4 ms·

Because grad schools produce more (graduating students) than they consume (hiring faculty).

by qmalxp 12y ago

eli_gottlieb 12y ago
Yes, that much is obvious. But you would think that if a department is staffed by, say, MIT graduates, that they can do MIT-quality research, thanks to their MIT training, without being in the geographical vicinity of downtown Cambridge. Despite this, academic status-signaling seems to assume that the geographical vicinity is of profound importance.
- chaoxu 12y ago
  Not everyone mit graduate is MIT professor good.
  - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
    That's possible, but when we know that many people who are MIT Professor Good could not get into MIT for undergrad[1], it still requires us to believe MIT's admissions and graduation criteria for PhD students are very loose compared to all their other observed standards. [1] -- http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2003 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2003
    - hga 12y ago
      That's frankly ridiculous, or at least the CalTech example at the end. For undergraduate study, MIT and CalTech have a strong filtering function in that you must be able to do math and calculus based physics, and, oh yeah, one "humanities" course per term. A student brilliant only at math would likely fail horribly. And so a student who's brilliant at just CS might not make the cut for MIT, since MIT's EECS undergraduate program requires a minimum of both EE and CS (for better or worse, that's their view of what an undergraduate must have). Change the domain to graduate programs and above and things are different. While I'm at it, back some years ago last decade before MIT gained a lot of attention approximately 13,000 students applied a year for the undergraduate program. 3,000 were judged to "be able to do the work", and only from them was a class of 1,100 students constructed.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
- robotresearcher 12y ago
  Those ex-MIT profs no longer have access to MIT-level resources and MIT-level grad students. The latter being more important than the former.

Because grad schools produce more (graduating students) than they consume (hiring faculty).

by qmalxp 12y ago

Because grad schools produce more (graduating students) than they consume (hiring faculty).

Yes, that much is obvious. But you would think that if a department is staffed by, say, MIT graduates, that they can do MIT-quality research, thanks to their MIT training, without being in the geographical vicinity of downtown Cambridge. Despite this, academic status-signaling seems to assume that the geographical vicinity is of profound importance.

chaoxu 12y ago
Not everyone mit graduate is MIT professor good.
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  That's possible, but when we know that many people who are MIT Professor Good could not get into MIT for undergrad[1], it still requires us to believe MIT's admissions and graduation criteria for PhD students are very loose compared to all their other observed standards. [1] -- http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2003 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2003
  - hga 12y ago
    That's frankly ridiculous, or at least the CalTech example at the end. For undergraduate study, MIT and CalTech have a strong filtering function in that you must be able to do math and calculus based physics, and, oh yeah, one "humanities" course per term. A student brilliant only at math would likely fail horribly. And so a student who's brilliant at just CS might not make the cut for MIT, since MIT's EECS undergraduate program requires a minimum of both EE and CS (for better or worse, that's their view of what an undergraduate must have). Change the domain to graduate programs and above and things are different. While I'm at it, back some years ago last decade before MIT gained a lot of attention approximately 13,000 students applied a year for the undergraduate program. 3,000 were judged to "be able to do the work", and only from them was a class of 1,100 students constructed.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
robotresearcher 12y ago
Those ex-MIT profs no longer have access to MIT-level resources and MIT-level grad students. The latter being more important than the former.