. Where we fail is ensuring everybody who wants a top-quality education has access. At the post-secondary level, it's largely a money problem - school is just too expensive. And whole scholarships and other funding sources do exist, a student needs a lot of guidance on obtaining that money.
- chrisseaton 5y ago> Finland? I'm not sure Finland has any universities at all in the top 100. Nobody's getting a top-quality education in Finland. I guess that's more fair?
- alistairSH 5y agoThe University of Helsinki is top-100 in the US News rankings.
- chrisseaton 5y agoIt’s just outside it in QS, but anyway… isn’t that a little bit of a weak praise? Their universities don’t compete with others in Europe, let alone the US. It’s definitely not access to top education is it?
- aidenn0 5y agoFinnish students have better access to Harvard then American students have access to Finnish primary and secondary schools...
- nautilius 5y agoSure. Also, Bezos and Musk live in the U.S. That doesn't mean everyone is rich or that even the median has a standard of living comparable to many other first world countries.