Is Stanford Too Close To Silicon Valley? 171
nicholast writes "The New Yorker has a story by Ken Auletta about the connections between Stanford and Silicon Valley. The piece explains how important the university is to tech companies and venture capital firms, but it also questions whether Stanford has become too focused on wealth. 'It's an atmosphere that can be toxic to the mission of the university as a place of refuge, contemplation, and investigation for its own sake,' says one professor. The piece also explains Stanford's conflicted thoughts about distance education, which could transform the university or prove to be a threat to it."
Well, there you have it (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, New Yorker, you really hit the nail on the head there. Foolishly concentrating on marketable skills and useful scholarship, instead of the laudable pursuits like LGBT studies and Russian literature. New York institutions have it right - charge a lot and turn out people who have nothing productive to contribute and nothing better to do than occupy Wall Street (i.e crap in public and shout slogans) and whine about having to pay back their student loans!
Re:Well, there you have it (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, how dare they push out successful engineers!
a misunderstanding of science and engineering (Score:4, Insightful)
It's more than a little insulting when scientists and engineers are painted with the "uncreative and money grubbing" label simply because we work on things that have practical value.
I don't understand why anyone would criticize a university for training students to "serve the public" and for having an unusually happy and diverse student body.
Re:Well, there you have it (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead, they should narrowly-focus only on those vocations which make the most money - professional sports, law, political science, and investment banking. All of those are immensely important jobs and a civilization full of nothing but those professions would be a prosperous one indeed.
I am not defending LBGT studies and Russian literature individually, mind you, but if we ditched any field of study that didn't rain down money upon graduation, we would be much poorer for it.
Re:Such a quaint definition of college... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not wealthy enough to spend $50k on the joys of an abstract education. I need a job to pay for my loans.
Some people are rich, and don't have to care about that. That's great. The rest of us just gotta do what we gotta do.
Re:Well, there you have it (Score:5, Insightful)
Does The Art Institute of Las Vegas teach you how to draw to an inside straight?
Re:Mensa is the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
I have to say that most Mensa members I've met have been people I would consider intelligent, interesting and fun to be around while most of the anti-Mensa folks I've been around (you know, the ones who hate on Mensa and Mensa members) have been boorish, dumber than the average Mensa member and quite frankly not a lot of fun to be around.
Of course, I haven't met every Mensa member (and definitely not every non-member).
Re:Well, there you have it (Score:2, Insightful)
How is this drivel modded Insightful? MBAs, like all other graduates, come in all shapes and sizes. Some are great, some are unproductive
Would you prefer it if all business were run by people who have no formal education in economics, accounting, strategy og business mangement?
Get real.. I know MBAs embody the people that fire and hire you, but this MBA-bashing is childish and it's getting old.
Re:Well, there you have it (Score:0, Insightful)
Because 90% of the people here have no corporate experience above maybe the help(less) desk level. Therefore they think Dilbert Comics from 1994 are a completely accurate description of "PHBs"
Labyrinthine Mind (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a myth. Kids aren't stupid. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, New Yorker, you really hit the nail on the head there. Foolishly concentrating on marketable skills and useful scholarship, instead of the laudable pursuits like LGBT studies and Russian literature. New York institutions have it right - charge a lot and turn out people who have nothing productive to contribute and nothing better to do than occupy Wall Street (i.e crap in public and shout slogans) and whine about having to pay back their student loans!
Look it. Kids aren't stupid. Very few people are stupid enough to beleive the "do what you love and the money will follow."
The job market is soooo bad, there are folks with accounting degrees, engineering degrees and the most surprising to me - nursing degrees - that are unable to get a job. The American Journal of Nursing reported last year that the job market for newly graduated nurses is one of the worst ever. And there's supposed to be a shortage right? Lawyers are having a horrible time too. I haven't seen the stats on new med school grads so I can't comment on that.
And even if you did get into some "marketable" program things change - fast - in this day age. That's what happened to all those nrusing students. Four or five years ago, those kids went to nursing school because that's what they wanted - a marketable and hopefully, a guaranteed job. They graduted in '11 and low and behold over half of them can't get jobs. And there's even more people currently in school because the word hasn't gotten out. Yes, we will have a glut of nurses in a fe short years and folks will be saying, "Gee! Why didn't they get a degree in something marketable!? Morons!"
Back in the 80s there were people studying Chinese lterature. The had to learn to read and speak Manderin. Then the 90s came and globalization - and all that trade with China. In the 80s I remember folks studying math. And back then, if you weren't actuarial, you would have to teach - it wasn't that marketable. (Actuarial is TOUGH. I've seen people wash out of that and go to engineering school for something easier.) Then the 90s came and search engines and applications that were math intensive. All of a suddent a math degree was the thing to get.
What's "marketable" today could very well be saturated or have no market in a few years.
Re:Mensa is the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to say that most Mensa members I've met have been people I would consider intelligent, interesting and fun to be around
I have to say that everyone who has told me they are a MENSA member has been boorish and quite frankly not a lot of fun to be around no matter how intelligent they might be. When you have to tell people that you belong to a club for supposedly smart people, you aren't one. You're merely clever.
Re:Well, there you have it (Score:5, Insightful)
Computer Science is running software at peak efficiency.
Hearing pearls like this makes me suspect that some professions and degrees are actually mental diseases.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)