College admissions scandal: some non-locals seem to think UCLA and USC are mediocre "state" schools? (Los Angeles: home, colleges)

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by NyWriterdude

US News currently ranks Princeton number one, Harvard number two, and Columbia number three.

Particularly with graduate programs, depending on what you need to study in some Ivies may not have those graduate degrees. The only education departments (graduate) in the Ivy League are Harvard, Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania.

Want to go to vet school? I think one pretty much has to go to Cornell for that.

Princeton doesn't have a law school.

The best vet school is at a public state university - UC Davis.

[Taksan]

I’m not a school snob ... I went to a Yale ... post Grad at Harvard too ...
I learned absolutely nothing... zero... zilch that was meaningful to my business career at these schools that I would not have learned at a Community college.

I’ve got a daughter who went to NYU med school (where she claims to have learned something) and is now doing a post graduate program in Radiology at UCLA.

I’ve got another daughter who is currently at NYU showing interest in doing post graduate degree at UCLA too.
I’ve got no idea why parents would bribe or manoeuvre in any way to get their child any preferred treatment because to me it’s very bad parenting. You want your child to discover that anything they achieve is through their own efforts.
I’ve told my daughters I will pay for their education and their expenses whilst getting their education what they do with it is up to them.

[CA4Now]

Lori Loughlin's daughters, 19 and 20, are still enrolled at USC.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...326-story.html

[PamelaIamela]

Does anyone other than me DESPISE US News blah-blah college rankings?
And what exactly makes a 'better' school?
Most endowments?
Very low acceptance rates?
Does the educational quality ever get evaluated with some uniform metric?

I believe the whole educational system in this country is broke bad for most kids and for most employers.
Half the 'students' that are clawing to get in don't belong in college academics!
They only want either The Paper or to be drafted by the NBA the NFL or MLB.
Actually, I have come to think of the college athletics --> professional sport career as actually more honest in the end!
And the ivory tower academics are laughing all the way to the bank.
Whodathunk?

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by PamelaIamela

Does anyone other than me DESPISE US News blah-blah college rankings?
And what exactly makes a 'better' school?
Most endowments?
Very low acceptance rates?
Does the educational quality ever get evaluated with some uniform metric?

I believe the whole educational system in this country is broke bad for most kids and for most employers.
Half the 'students' that are clawing to get in don't belong in college academics!
They only want either The Paper or to be drafted by the NBA the NFL or MLB.
Actually, I have come to think of the college athletics --> professional sport career as actually more honest in the end!
And the ivory tower academics are laughing all the way to the bank.
Whodathunk?

I agree with you about most of your comments here. As far as sports though, you are talking a small amount of people that take a lot of news space because of the high profile nature of professional sports. For example USC had 11 players drafted into the 2009 NFL draft. IN 2018 the number was 4 former players. The NBA drafted two Trojans in 2018. With 20,000 or so undergrads at USC you have a minute segment of students that will become part of a professional sports team.

To get into a school like USC you have to have done a lot of work in the High School level. It is not easy to get in if you don't have an Aunt Becky or your dad didn't donate $70 million to the school. The majority of the students had to work hard to get into the school.

What I have a problem with is the many schools that are graduating Sociology majors or some other kind of degree that does not have a way to pay off the huge cost of going to school.

[PamelaIamela]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

I agree with you about most of your comments here. As far as sports though, you are talking a small amount of people that take a lot of news space because of the high profile nature of professional sports. For example USC had 11 players drafted into the 2009 NFL draft. IN 2018 the number was 4 former players. The NBA drafted two Trojans in 2018. With 20,000 or so undergrads at USC you have a minute segment of students that will become part of a professional sports team.

To get into a school like USC you have to have done a lot of work in the High School level. It is not easy to get in if you don't have an Aunt Becky or your dad didn't donate $70 million to the school. The majority of the students had to work hard to get into the school.

What I have a problem with is the many schools that are graduating Sociology majors or some other kind of degree that does not have a way to pay off the huge cost of going to school.

And I agree with most of your comments as well.

