alassehz

I heard the same intro speech during 2007 and 2009. It's their stamp to show their diversity statement

Highlights parallelism performance in an entertaining way

By grad school do you mean a master or PhD? Mostly in technical fields, you get stipends once you are in a PhD program; however, for masters is a whole different story. Have also looked into applying to scholarships or fellowships?

filed under "useful but morally grey." It makes me wonder though would people be satisfied? It seems that there is always something shinning but you are not to grasp it ever. I don't think I could work this way if I were in such situation I would probably quit. I do understand though that there are constraints that keep such mechanism at work, but what can we do about it?

Education is the most beneficial for those who can do the economic an social leap from a hard background (Kudos by the way). I would like to add that in college in a same major or field you are more likely to find people who are similar minded. Who knows your next co-founder could be sitting right next to you.

Would you really say intellectual freedom is truly achieved only once the material has been achieved?

I would argue that there is a threshold for this material mastery. I don't think is necessary for it to be exorbitantly rich. I can look at researchers who enjoy their work, and are working on problems interesting to them. They usually don't have a big monetary profit. Just a thought