Comments on: Dartmouth Dilutes Democracy

By: photoncourier.blogspot.com

photoncourier.blogspot.com — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:29:42 +0000

I think part of what’s happened is this: higher education has been sold to the public primarily in terms of the value of the credential–”get your college degree if you want a good job.” Lots of kids (and their parents) see college not as an opportunity to become a better-educated individual, or even to learn a practical skill, but merely to get that all-important piece of paper.

When higher education is defined this way, the administration and faculty can get away with pretty much anything they want–avoiding teaching undergrad courses, political indoctrination, etc–as long as it doesn’t interfere with the real customer goal, which is the certificate.

This situation has to be frustrating to those faculty members who *do* care about education. Analogy: If a car company markets its vehicles exclusively in terms of “this car will help you attract women and impress the neighbors,” then they shouldn’t be surprised that when prospects come to the showroom, they’re not very interested in hearing about the fine points of the suspension and the valve action.

By: LarryD

LarryD — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:09:21 +0000

I think Dave’s right, time to route around the damage, and replace the universities with something else, new universities, completely new institutions, or a mix of some kind.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:00:35 +0000

I love Dartmouth and have a degree from there but the latest action seems to portend bad things in the future. There are few enough great undergrad programs. I have encouraged my daughter to consider Norwich, which has a different culture and the same climate and ambience.

Caltech, as best I can tell, continues as the absolure standard in science education with an unbelieveable faculty-student ratio. Richard Feynman is our benefactor by making freshman physics a subject worthy of a Nobel laureate.

By: photoncourier.blogspot.com

photoncourier.blogspot.com — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:50:01 +0000

Some interesting thoughts on college-selection importance by Paul Graham, from the standpoint of his experience investing in a lot of seed-stage startups mostly run by people recently out of college.

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:45:35 +0000

“Really, when it comes to results, how much is it really worth, having gone to a high status school?”

In my opinion, Sgt. Mom, not much – having been to two, Dartmouth and Yale. Gave my parents bragging rights, I suppose, but even that’s a double-edged sword. Dartmouth in the Fall is gorgeous though.

By: exguru

exguru — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:16:17 +0000

It’s a small place, but some of us find it just as sick as the larger ones.

By: Sgt. Mom

Sgt. Mom — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 23:09:48 +0000

Except for hitting the “publish” button before noticing the typo in the word “disadvantage”…

By: Sgt. Mom

Sgt. Mom — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 23:07:21 +0000

I know the feeling… my dearest and only most cherished daughter is finally applying herself to higher education, after two hitches in the Marine Corps. She has the GI Bill on her side, and the Hinson-Hazelwood Act… but she is going to a local junior college, and transferring to a very well thought of State School for upper division and graduate school, in persuit of a degree in veterinary medicine.
Me, I did the junior college and state university route. Scarily enough, I have never felt the least bit at a disatvantage for it, even if my degree was in English.
Really, when it comes to results, how much is it really worth, having gone to a high status school?

By: Mike K

Mike K — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:08:09 +0000

The loss is serious and it will narrow the opportunities for an outstanding undergraduate education. Fifty years ago, when I was applying to college, the outstanding undergraduate education in science was Cal Tech. I believe that is still the case. Dartmouth had the outstanding undergraduate experience in both science and humanities as a combination. I was unaware of these facts although Cal Tech was my choice. Now, Dartmouth has joined the Yales and Harvards of the world in choosing to be a “research university” and the undergraduates will get short shrift. This is a serious loss to education. It is getting to the point that a college diploma means little except the payment of the necessary fees and four years of attendance. The content of that education is irrelevant. Harvard undergraduates would be better off if they submitted the necessary tuition and accepted their diploma without the necessity, and waste of time, of four years of left wing propaganda. All it signifies is that they had a high SAT score and a high high school GPA.

I wonder if this information is filtering down to potential applicants and resuting in the loss of male applications. College is becoming a feminist experience with all that baggage and little of the substance of the college experience of fifty years ago. Parents determined to provide their children with the necessary “merit badges” of Ivy League diplomas have been willing to pay the cost but will that go on forever ? I have one more high school age child who will be applying this year. I don’t know what to do. She won’t be applying to Duke; I know that. Beyond that, the cost of “research universities” for undergraduate degrees seems excessive. Better to go to a state school and then apply to the big names for graduate education. Even there, unless the child plans a career in investment banking, the benefit of all that tuition seems hardly worth it. Maybe if I lived in New York City, I would feel differently.

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:48:30 +0000

Just extrapolate from what is happening to Dartmouth and in Venezuela and you can come to the same conclusion about illegal aliens being fast tracked into the Democrat Party. Harry Reid gave $4 Million Dollars to MENCHA in the last election cycle in the form a secret earmark, that was for buying votes with tax money’s. [MENCHA, preaches secession of the western states through sedition.]

Universities have been taken over by the 1960′s Marxists and control one of the greatest fortunes [tax free] ever amassed in the worlds history in the form of endowments. The communists didn’t have to win the war with armies, they just had to indoctrinate your children to conquer by taking over the Universities and be paid very well while doing it. Is there one University that is not taken over from within by the left wing, listen and look to that they are saying and doing, doesn’t it have the familiar ring of Lenin.