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As someone from a developing economy whenever I see a new .edu domain or .ac.uk domain I immediately try to find the institute’s establishment date. I rarely fi

As someone from a developing economy whenever I see a new .edu domain or .ac.uk domain I immediately try to find the institute’s establishment date. I rarely find anything above 1800s from these two countries- US, UK. I often wonder how much this aspect of a certain country contributes to its (sometimes meteoric) growth and how my own country was actually at the pinnacle once and how it coincided with having literally the best of the educational institutions of that time. But that was past — today a 20 year old institute is considered “old” here. (Though I wonder how much they contribute? 30-40%? Or more? How does one find this out?) Anyway, I am sure there are other factors like colonialism and what not. But even if you manage to rob someone else and then by the end of next week your money is gone in the various waterholes of your neighbourhood then you are right where you started ready to rob again until you can’t rob anymore. Are there other, from past, “robber” nations that squandered their loot in watering holes? I wonder how “meteoric” the decline would be if those same academic institutes are undermined and are stifled, the ones that contributed to the rise. PS. When I was applying to unis in mainland Europe (because US/UK was too costly) any place below at least a hundred year old was “too nuvo” for my academic taste ;-)

mustache_kimono 1y ago
> When I was applying to unis in mainland Europe (because US/UK was too costly) any place below at least a hundred year old was “too nuvo” for my academic taste ;-) Hillsdale is a college founded expressly to be a conservative alternative to the Ivies/older liberal arts schools. And its graduates have been very influential in the recent American conservative movement.
- crossroadsguy 1y ago
  I mentioned that part about my own country. I think it was not clear. I’ll try to edit. (Edit: it is clear)
- 0xB31B1B 1y ago
  Hillsdale college is a fundamentalist Christian college. “Bible is the literal word of god” stuff. Many people there believe the world is 6000 years old and evolution didn’t happen.
  - xienze 1y ago
    Source for that claim? If you had spent half a second researching before blindly launching into “Christians r dum” rhetoric you’d have noticed that they actually teach a course on evolution: https://www.hillsdale.edu/courses/evolution-biological-diversity/ https://www.hillsdale.edu/courses/evolution-biological-diver...
    - 0xB31B1B 1y ago
      My sister went there and her and her friends and their families believe these things.
    - f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
      It is not clear at all from the course description what that course teaches: "An introduction to the vast diversity of life from prokaryotic forms to the eukaryotic vertebrate mammals. This course introduces the beginning biology student to all the major groups of organisms and to their fundamental taxonomic relationships." "This vast diversity exists because that's the way God made them" is perfectly compatible with that description. Also, from the description of an event held April 11, 2025: "Are the special creation of Adam and Eve and the evolution of humans over millions of years compatible? 100 years after the Scopes Trial, the debate continues." So "they actually teach a course on evolution" seems to fall well short of a full description of exactly what they teach there.
      - f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
        For comparison's sake, here is a description of a more typical Evolutionary Biology course: "Emphasizes the fundamental evolutionary concepts that provide explanations for the diversification of life on Earth. Specific topics include the evidence for evolution, adaptation by natural selection, speciation, systematics, molecular and genome evolution, and macroevolutionary patterns and processes."
      - xienze 1y ago
        [flagged]
- f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
  > Hillsdale is a college founded expressly to be a conservative alternative to the Ivies/older liberal arts schools. This is not correct. Hillsdale was founded in 1844 at a time when the contemporary so-called "conservative" movement in the US didn't even exist.
  - mustache_kimono 1y ago
    > This is not correct. Oops this is my mistake. I shouldn't have said founded when I didn't actually know. These days it is at the very least marketed as such. A conservative alternative to...
  - doug_durham 1y ago
    Hillsdale was co-oped in living memory to be an expressly conservative liberal arts school. Not the kind of place the values freedom of expression.
    - tomcam 1y ago
      Can you show where they don't value freedom of expression?
      - doug_durham 1y ago
        Are departments free to implement DEI for their hiring a Hillsdale? How many Hillsdale presentations begin with a land acknowledgment? Would it be allowed?
        tomcam 1y ago
        You made an assertion and it appears you cannot back it up. Asking a bunch of irrelevant questions isn’t helping your case much.
        tomcam 1y ago
        By the way, I have a sincere question about land acknowledgments. How far do they go back? For example, should the Comanche do land acknowledgments for the Apaches? Are the descendants of Vikings responsible for land acknowledgments to the British whom they conquered? Should modern Mexicans start their speeches with land acknowledgments to the Maya, Inca, and other Mestizo Indians? Indians and Mayans committed genocide at a big scale. Should their descendants be responsible for land acknowledgments?
f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
>As someone from a developing economy whenever I see a new .edu domain or .ac.uk domain I immediately try to find the institute’s establishment date. I rarely find anything above 1800s from these two countries- US, UK. I don't really understand this comment. Are you saying that there are not many colleges or universities in the US founded in the twentieth century? That's not really true. I haven't done this exhaustively, but I took the lists of US colleges and universities for just three US states (CT, ME, MA) from wikipedia. 101 of the 167 listed were founded after 1900. I don't know exactly how this would work out for all 50 states but I am sure that we'd find many more, likely a large majority, founded after 1900. There are around 4,000 or so postsecondary degree-granting institutions in the US. I think what's going on here is that you never hear of the vast majority of them. Or are you saying that you rarely find US academic institutions founded before the 1800s? In that case, well, yeah, the vast majority were not.
kec 1y ago
Complete aside but I believe you meant/it is spelled "too nouveau" (assuming you meant more recently founded schools are too "new money" and lack sufficient prestige due to their young age).
mystified5016 1y ago
Well, the US is a pretty young country. It was the last continent to be settled (by Europeans) and the history of (European) civilization here is just not very long. The US does have prestigious organizations from early in its history, but that history is still pretty recent in comparison to Europe. All things considered, the US has a pretty good amount of prestigious history and accomplishments compared to classical European history. It's just hard to compare 18th century America to 5th century Italy. For as long as the USA has been a country, it's not significantly less accomplished than any historic European nation of the same age.

