Peter Thiel Is Wrong About Higher Education (It’s Worse Than A Bubble)

Re:Peter Thiel Is Wrong About Higher Education (It’s Worse T... by joshhart on Monday April 18, 2011 @06:12PM (#2460948)

How do you equate poor performance on a standardized test with being less fortunate? It's my opinion that university admissions are way to lenient and that we'd do well to ratchet them up a major notch.

Let community colleges serve their purpose. University studies should be for serious students capable of academic work.

I brought up my score in this because it's the comparison most relevant to me.

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Re:Peter Thiel Is Wrong About Higher Education (It’s Worse T... by hugh3 on Monday April 18, 2011 @06:27PM (#2461002)

How do you equate poor performance on a standardized test with being less fortunate?

I'm sorry, are you under the impression that you were a smart twelve-year-old for some reason other than that you happened to draw some good cards from the gene pool? Feeling superior to others for being smarter is like feeling superior to others for being better-looking or having richer parents. It's just dickish. (edit: or perhaps I should say it's normal, but best kept to yourself lest folks think you're a dick)

It's my opinion that university admissions are way to lenient

If you are going to play the game where you mock those whom you consider to be intellectually inferior it's best to master the difference between "to" and "too" first.

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Re:Peter Thiel Is Wrong About Higher Education (It’s Worse T... by joshhart on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @11:09AM (#2462794)

I think I was a smart twelve year old for several reasons, actually. There's the genetic component, but there's also the time I spent in MathCounts (probably the best investment I or my parents have ever made) and the time I spent reading books. Standardized tests measure both what you've learned and your critical thinking ability. I believe neither of those are predetermined at birth.

I'm actually not trying to mock others. I simply believe that university standards should be a lot harder because schools could teach many subjects a lot faster and the investment of time and money from the students would be much better spent.

Regarding "to" versus "too" - I was on an airplane with a fair bit of turbulence so I'm surprised that's my only mistake.

I got a lot of downvotes for what I said and granted I could have said it a lot better, but a system where every individual goes to college is completely broken unless university bound students are much better prepared in terms of critical thinking ability, mathematical ability, reading/writing skills, and study habits than they are today.

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Re:Peter Thiel Is Wrong About Higher Education (It’s Worse T... by bartonfink on Monday April 18, 2011 @06:38PM (#2461032)

I say that because there are so many factors outside of the tester's control that "fortunate" is the best word I can think of to describe success/failure. Someone could have been born without whatever genetic pedigree would help them score better, which is pure chance. Someone could have been born into a family situation which precluded them from a serious academic regimen which would enable them to score better, which is pure chance. Someone could have taken the test at a location where some asshole flushed a cherry bomb that morning and blew up the one toilet available for test takers (that happened when I took the SAT), and the resulting distraction could have impacted their score. Because of this, I don't believe performance on a standardized test correlates with anything meaningful. I certainly don't believe your ACT score in 7th grade is meaningful in any way. I think you're really just starting a pissing contest with the unfortunate side effect that everybody here has to get wet. Don't do that.

From the provided citation, it seems that the 75% SAT score is 1200 without the new writing section. That would be 200 points above the standardized average, which means that your point that most of the school exhibits poor academic performance is patent bullshit. It may not be MIT, but Linfield College surely has its place and it is certainly not your place to throw your weight around like you're Scott Aaronson and claim that the college is incapable of academic work. Go out and do something worthwhile instead of insulting strangers.

For the record, I have not taken the ACT but I have taken the SAT, the GRE and the Stanford-Binet IQ test. My scores on each were high enough that they render the tests virtually meaningless when it comes to measuring my "intelligence." They have no more measure of "intelligence" than my golf handicap or mile time have of my "athleticism."

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