Way to go Seattle (Bellevue, Bothell: credit, buy, high school)

[Gentoo]

This may have been discussed before but I don't remember. Or it may be just a "duh we know that moment" for most of you. However, Seattle is now considered the smartest city in the country.

America's smartest cities - Aug. 31, 2006

I love seeing Seattle and San Francisco in the top two spots

[Gentoo]

Oh wow 2006, yeah didn't know it was that old. I'm sure this has been discussed. My bad

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Oh wow 2006, yeah didn't know it was that old. I'm sure this has been discussed. My bad

It's been discussed, but why stop now?
I like living around educated people, but I'm not one who equates education with intelligence. I know people with PhDs who have not a whit of smarts (they know physics, but can't operate a vacuum cleaner without tripping over their own feet, or cook an egg), and I know some brilliant folks who dropped out of high school. But all in all, I'm a happier person if I'm not completely surrounded by high school dropouts. Some of them might be brilliant, but plenty of 'em aren't. I'm not sure I'd want to live in an area where everyone had a PhD either.
I like to be able to happily BS with neighbors, and I might feel intimidated surrounded by such big brainiacs.

[Anders15]

Well I have a question. I am in a community college here in the south. I plan to move to the Seattle area and attend a community college there. I've already applied and accepted. My question is that because I am having a hard time with school here, will it be better there? The way I see it either I will do A LOT better assuming the factors are because of better resources and teachers or fail miserably because I am not a brain and not able to keep up with already smarter kids in Seattle. It sounds like something only I would know the answer to at first, but considering your city is the smartest of the nation it must be a lot more than an individual factor.

My school is very unorganized. Without making a 8 paragraph rant i will instead note that for example we have teachers who teach beginner classes ALSO teaching more advanced. For example intro to Chem teachers also teach Chem 2 or even 3 and expect a lot more from us and often forget we are JUST starting out with 0 experience. Also these same teachers usually work at the nearby university VCU.. which has 'standards' a lot higher than a community college intro class if you know what I mean. Here there are two community colleges and then the university VCU. That's it. I feel often a lot gets lost in translation. Like I said there are a lot of other factors why I detest this place but I'm hoping to get reasons as to WHY Seattle (colleges) work. Why are so many people successful there opposed to, say.. my school system?

Is the success accredited to Seattle's schools greater than the individual student and their goals? Perhaps better tutoring programs, great material, donations towards more resources, lighter work loads, friendlier students? Can you contribute it to actual good caring/motivated teachers, organized schools and such? I've never had that experience so it is hard for me to put this into perspective. I'm just frustrated trying my best here and getting no where (or falling farther behind) I'd like to read on exactly what makes the Seattle school experience better.

[Inkpoe]

This is the updated list. Seattle is still in the top 10... ranked #9. I guess that's still good.

America's brainiest places to live - Oct. 1, 2010

To Anders15, I think you're overthinking this. All of us can say whatever but its not going to make you feel better or more confident about your decision--- you just never know until you experience it yourself.

I've attended Seattle U, UW Bothell and Bellevue (Community) College... I've also left the state to attend UNLV. I liked BCC and Seattle U the best-- even though I did have *some* horrible teachers at those schools. My experiences at UW Bothell doesn't necessarily translate or apply to today because at the time I've went there, it was brand new and only had like... 7 degrees to hand out/graduate from (Now it's much more and a bigger school). All I am saying is try your best here, find the school with the program you're interested in (make sure to check the reviews of the program itself, not the school), roll with the punches and achieve.

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by Inkpoe

This is the updated list. Seattle is still in the top 10... ranked #9. I guess that's still good.

America's brainiest places to live - Oct. 1, 2010

To Anders15, I think you're overthinking this. All of us can say whatever but its not going to make you feel better or more confident about your decision--- you just never know until you experience it yourself.

I've attended Seattle U, UW Bothell and Bellevue (Community) College... I've also left the state to attend UNLV. I liked BCC and Seattle U the best-- even though I did have *some* horrible teachers at those schools. My experiences at UW Bothell doesn't necessarily translate or apply to today because at the time I've went there, it was brand new and only had like... 7 degrees to hand out/graduate from (Now it's much more and a bigger school). All I am saying is try your best here, find the school with the program you're interested in (make sure to check the reviews of the program itself, not the school), roll with the punches and achieve.

