I’m not in a position to pass a resounding judgment on the relative value of diplomas. The point of all this is to ask “why?” Why is a Vanderbilt diploma better than a UTC diploma? I wanted to point out that you could easily trivialize the academic differences with weak social skills.

I dig this:

“In fact, the most lasting things I have learned in college have come from living on campus with a couple thousand people my own age.”

Learning a foreign language has been one of those “lasting” things for me, too. It’s been a really interesting experiment in learning about learning. I might write more about it later when I can crystallize the thoughts. How’s your Japanese coming, by the way?

The guy who says he doesn’t like to hire people from “well-regarded universities” because they’re close-minded is a hypocrite and full of shit. I had a professor try to pull this same trick on a class of mine this past semester when he talked about how he was glad he worked at my school instead of MIT, and he gave this little story about how at a conference there was a sandwich company that served lunch and the side of the truck said “we serve the smartest people in the world,” and that proved that they were close-minded and arrogant.

So what? I’m sure there are plenty of dumbasses that go to Ivy League schools, just like there are plenty of dumbasses everywhere, but to make a generalization that people who go to highly-ranked schools are “close-minded” is the epitome of a close-minded statement. Maybe he was just bitter he didn’t get into one of those schools. When people say something like that, it’s got to be sour grapes.

If the people at the very top are snooty and close-minded, then maybe people at schools ranked out of the top 30 are more laid back and understanding. But those people are still ranked 100 higher than the people below them. And those people still have college educations compared to the people who entered the workforce straight out of high school. So where do you draw the line? You don’t.

There will be geniuses in unexpected places and dumbasses in unexpected places. BUT, if you want to increase your chances of getting a genius, it wouldn’t hurt to look for a school where everyone somehow managed to find an edge over the applicants below them. Of course you have to interview these people and talk with them as opposed to just picking them blind because of their university rank, but to generalize in the way so many people do about higher-ranked universities is going too far.

That being said, college is largely worthless and doesn’t teach you much. But in the interest of stability and “trapping my food” (I only read the Amazon description of that My Ishmael book, but it sounds interesting), I still think getting the diploma is worthwhile. In fact, the most lasting things I have learned in college have come from living on campus with a couple thousand people my own age. Maybe you can get that out “in the real world,” but there’s something to be said for the social experiences that come from living in a residential campus environment.

I like what you said about “senior year parts 2 and 2.5″ You make it sound like that was awesome (in comparison to “core classes”). I think that’s what Steve Jobs and Clay Burell hit on when they mentioned “dropping in” on classes when they looked interesting. Why waste time and money on fluff when what we really want is to dive into our fields?

Honestly, I think that that’s where most of my frustration comes from. I know that there’s a point to a wide base of competence, but because of the rigid nature of curriculum, there is *always* something that seems (and plenty that is) pointless.

I meant to revise that sentence to make it sound less chastising, but I ran out of time before class. Oh well, at least it’s drummed up some comments.

I got a no-thesis Master’s from GT recently in ECE. It helped me figure out what I wanted to do for a career, and gave me a much greater understanding of the field. It was basically senior year parts 2 and 2.5. So much of the undergraduate curriculum is taken up by core classes, you only have a year or so to really dive into your specialty, if that, so the master’s degree gives students a deeper dive into their field.

I don’t think it’s an especially new option… it wasn’t marketed that way, at least.

In disciplines like ME or ECE at GT, there are so many graduate students that professors often prefer to give their limited research spots to PhD students, who they can depend on for 4+ years, rather than MS students who’ll be gone soon.

I suppose my point is that a no-thesis masters is a valid degree, it’s just a different type of thing, for people with a different type of goal and a different situation.

(I’m a student at Tech too, in case you weren’t sure)

I came down so hard on the no thesis Master’s option because ever since I was little, I’ve heard that writing a thesis is one of the most difficult thing college students face. There’s probably more to the picture than just a lowering of standards (I just haven’t heard it yet, and I’ve brought it up to a number of people at Tech).

I’m not sure if Georgia Tech has multiple Executive Master’s programs, but the EMIL program is rather difficult to get into.