I was a college professor, and let me tell you, many of his peers approve of what he did.
I am also a former prof and I agree with you. Most people posting here do not seem to have a strong grasp of what a tenured/track faculty member does at an R1 school.
The issue with rankings is not so much whether they accurately represent the school, but the shenanigans that will occur in the pursuit of higher rankings.
Flagpole - you couldn’t be more wrong. There is much more value in exposing the process at Columbia than Southern Illinois because, well, Columbia is newsworthy. Pursuit of rankings leads to administrator proliferation with higher costs passed on to the students. It dilutes programs and impinges on academic freedom. All of these things negatively impact students. They guy doing this is providing a template by which we could get rid of this ‘cancer’ as you’ve put it.
But if we didn't have these rankings how could flagpole brag about his kids getting into elite universities?
College administration used to be made up mostly of academics, but the academics are increasingly being replaced by people with business backgrounds and degrees in education administration. With that change, the people making college-wide decisions are putting more emphasis on money matters, and this often conflicts with the mission of educating students. For example at my public community college there’s steady pressure from administration onto faculty to relax grading standards, in order to allow worse prepared students to achieve passing grades (and presumably to increase the population of tuition-paying students). This new business focus is creating an increasingly adversarial relationship between administration and faculty, and I think that’s a trend across the country. More and more, faculty and administration have different objectives.
College administration used to be made up mostly of academics, but the academics are increasingly being replaced by people with business backgrounds and degrees in education administration. With that change, the people making college-wide decisions are putting more emphasis on money matters, and this often conflicts with the mission of educating students. For example at my public community college there’s steady pressure from administration onto faculty to relax grading standards, in order to allow worse prepared students to achieve passing grades (and presumably to increase the population of tuition-paying students). This new business focus is creating an increasingly adversarial relationship between administration and faculty, and I think that’s a trend across the country. More and more, faculty and administration have different objectives.
HS runner with outstanding times asks, "Which program should I select?"
Average LRC poster: Go where you have a great coach; outstanding facilities; a large group of experienced and qualified support staffers; very good culture; and top-tier teammates who will challenge you and provide a good standard by which you can measure yourself.
** YET **
HS student with outstanding academics talks about going to an Ivy.
Same LRC poster: You just want to brag about being in an "elite" university where you'll get no better education than you could have gotten at just about any school.
Here is an article. I love the guy who wrote it, former Rhodes scholar Michael Thaddeus who is a math prof.
“I do actually have the best interests of the institution at heart, even though it might not seem that way,” he explained. “The way I look at it is it’s only fair to hold Columbia’s administration to the same standards of integrity as we hold our students to.”
It reminds me of WADA and doping. We have to hold them to high standards.
What a dumb@ss and a punk. Who gives a sh!t where colleges are ranked by US News and World Report? Columbia is an Ivy League school. I don't care if it's ranked 2nd or 20th. It's still a great school, and more importantly, it brings in great students, so if you are a student you are surrounded by other stellar students, and the degree gives you opportunity that not ALL degrees from other colleges do.
Anyone with half a brain knows that any ranking of colleges is mostly subjective. Yes, there are some objective things that go into it, but this math professor should not give a crap.
He's a bit self-important if you ask me. Absolutely NO REASON for him to write that. If I were a member of the university higher ups, I'd be looking for ways to get rid of him. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. There are reasons to push back on an employer...this ain't one of them. What an a$hole.
So instead of executing the message (that Columbia should be truthful), Flagpole wants to execute the messenger.
What a dumb@ss and a punk. Who gives a sh!t where colleges are ranked by US News and World Report? Columbia is an Ivy League school. I don't care if it's ranked 2nd or 20th. It's still a great school, and more importantly, it brings in great students, so if you are a student you are surrounded by other stellar students, and the degree gives you opportunity that not ALL degrees from other colleges do.
Anyone with half a brain knows that any ranking of colleges is mostly subjective. Yes, there are some objective things that go into it, but this math professor should not give a crap.
He's a bit self-important if you ask me. Absolutely NO REASON for him to write that. If I were a member of the university higher ups, I'd be looking for ways to get rid of him. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. There are reasons to push back on an employer...this ain't one of them. What an a$hole.
So instead of executing the message (that Columbia should be truthful), Flagpole wants to execute the messenger.
You don't sh!t where you eat. Just no reason whatsoever for that professor to have written that.
I went to a decently ranked college (fringe top 20) before transferring to a far better one. The education was slightly better, but the quality of students was far superior.
You don't sh!t where you eat. Just no reason whatsoever for that professor to have written that.
Dude realized he was in a toilet, so he was well within his right and reason to point out the sh!it.
Nah. He's a self-important a-hole who thinks no one else knows the rankings are subjective at best. Columbia is a great university, not due to its ranking but due to the professors (other than this loser) who are there, the opportunities for students who are there, the students who surround the students who are there, the money that is there that allows for basically no limits to what the students there can do and learn.
ALL universities do things to try to tweak their rankings INCLUDING encouraging scores of students to apply there who have no shot at getting in so that they can boast of a low acceptance rate.
Dude realized he was in a toilet, so he was well within his right and reason to point out the sh!it.
Nah. He's a self-important a-hole who thinks no one else knows the rankings are subjective at best. Columbia is a great university, not due to its ranking but due to the professors (other than this loser) who are there, the opportunities for students who are there, the students who surround the students who are there, the money that is there that allows for basically no limits to what the students there can do and learn.
ALL universities do things to try to tweak their rankings INCLUDING encouraging scores of students to apply there who have no shot at getting in so that they can boast of a low acceptance rate.
Unfortunately, the people who least understand the subjectivity of the rankings are the people that use them to make college choices. So Thaddeus did these people a service by bringing a little intellectual honesty to the game.
And not ALL universities do things to try to tweak their rankings. There are some that simply refuse to play the ranking game, like my alma mater.
Nah. He's a self-important a-hole who thinks no one else knows the rankings are subjective at best. Columbia is a great university, not due to its ranking but due to the professors (other than this loser) who are there, the opportunities for students who are there, the students who surround the students who are there, the money that is there that allows for basically no limits to what the students there can do and learn.
ALL universities do things to try to tweak their rankings INCLUDING encouraging scores of students to apply there who have no shot at getting in so that they can boast of a low acceptance rate.
Unfortunately, the people who least understand the subjectivity of the rankings are the people that use them to make college choices. So Thaddeus did these people a service by bringing a little intellectual honesty to the game.
And not ALL universities do things to try to tweak their rankings. There are some that simply refuse to play the ranking game, like my alma mater.
Reed is an outlier. You can use Reed to make this point.
Unfortunately, the people who least understand the subjectivity of the rankings are the people that use them to make college choices. So Thaddeus did these people a service by bringing a little intellectual honesty to the game.
And not ALL universities do things to try to tweak their rankings. There are some that simply refuse to play the ranking game, like my alma mater.
Reed is an outlier. You can use Reed to make this point.
I was a STEM graduate student and TA at Yale. The grade inflation and academic dishonesty at the undergraduate level is iiiiiiiiinnnnnnsssaaaaaaaaaaanneeeee! Anything to keep that legacy money rolling in.
I was a STEM graduate student and TA at Yale. The grade inflation and academic dishonesty at the undergraduate level is iiiiiiiiinnnnnnsssaaaaaaaaaaanneeeee! Anything to keep that legacy money rolling in.
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