"I mean, Albert Einstein went to, I think, the University of Basel."
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm the German Empire, but moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship. In 1897, at the age of 17, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich), graduating in 1900.
ETH is often called the MIT of Switzerland, and it is usually ranked among the top 10 institutions in Europe. Of course, one of its major claims to fame is that Einstein was a graduate.
He may have thought that many of his professors were idiots, but he later said that one of them, Hermann Minkowski, was a great influence on him. Minkowski was an early proponent of Special relativity and did a great deal of important work on its development
Does this matter? Really matter? Perhaps in some fields, it may. But in many of the social sciences, I think not. If one is arguing that it is important to contribute incrementally to the march of The Enlightenment or even science, is that important? Were the advances of Eli Whitney or Henry Ford that important? Eventually, wouldn't someone have made the same contributions? From Edison to the first Mac to the first “20 meg” Apple hard drive to the Cloud, wasn’t the outcome inevitable?
Covid unleashed from the arrogance of children acting irresponsibly in the name of “science”? The power of Google -- to assist scientific inquiry and/or their practice of censorship and ideological fascism? At the end of your life, can you really claim it mattered that you solved a database sorting glitch that enabled Google's power, or that your personal invention eliminated dial-up modems? So you walked on the moon and brought back dust. Shall we consider the dust as Crypto before its modern iteration? Explain to whom, if anyone, should we really erect statues?
Careers, pedigrees, hard work? One might assume it matters. But who controls the power to hire or fire --- and do they have the intellectual ability to distinguish between those with real talent from those who merely possess the imprimatur of an Ivy degree? Aren’t most decisions made by those who don’t want risks -- those who find solace in the rationale that the quality of a graduate from Harvard or Yale is beyond qualitative doubt?
How many of those who make decisions actually have read, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”? Jordan Peterson, I suspect, certainly would question the wisdom of those who are charged with the power to decide.
I did two years at the local community college while living at home. Then I transferred to UCSB (still living at home) with an hour commute. Got a degree in business economics with focus in accounting
Going to community college first really let's you get your total college costs down, and IMHO, actually gave a better experience because the classes were 30 people instead of 250 person lecture halls. The CC classes really gave me a good understanding of debits and credits. Better than a lot of my peers in accounting classes. And have served me well in my career (CPA and MBA, head of finance at a mid sized company)
If you do CC first, and pick a good major, college definitely pays off. I would also probably stick at a state school unless you can get really good scholarships
Love it Glenn keep focusing on the practicality of a college degree does it work for someone in the inner city with limited means but talent. Keep talking solutions alternatives to our moribund k-12 education systems I say that having attended a 3rd tier state university most of my professors all had name brand degrees.
I know people who graduated from big-time universities, and many are not doing anything with the fancy degree they are educators like myself or worse dropped out of the labor market. They are embarrassed their degree did not pan out for them
However, my friends who majored in STEM regardless of college are outperforming all my liberal arts friends struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
Today I discourage students from the traditional 4-year college I tell them to take the John McWhorter road enroll in vocational or Career Technical Education (CTE) course that is the fast track to the American middle class.
One note on investing, the best book I ever read on it is "Unexpected Returns" By Ed Easterling
Basically you need to understand value (as expressed by PE Ratios) when investing
https://smile.amazon.com/Unexpected-Returns-Understanding-Secular-Market/dp/1879384620/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2VUFXU1F0OPC1&keywords=unexpected+returns+understanding+secular+stock+market+cycles&qid=1644454147&sprefix=unexpected+retu%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-3
"I mean, Albert Einstein went to, I think, the University of Basel."
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm the German Empire, but moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship. In 1897, at the age of 17, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich), graduating in 1900.
ETH is often called the MIT of Switzerland, and it is usually ranked among the top 10 institutions in Europe. Of course, one of its major claims to fame is that Einstein was a graduate.
He may have thought that many of his professors were idiots, but he later said that one of them, Hermann Minkowski, was a great influence on him. Minkowski was an early proponent of Special relativity and did a great deal of important work on its development
We need a new kind of Uni. 2 years max for those not researching. Accelerated and much more practical.
Does this matter? Really matter? Perhaps in some fields, it may. But in many of the social sciences, I think not. If one is arguing that it is important to contribute incrementally to the march of The Enlightenment or even science, is that important? Were the advances of Eli Whitney or Henry Ford that important? Eventually, wouldn't someone have made the same contributions? From Edison to the first Mac to the first “20 meg” Apple hard drive to the Cloud, wasn’t the outcome inevitable?
Covid unleashed from the arrogance of children acting irresponsibly in the name of “science”? The power of Google -- to assist scientific inquiry and/or their practice of censorship and ideological fascism? At the end of your life, can you really claim it mattered that you solved a database sorting glitch that enabled Google's power, or that your personal invention eliminated dial-up modems? So you walked on the moon and brought back dust. Shall we consider the dust as Crypto before its modern iteration? Explain to whom, if anyone, should we really erect statues?
Careers, pedigrees, hard work? One might assume it matters. But who controls the power to hire or fire --- and do they have the intellectual ability to distinguish between those with real talent from those who merely possess the imprimatur of an Ivy degree? Aren’t most decisions made by those who don’t want risks -- those who find solace in the rationale that the quality of a graduate from Harvard or Yale is beyond qualitative doubt?
How many of those who make decisions actually have read, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”? Jordan Peterson, I suspect, certainly would question the wisdom of those who are charged with the power to decide.
I did two years at the local community college while living at home. Then I transferred to UCSB (still living at home) with an hour commute. Got a degree in business economics with focus in accounting
Going to community college first really let's you get your total college costs down, and IMHO, actually gave a better experience because the classes were 30 people instead of 250 person lecture halls. The CC classes really gave me a good understanding of debits and credits. Better than a lot of my peers in accounting classes. And have served me well in my career (CPA and MBA, head of finance at a mid sized company)
If you do CC first, and pick a good major, college definitely pays off. I would also probably stick at a state school unless you can get really good scholarships
Love it Glenn keep focusing on the practicality of a college degree does it work for someone in the inner city with limited means but talent. Keep talking solutions alternatives to our moribund k-12 education systems I say that having attended a 3rd tier state university most of my professors all had name brand degrees.
I know people who graduated from big-time universities, and many are not doing anything with the fancy degree they are educators like myself or worse dropped out of the labor market. They are embarrassed their degree did not pan out for them
However, my friends who majored in STEM regardless of college are outperforming all my liberal arts friends struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
Today I discourage students from the traditional 4-year college I tell them to take the John McWhorter road enroll in vocational or Career Technical Education (CTE) course that is the fast track to the American middle class.
The ROI is not what it used to be with higher tuitions and lower salaries. Have you seen the new President at RISD, right down the street from you? My perspective: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-appoint-a-commissar