mustache_kimono 1y ago

> When I was applying to unis in mainland Europe (because US/UK was too costly) any place below at least a hundred year old was “too nuvo” for my academic taste ;-) Hillsdale is a college founded expressly to be a conservative alternative to the Ivies/older liberal arts schools. And its graduates have been very influential in the recent American conservative movement.

crossroadsguy 1y ago
I mentioned that part about my own country. I think it was not clear. I’ll try to edit. (Edit: it is clear)
0xB31B1B 1y ago
Hillsdale college is a fundamentalist Christian college. “Bible is the literal word of god” stuff. Many people there believe the world is 6000 years old and evolution didn’t happen.
- xienze 1y ago
  Source for that claim? If you had spent half a second researching before blindly launching into “Christians r dum” rhetoric you’d have noticed that they actually teach a course on evolution: https://www.hillsdale.edu/courses/evolution-biological-diversity/ https://www.hillsdale.edu/courses/evolution-biological-diver...
  - 0xB31B1B 1y ago
    My sister went there and her and her friends and their families believe these things.
  - f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
    It is not clear at all from the course description what that course teaches: "An introduction to the vast diversity of life from prokaryotic forms to the eukaryotic vertebrate mammals. This course introduces the beginning biology student to all the major groups of organisms and to their fundamental taxonomic relationships." "This vast diversity exists because that's the way God made them" is perfectly compatible with that description. Also, from the description of an event held April 11, 2025: "Are the special creation of Adam and Eve and the evolution of humans over millions of years compatible? 100 years after the Scopes Trial, the debate continues." So "they actually teach a course on evolution" seems to fall well short of a full description of exactly what they teach there.
    - f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
      For comparison's sake, here is a description of a more typical Evolutionary Biology course: "Emphasizes the fundamental evolutionary concepts that provide explanations for the diversification of life on Earth. Specific topics include the evidence for evolution, adaptation by natural selection, speciation, systematics, molecular and genome evolution, and macroevolutionary patterns and processes."
    - xienze 1y ago
      [flagged]
f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago
> Hillsdale is a college founded expressly to be a conservative alternative to the Ivies/older liberal arts schools. This is not correct. Hillsdale was founded in 1844 at a time when the contemporary so-called "conservative" movement in the US didn't even exist.
- mustache_kimono 1y ago
  > This is not correct. Oops this is my mistake. I shouldn't have said founded when I didn't actually know. These days it is at the very least marketed as such. A conservative alternative to...
- doug_durham 1y ago
  Hillsdale was co-oped in living memory to be an expressly conservative liberal arts school. Not the kind of place the values freedom of expression.
  - tomcam 1y ago
    Can you show where they don't value freedom of expression?
    - doug_durham 1y ago
      Are departments free to implement DEI for their hiring a Hillsdale? How many Hillsdale presentations begin with a land acknowledgment? Would it be allowed?
      - tomcam 1y ago
        You made an assertion and it appears you cannot back it up. Asking a bunch of irrelevant questions isn’t helping your case much.
      - tomcam 1y ago
        By the way, I have a sincere question about land acknowledgments. How far do they go back? For example, should the Comanche do land acknowledgments for the Apaches? Are the descendants of Vikings responsible for land acknowledgments to the British whom they conquered? Should modern Mexicans start their speeches with land acknowledgments to the Maya, Inca, and other Mestizo Indians? Indians and Mayans committed genocide at a big scale. Should their descendants be responsible for land acknowledgments?

f30e3dfed1c9 1y ago

>As someone from a developing economy whenever I see a new .edu domain or .ac.uk domain I immediately try to find the institute’s establishment date. I rarely find anything above 1800s from these two countries- US, UK. I don't really understand this comment. Are you saying that there are not many colleges or universities in the US founded in the twentieth century? That's not really true. I haven't done this exhaustively, but I took the lists of US colleges and universities for just three US states (CT, ME, MA) from wikipedia. 101 of the 167 listed were founded after 1900. I don't know exactly how this would work out for all 50 states but I am sure that we'd find many more, likely a large majority, founded after 1900. There are around 4,000 or so postsecondary degree-granting institutions in the US. I think what's going on here is that you never hear of the vast majority of them. Or are you saying that you rarely find US academic institutions founded before the 1800s? In that case, well, yeah, the vast majority were not.

kec 1y ago

Complete aside but I believe you meant/it is spelled "too nouveau" (assuming you meant more recently founded schools are too "new money" and lack sufficient prestige due to their young age).

mystified5016 1y ago

Well, the US is a pretty young country. It was the last continent to be settled (by Europeans) and the history of (European) civilization here is just not very long. The US does have prestigious organizations from early in its history, but that history is still pretty recent in comparison to Europe. All things considered, the US has a pretty good amount of prestigious history and accomplishments compared to classical European history. It's just hard to compare 18th century America to 5th century Italy. For as long as the USA has been a country, it's not significantly less accomplished than any historic European nation of the same age.