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Article worth reading. I think we have three fundamental problems: 1. We’ve created a society where people think that grades and test scores earn them the ri

Article worth reading. I think we have three fundamental problems: 1. We’ve created a society where people think that grades and test scores earn them the right to attend a given school. The goal of universities should be to improve society, in whatever vision it has. Grades are probably just one component of that. 2. Race is,unfortunately, a big deal. People are going to be racist or consciously have to try not to be or need policies to prevent one from being. The only place where people tend to be less racist is when racism leads directly and visibly to poor outcomes - most notably sports. Anytime you have to select people and how results are measured is unclear then racism will seep in. 3. There aren’t great output metrics for college. The prestige of a college is almost purely in its selectivity. Id love to know how well does a college do educating and academically average kid who is an introvert, but loves poetry. That said I feel like the US college system has worked decently well. Not great, but it’s something we can build on.

bell-cot 2y ago
Yes...but the academic elitism poison has created some additional horrid problems: 4.) "Price No Object" college education. When a college turns itself into a luxury lifestyle club and gold-plated monument to its own glory, it needs to be fully reclassified and taxed as such. 5.) "College Degree Required" credential inflation. If the goal was to debt-burden and generally screw up the lives of average young people, while growing & enriching the whole college industry, I'd count this a huge success. Otherwise? No, FAIL.
- boshalfoshal 2y ago
  For (5), at least in most modern software companies, this isn't actually a "requirement," but places end up having some distribution of people from top schools anyway. This is usually just due to societal bias (oh, the guy from Harvard _must_ be good!), and honestly, on average, people who graduated from a top school (especially the ones that get in on merit and !legacy) are generally better than average.

bell-cot 2y ago

Yes...but the academic elitism poison has created some additional horrid problems: 4.) "Price No Object" college education. When a college turns itself into a luxury lifestyle club and gold-plated monument to its own glory, it needs to be fully reclassified and taxed as such. 5.) "College Degree Required" credential inflation. If the goal was to debt-burden and generally screw up the lives of average young people, while growing & enriching the whole college industry, I'd count this a huge success. Otherwise? No, FAIL.

boshalfoshal 2y ago
For (5), at least in most modern software companies, this isn't actually a "requirement," but places end up having some distribution of people from top schools anyway. This is usually just due to societal bias (oh, the guy from Harvard _must_ be good!), and honestly, on average, people who graduated from a top school (especially the ones that get in on merit and !legacy) are generally better than average.