FWIW, The first school my dad went to was NSCC. He went on to get a master's at Yale and a PhD at Harvard. He said that some of the professors he had at NSCC were exponentially more thoughtful, approachable, informative, and generally worth attending the classes of than some of the world-renowned professors at Harvard.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Ira500

It's been discussed, but why stop now?
I like living around educated people, but I'm not one who equates education with intelligence. I know people with PhDs who have not a whit of smarts (they know physics, but can't operate a vacuum cleaner without tripping over their own feet, or cook an egg), and I know some brilliant folks who dropped out of high school. But all in all, I'm a happier person if I'm not completely surrounded by high school dropouts. Some of them might be brilliant, but plenty of 'em aren't. I'm not sure I'd want to live in an area where everyone had a PhD either.
I like to be able to happily BS with neighbors, and I might feel intimidated surrounded by such big brainiacs.

That makes sense. Especially the book-smart but no common sense analogy. I used to work in an environment where everyone was really smart academically but were clueless about everything else. Definitely makes for some rather lame interactions.

In think in Seattle as well as other places (SF and SD as well) we live in areas where we can just have a good time despite being ranked the smartest. Imagine if we were in one of the not so smart places.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Inkpoe

This is the updated list. Seattle is still in the top 10... ranked #9. I guess that's still good.

America's brainiest places to live - Oct. 1, 2010

To Anders15, I think you're overthinking this. All of us can say whatever but its not going to make you feel better or more confident about your decision--- you just never know until you experience it yourself.

I've attended Seattle U, UW Bothell and Bellevue (Community) College... I've also left the state to attend UNLV. I liked BCC and Seattle U the best-- even though I did have *some* horrible teachers at those schools. My experiences at UW Bothell doesn't necessarily translate or apply to today because at the time I've went there, it was brand new and only had like... 7 degrees to hand out/graduate from (Now it's much more and a bigger school). All I am saying is try your best here, find the school with the program you're interested in (make sure to check the reviews of the program itself, not the school), roll with the punches and achieve.

Thanks for the update. SF is still number 2 I see.

[Rawcoon]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

That makes sense. Especially the book-smart but no common sense analogy. I used to work in an environment where everyone was really smart academically but were clueless about everything else. Definitely makes for some rather lame interactions.

I understood the essence of Ira500's argument, but I think he/she exaggerated it too much. There are many types of intelligence, or "smarts", so I do equate, for example, a medical education with "health intelligence".

Originally Posted by Ira500

I know people with PhDs who have not a whit of smarts (they know physics, but can't operate a vacuum cleaner without tripping over their own feet, or cook an egg)

This is like expecting a math professor to be able to beat an elementary student at a spelling bee when the kid has been practicing all month for it. A lack of coordination, for example, is not a lack of "smarts". It's better to define, specifically, what type of "smarts" we'd like to measure a person by.

I also don't buy into the "book-smart but no common sense" rhetoric, since 'common sense' itself is debatable. Common sense is something you expect everyone around you to know. You can make fun of a stranger for not having common sense, not knowing that he was raised to approach things differently from you.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Rawcoon

I understood the essence of Ira500's argument, but I think he/she exaggerated it too much. There are many types of intelligence, or "smarts", so I do equate, for example, a medical education with "health intelligence".



This is like expecting a math professor to be able to beat an elementary student at a spelling bee when the kid has been practicing all month for it. A lack of coordination, for example, is not a lack of "smarts". It's better to define, specifically, what type of "smarts" we'd like to measure a person by.

I also don't buy into the "book-smart but no common sense" rhetoric, since 'common sense' itself is debatable. Common sense is something you expect everyone around you to know. You can make fun of a stranger for not having common sense, not knowing that he was raised to approach things differently from you.

I don't think your comparisons were the same as ours. Ira didn't make the book smart to common sense remark, I did.