3 ms·

You have it a bit upside down. The 'Bay Area' doesn't get good students because of the Valley, it's the other way around. The Valley was made by good students f

by jasmer 3y ago

You have it a bit upside down. The 'Bay Area' doesn't get good students because of the Valley, it's the other way around. The Valley was made by good students from Stanford and Berkley. Unis have always been a bit out of the way, they are not 'sponsored by banks' they were sponsored by Churches and congregations, then the elite. Waterloo was Waterloo College, a Lutheran Seminary, and grew out from there. It was successful probably because it was very much focused on Tech, unlike most other schools, and didn't appeal to multi generational families, but 'anyone'. The local mennonites are also extremely good students, you don't hear about them, but they get good grades. It's a great tech school, but one of the ugliesst, most sparse and uninspiring campuses imaginable. If we think of traditional Uni like an 'Ivy Campus' or 'Oxford' aesthetically - UW is like one of those 1960's, concrete block kind of Soviet Utilitarian places. I mean it could be worse.

Tyr42 3y ago
It also embraced the co-op system earlier than the other universities, which lead to more real world experience in tech for the students, and I think that filtered up to the faculty too over time.
- jasmer 3y ago
  Yes, this is a big point.
mikrl 3y ago
>UW is like one of those 1960's, concrete block kind of Soviet Utilitarian places The way I came to appreciate the aesthetic of UW was to realize it is a school of the 20th and 21st centuries, whereas the Ivies are schools of the 18th and 19th centuries. When you think of an abstract university setting, ‘the future’ looks like UW.
- jasmer 3y ago
  It's an ugly pile of concrete, I think the term is 'brutalist'. During the mid 20th century there was a lot of that going on. Most 'modern' designs are rubbish, but at least what they make today is much more interesting, for the most part.
  - jonjacky 3y ago
    > During the mid 20th century there was a lot of that going on. In the 1970s, students at Cal State LA called it Cal Concrete.

by jasmer 3y ago

Tyr42 3y ago

It also embraced the co-op system earlier than the other universities, which lead to more real world experience in tech for the students, and I think that filtered up to the faculty too over time.

jasmer 3y ago
Yes, this is a big point.

mikrl 3y ago

>UW is like one of those 1960's, concrete block kind of Soviet Utilitarian places The way I came to appreciate the aesthetic of UW was to realize it is a school of the 20th and 21st centuries, whereas the Ivies are schools of the 18th and 19th centuries. When you think of an abstract university setting, ‘the future’ looks like UW.

jasmer 3y ago
It's an ugly pile of concrete, I think the term is 'brutalist'. During the mid 20th century there was a lot of that going on. Most 'modern' designs are rubbish, but at least what they make today is much more interesting, for the most part.
- jonjacky 3y ago
  > During the mid 20th century there was a lot of that going on. In the 1970s, students at Cal State LA called it Cal Concrete.