Shoddy paper degrees will come back to haunt many young folks whether they worked hard to get in or not.
They are often in debt after 5+ years obtaining a BA that sadly contains but 3 yrs of actual college level substance.

And the true 'athlete-scholar' is a virtual unicorn nowadays.
But hope springs eternal in so many of these kids, most of whom will NOT make the big bucks in the pros. What's worse is that nowadays the cream of their crop declare in their (red-shirted) junior year, so NO SOUP FOR THEM, unless they make it higher than the practice squad.

The global-structural-technological changes to the economic and social spheres have been occuring relentlessly fast, with no end in sight. Our educational system, in the context of over-stressed cultural values which place a heavier emphasis on money-as-status, is not serving the average people well. Nor do they even appear to be trying.

And if we do not rectify these polarizing imbalances I fear the future will be a minefield.
For all I know it may already be too late.

[Veritas Vincit]

People pay that money just to get a useless BA because they feel that even a useless BA can beat out not having a BA in the first place. A bachelor's degree today is basically a ticket to be admitted to a competition that encompasses half the workforce. It doesn't mean much beyond that; it literally just allows you to participate. Success or failure are decided by actions taken beyond that. This leaves people in a position where it is known that a bachelor doesn't promise a good career but they also feel that they definitively need it nevertheless. So people feel forced to pay a lot of money just to play a game with a highly uncertain outcome...no wonder many feel ripped off.


Universities are complicit in this because they get to act as highly compensated gatekeepers. And because they know that the substance of what they teach is irrelevant for most applications there's little incentive to ensure any sort of quality on their part. The student gets their little BA that they wanted so they can apply to be a paper pusher somewhere and the school gets a ton of money. It's a racket.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by Veritas Vincit

People pay that money just to get a useless BA because they feel that even a useless BA can beat out not having a BA in the first place. A bachelor's degree today is basically a ticket to be admitted to a competition that encompasses half the workforce. It doesn't mean much beyond that; it literally just allows you to participate. Success or failure are decided by actions taken beyond that. This leaves people in a position where it is known that a bachelor doesn't promise a good career but they also feel that they definitively need it nevertheless. So people feel forced to pay a lot of money just to play a game with a highly uncertain outcome...no wonder many feel ripped off.


Universities are complicit in this because they get to act as highly compensated gatekeepers. And because they know that the substance of what they teach is irrelevant for most applications there's little incentive to ensure any sort of quality on their part. The student gets their little BA that they wanted so they can apply to be a paper pusher somewhere and the school gets a ton of money. It's a racket.

Here's the matter - BA/BS degrees aren't vocational institutes - and students should approach it in a way that what they're doing is to learn how to think, analyze, and communicate your thoughts/ideas in an effective manner. That's the global or overall big picture of a college degree.

At the same time, students should also ensure that they pick up work related skills that may not necessarily be related directly to their field of study. This means they should be making contacts and always be thinking of getting practical experience such as internships and other work that will help pave the way to future marketability once they're graduated.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by PamelaIamela

Does anyone other than me DESPISE US News blah-blah college rankings?
And what exactly makes a 'better' school?
Most endowments?
Very low acceptance rates?
Does the educational quality ever get evaluated with some uniform metric?

I believe the whole educational system in this country is broke bad for most kids and for most employers.
Half the 'students' that are clawing to get in don't belong in college academics!
They only want either The Paper or to be drafted by the NBA the NFL or MLB.
Actually, I have come to think of the college athletics --> professional sport career as actually more honest in the end!
And the ivory tower academics are laughing all the way to the bank.
Whodathunk?

Oh, I hear ya. USNWR is basically a beauty contest that says little about the "fit" of the schools to individual students's needs and suitability. Which is why some schools like Reed refuse to participate in it IIRC.

[PamelaIamela]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Oh, I hear ya. USNWR is basically a beauty contest that says little about the "fit" of the schools to individual students's needs and suitability. Which is why some schools like Reed refuse to participate in it IIRC.

Now if some big name brands (MIT, Columbia, Stanford, etc.) drop out watch the USNWR Rating house of cards collapse!