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Remembering when I was applying to colleges, it was understood that inexpensive state colleges were probably 'sufficiently good', and cost effective, but it was

by ip26 4y ago

Remembering when I was applying to colleges, it was understood that inexpensive state colleges were probably 'sufficiently good', and cost effective, but it was impossible to grade that statement. Would it be good enough for your goals in life? How can a sixteen year old know? So, people picked the 'best' school they could get into. Not just for the 'experience', but to make sure they got the best education they could and opened as many doors as possible. Because you don't really get a do-over.

curious_cat_163 4y ago
This is very insightful. After having gone through it all, do you think if it matters how many doors open for a person based on the college they went? I suppose if someone went to a highly ranked school, it might matter. But being able to get into a highly ranked school is probably because of what the person had (money, life experiences) or what they did (crushed some standardized test). So, in the end, does it actually matter?
- capitalsigma 4y ago
  Yes, it matters. The quality of education is better. Lower ranked schools don't dole out the same kind of punishingly hard material that higher ranked schools do. The content of the degree is meaningfully different (based on my experience doing undergrad in a well ranked school and going back to mess around in part time classes while working.)
  - heisenbit 4y ago
    Consider the percentage of alumni kid and kids of ‚friends‘ admitted to ivy league schools who very likely would fail admission in a purely merit based system. Then factor in the very high graduation rates of ivy schools. And now consider how hard they must be to get through. Still think harder than others?
- ip26 4y ago
  After reading many resumes and talking to many candidates, it can matter. Many budget state colleges simply don’t have the curriculum, faculty, or clout- at least in my field. This means their graduates are like juniors at higher ranked schools. An exceptional student can overcome that obstacle, but they are swimming against the current. Interestingly, the renowned private universities don’t seem to have any better of a curriculum than the high-grade public research universities. So from an education point of view, there still exists a ‘good enough’, it’s just not the budget state college.
- thrown_22 4y ago
  It doesn't matter. I did physics at a world top 10 university and the course work was basically day care. The vast majority of the 'difficulty' of the subject matter was because the majority of students were bad at algebra. The outcomes would have been better for everyone if we completely ignored first year and just taught people the Knuth Bendix algorithm instead.

by ip26 4y ago

curious_cat_163 4y ago

This is very insightful. After having gone through it all, do you think if it matters how many doors open for a person based on the college they went? I suppose if someone went to a highly ranked school, it might matter. But being able to get into a highly ranked school is probably because of what the person had (money, life experiences) or what they did (crushed some standardized test). So, in the end, does it actually matter?

capitalsigma 4y ago
Yes, it matters. The quality of education is better. Lower ranked schools don't dole out the same kind of punishingly hard material that higher ranked schools do. The content of the degree is meaningfully different (based on my experience doing undergrad in a well ranked school and going back to mess around in part time classes while working.)
- heisenbit 4y ago
  Consider the percentage of alumni kid and kids of ‚friends‘ admitted to ivy league schools who very likely would fail admission in a purely merit based system. Then factor in the very high graduation rates of ivy schools. And now consider how hard they must be to get through. Still think harder than others?
ip26 4y ago
After reading many resumes and talking to many candidates, it can matter. Many budget state colleges simply don’t have the curriculum, faculty, or clout- at least in my field. This means their graduates are like juniors at higher ranked schools. An exceptional student can overcome that obstacle, but they are swimming against the current. Interestingly, the renowned private universities don’t seem to have any better of a curriculum than the high-grade public research universities. So from an education point of view, there still exists a ‘good enough’, it’s just not the budget state college.
thrown_22 4y ago
It doesn't matter. I did physics at a world top 10 university and the course work was basically day care. The vast majority of the 'difficulty' of the subject matter was because the majority of students were bad at algebra. The outcomes would have been better for everyone if we completely ignored first year and just taught people the Knuth Bendix algorithm instead.