For sure. You just hope that they are a good enough student that you can spend time worrying over which top university is the right choice. It's more difficult than ever to get into a top-notch school. I hope as a parent that it's a problem we have. Keep D&D Civil.
Most famous or great researchers are bad teachers. Some see it as a tacked on obligation. The writer b****es that the college doesn't guide the student. If you're at Harvard, you're either super motivated or really rich. Harvard guidance isn't that necessary.
So, how does super motivated entail that you neccessarily know what classes would be best to take, or what's worse, if you were a rich kid? And why does everybody keep saying the writer b****es. The writer is critquing an aspect of Harvard's education and what direction it is going. Do you feel there is anythign wrong with his criticism? And to go back to your first point, do Harvard students now (Unlike Harvard Students in the past before they did away with their core curriculum) know what is best for them to study? Are they better than the school's forefathers, or their own fathers for that matter?
Back in the day, I sent for a Graduate School package from Harvard, more as a lark than anything else. Just how much of a lark it really was didn't sink in until I got the info and looked at the costs. Reading the fine print, you had to show you could pay before they considered your application and only then would they consider financial aid. Needless to say, I didn't waste my time filling out an app because not only did I not have the money, I had no chance of getting in based on my record. Still, it was fun to look at the stuff and stiff them for the packet and postage. All that said, given the chance, I would absolutely send my kids to Harvard, even if I had to do 2nd and 3rd mortgages and take a 2nd job to pay for it.
I go to a public school in the middle of Arkansas and a buddy of mine that graduated last year got into Harvard Law and is now finishing up his first year there...Granted, he's not an undergrad, but he's kind of said some of the same things to me about Harvard Law...that he's not really impressed with the calibur of students, especially at a place with such a great reputation...
Really? You would pick UChicago over the Ivy League? I'm going there next year, and I've never heard anyone say they'd rather go to UC than Harvard. Just curious, why do you feel that way?
University of Chicago is an old school liberal arts education. I would gladly send my kid there over Harvard..
People go to Harvard to join the elite club and to rub shoulders with the rich and powerful. Who cares what they teach there? America is about who you know, not what.
The classes you take in non-technical fields do not train you for the careers that hire students from that major. When you're fresh out of college with little experience, most jobs look at your college and GPA to get a general handle on your work ethic. If you're rich, nepotism comes into play.... Even for the technical fields, most jobs still have to provide orientation and training in order to do what they want you to do. Even if these professors, who are at the top of their fields, don't give personal advice when approached, there's word of mouth from older students who have taken classes... who's word is as good as the company you keep and the motivation you share. I feel it's a general problem in good universities who recruit famous professors that in all likelyhood neglect undergraduate lectures. It's a tip of the growing disparity between undergraduate and graduate education under the same banner. The majority of the students at college don't know what field they want to pursue, with or without a plan. If they do, they have personal relationships to reinforce their general path. And for the most clueless portion, they can rest knowing that the jobs they pursue will give them experience that's boosted by the prestigous name on their diploma.
He went to UC, IIRC. I didn't go there for undergrad - but I wouldn't wish 4 years in Hyde Park on my poor kid unless I didn't like them or they were headed for the monastery. Great Education, horrific social life. Horrific. College is not all about Susan Sontag or Walt Whitman - it's also a good measure of Bluto Butarski.
This is so true. I went to top 20 undergrad and unranked MBA (night school) and it took me 7 years of work experience to get me a spot on the floor in NYC. I see young pups with statistics and modelling skills but no concept of how the markets work start straight outta Harvard. You can only talk about your gamma and your delta so long before someone realizes that you dont know shait about the fundamentals that drive a market.
Probably because of Milt Friedman, Leo Strauss, Richard Posner, etc. UC has been a center of conservative economic, legal, and political thought.
exactly. strauss is the father of neoconservatism. and i'll pass on that hogwash. and add alan bloom to the list.
Strauss did know how to read a text and get to the heart of what a thinker was trying to say. I don't agree with a lot of his own personal philosophies (i.e. neoconservatism), but his readings of works from Thucydides to Locke are all pretty much dead on...
absolutely and similarly bloom's translation of the republic is amazing. but i still can't stand them.
i've gone to big public universities and to elite private ones....it's all basically the same....it's what you get out of it and what you do with your degree
