Elite Colleges "Blind-sided" by Perceptions of Elitism

[JurisDictum]

Finally, the huge largesse of tax money institutions like Harvard and Yale receive have come under scrutiny. They aren't even mentioning the fact that part of the reason they are able to raise so much money is also due to preferential tax treatment to University donations (why pay tax when you can donate to your kid university instead?). We're just talking about the money they get straight from the government.

And they freaked of course. Because if there is one thing that is constant in America, its the shamelessness of its elites.

The presidents also said they're trying desperately to address perceptions of elitism by taking every speaking engagement they can — touting their positive impacts on their communities to local civic groups, lawmakers and alumni. They're drafting op-eds and sending them to any publication that will take them. They're writing letters and economic impact statements for legislators. Some colleges are also working to recruit conservative students and students from rural areas more aggressively.

They say they haven’t received credit for the steps they’ve taken to address the widespread economic inequality on college campuses by pouring millions into financial aid, especially for low-income and working-class students, who rarely pay the full sky-high sticker prices at the nation's most elite schools.

Yea I don't think paid speaking engagements are -- I don't know -- the right move here? Sounds like you guys are about to get reamed by a bunch of angry Trump/Bernie-voting populists, and you guys go out for speaking engagements to alumni?

Look assholes, no one thinks everyone from Harvard is smarter than everyone else anymore. We just assumed your more privileged now. There's no fixing that. We used to value elitism. As they know -- because they purposefully market themselves as elitist. How can Harvard not be elitist? It's the god damn place elites go to school or its not really Harvard anymore -- is it?

But now we are valuing elitism less. We are going to insist that you pay for your own rich snob club. Taxes are for PUBLIC institutions god damnit. It's such a fuckin' joke to be giving any of this funding out to private companies that only educate the rich and privileged.

[JurisDictum]

Fine, fuck you guys then.


































It's not like I care.


Just keep jerking it to blacked.com and watching Netflix, because neither are going to be around much longer.

[Cecily]

I'm for turning Ivy League schools into community colleges.

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Cecily [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm for turning Ivy League schools into community colleges.

It's a joke. The idea were going to make everything dirty by letting average intellect people in. It's already swimming with well born people with average intellect. The admission process has been a myth ever since they could fill their entire year with 4.00 kids....and chose not to.

Maybe if this was ONLY a post-graduate school for the elite they could maintain their prestige...but no one really has the same respect for these institutions anymore.

This is why Plato thought it was a good idea to remove kids from their parents at age 10 and then raise them together as a group away from them. That's the only way to honestly measure who is worth leading . The way the system works now --- it's just pedigree.

If you know your boss is more capable than you -- your much more willing to be a good worker bee. Elites have become so irreversibly convinced of their superiority they can't even see it. Their dumbass kids aren't respectable and there is a good chance they aren't either...its generally only the guy that originally made the money (usually a guy) that has anything exceptional about them. Sometimes not even them.

Edit: inb4 massive "revelation" that elite kids don't even do their own school work half the time and have that shit basically outsourced to essay companies and private tutors.

[JurisDictum]

You know right-wing Americans really are idiots when it comes to stuff like designing a system to help educate the country.

They think "Wow there are too many stupid people. Let's make a big competition where we take the top 5% of them and shower them with opportunity and give everyone else less...That should help with the stupid people problem."

No child will be left behind...unless they do bad on the test so really, most children will be left behind -- even more so than before. But No Child Left Behind had a nice ring to it as a sales pitch.

You have to focus resources on two groups:

Genius Scientists -- these are the only group of intellectuals that are likely to honestly use the resources and power they are given for its intended purpose. It's an amazing group really.

Idiots -- Because otherwise they cost us even more money and drag down non-idiots.

[fash]

Originally Posted by JurisDictum [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

They think "Wow there are too many stupid people. Let's make a big competition where we take the top 5% of them and shower them with opportunity and give everyone else less...That should help with the stupid people problem."

To be fair, this approach works well where the dregs of society aren't subsidized and slowly die off along with their progeny. This is the truth behind pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

[loramin]

Humanities degrees, as well as the more "applicable" degrees, have always been a proxy for value. No employer with a brain thinks "that kid has a degree in Literature, clearly the classes he took will make him a great salesperson" ... but they still want to hire people with degrees over ones without because they know what it took to get that degree.

If you have a choice between a non-degree applicant and someone who studied underwater basket-weaving for four years (but like legitimately studied it, wrote essays on the best kinds of baskets, etc.) that still works as a proxy. You know the basket-weaver has put up with bosses (professors), had enough of a brain to write something interesting about baskets, and had enough willpower to spend hours and hours underwater weaving baskets.

Of course, proxies just aren't as good as the real thing: as was mentioned you could pay someone to write your basket essays for you. And even when the major would seem applicable (eg. Computer Science), it turns out it's really a proxy, because 80% of what you learn in computer science is not transferable to a programming job (that's why the major is called Computer Science and not Computer Programming).

Ultimately as computers/robots take over more and more jobs, and as the jobs remaining require real specialized skills that aren't taught in school (eg. practical programming), we're going to see more and more non-proxy solutions. Nine month hacker boot camps are a perfect example of this: I would much rather hire a fresh grad from Hack Reactor than a fresh Computer Science major ... even though the comp sci major spent four years and the Hack Reactor grad less than one. Because Hack Reactor is more about real skills and less about being a proxy, I know their grads are more likely to actually have the skills I need.

But even without all that being said, I don't think colleges are going anywhere; they'll just be forced to become more practical.

Originally Posted by Spyder73 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

EDIT: Super TLDR - If you want to make money you better be in some form of sales or get used to the idea of being a pleb forever

Or programming, or law, or the right healthcare positions (do you know how much x-ray technicians make?), or ... well you get the idea. But yeah, specialized skills (and sales is definitely a skill) are where it's at.

[fash]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

And even when the major would seem applicable (eg. Computer Science), it turns out it's really a proxy, because 80% of what you learn in computer science is not transferable to a programming job (that's why the major is called Computer Science and not Computer Programming).

Ultimately as computers/robots take over more and more jobs, and as the jobs remaining require real specialized skills that aren't taught in school (eg. practical programming), we're going to see more and more non-proxy solutions. Nine month hacker boot camps are a perfect example of this: I would much rather hire a fresh grad from Hack Reactor than a fresh Computer Science major ... even though the comp sci major spent four years and the Hack Reactor grad less than one. Because Hack Reactor is more about real skills and less about being a proxy, I know their grads are more likely to actually have the skills I need.

I gotta white knight for computer science grads here. No way I'd hire some 9 month hacker boot camp grad, unless that grad somehow managed to demonstrate he effectively understood what you'd otherwise have learned from a reputable computer science college. You wouldn't want to end up with a dev team composed of dilettantes and web devs tasked to solve challenging software engineering problems. There's a reason good CS grads get 100k+ out of college in entry level positions.

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by fash [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I gotta white knight for computer science grads here. No way I'd hire some 9 month hacker boot camp grad, unless that grad somehow managed to demonstrate he effectively understood what you'd otherwise have learned from a reputable computer science college. You wouldn't want to end up with a dev team composed of dilettantes and web devs tasked to solve challenging software engineering problems. There's a reason good CS grads get 100k+ out of college in entry level positions.

That and because they usually have been working for free for 2 years.

[fash]

Originally Posted by JurisDictum [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That and because they usually have been working for free for 2 years.

Decent CS internships are around 6k a month. (I should clarify, that's during summer vacation while in school. You don't really do internships after graduating with CS degrees.)