Comments on: The Ivy league as conspicuous consumption.

By: Hearthrose

Fri, 07 Mar 2014 15:20:00 +0000

I’m reminded of my first-year psych teacher… liked to wear miniskirts and thigh-high boots to teach class….

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By: chrisgale

Fri, 07 Mar 2014 01:24:00 +0000

H is Hirsch Index: the number of papers you have published with more than than number of paper’s citations.
Not Hotness. One of my co authors wins that most years from the medical students — she was a beauty when she was young.

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By: Hearthrose

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 22:25:00 +0000

Sounds stressful, although since I am a Californian … I’m vaguely wondering what H stands for. Hotness? (Yes. There are sites that rate professors by their hotness here). Hubris? Haughtiness? Hovering? -grins mischieviously-

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By: chrisgale

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 03:43:00 +0000

What happens down a layer or two in the ecosystem where I live is that there is external audit and certification of your training — both content and process, in addition to pressure to have high quality teaching. Let’s just say that my h-factor is monitored, as is my teaching.

FWIW, my university (Otago) is in the top 300 or better on all the ranking systems.

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By: Hearthrose

Wed, 05 Mar 2014 20:36:00 +0000

Status symbol bags have no greater functional value than a regular purse. Substantially less aesthetic value than *my* purse, which is tooled leather covered with roses.

Education, on the other hand, has intrinsic value, and at least in theory, better schools give better value – like buying real leather instead of pleather. BUT – just as the chi-chi stores now sell pleather purses (why?) so do the chi-chi schools offer watered down degrees.

Presently you’re paying only for the name, not for the content. And when people start noticing that (they have) then people will leave the names in the dust and start looking for content once again. There will be mistakes (vintage bags don’t stand up to daily use, the leather’s rotted in storage) but eventually we’ll sort out something that gives true value once again. That may mean your mother goes to Mexico to find people still making the old purses… or you figure out how to get that one-on-one education that the elite valued 75 years ago… but intrinsic value will be found out and win in the end.

The transition, as all transitions are, will probably be messy.

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