Best Politics Program!?

College Search & Selection
21

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sakky, you left out a few BC grads who dabbled in Mass. politics. Robert Drinan, Kevin White, John McLaughlin, Nicholas Burns, and Thomas Reilly come to mind.

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<p>I also left out quite a few Harvard grads who also dabbled in Mass. politics. What's your point? I think we should restrict ourselves to people who actually have significant involvement in Massachusetts politics. For example, if you want to talk about Tom Reilly, current AG of Massachusetts, then I could talk about Harvard grad Elliot Richardson, former AG of Massachusetts - and later AG of the entire country (among the record 4 Federal Cabinet departments he led). If you want to talk about former Congressman Drinan, then I could just as easily talk about the many former Congressman who graduated from Harvard, i.e. Joseph Kennedy (son of RFK). </p>

<p>Either way you want to look at it, under any reasonable and fairly applied criteria, Harvard is going to have had more Massachusetts politicians than BC has had. </p>

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And, ah, if you have to resort to mentioning Barney "How'd this manwhore get in my house?" Frank and Teddy "Wheah ah my pants?" Kennedy....

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<p>It's not like the BC-bred politicians have been exactly free of controversy. For example, John Kerry voted for a spending bill before he voted against it, and still claims to having spent Christmas in Cambodia seared into his memory. And what of Paul Celucci revealed to be having a small fortune in credit card debt while preaching fiscal austerity to the state, or his tenure as one of the most hated Ambassadors to Canada in history (and Canadians don't hate anything). </p>

<p>Look, this is politics. You can always dig up dirty stuff on any politico. But that's not relevant. What is relevant is that, scandal or not, the state keeps electing these guys. Ted Kennedy may be a bloviating drunk, but he's a bloviating drunk who keeps getting elected. Barney Frank may have been an unsuspecting pimp, but he's an unsuspecting pimp who keeps getting elected.</p>

22

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And, even if you do survive that, you are still majoring in economics at a school that is 95% science majors. No knock on MIT, but there are probably places where majoring in poli sci or non-math oriented economics would be more fun.

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<p>Uh, I didn't realize that we were picking schools for their 'fun' factor. I thought we were selecting schools for the quality of the education. If what you want is fun, then heck, by all means, the OP should choose some creampuff no-name fourth-tier school where he'll be able to get straight A's while doing nothing but partying. Or go to a school like the University of Hawaii where you can spend all day, every day tanning yourself on the beach. You won't learn much, but it will definitely be fun.</p>

<p>Look, the OP asked about economics, and the truth is, economics is now a highly mathematical discipline - clearly the most mathematical of all of the social sciences. Many of the Nobel Prize winners in Economics, like John Nash of Beautiful Mind fame, are not really economists, they're really mathematicians. Nash got his PhD from Princeton not in Econ, but in Math. It just so happens that his work has many applications to economics. Last year's Nobel Econ co-winner, Robert Aumann, is also a mathematician (PhD in math from MIT). The point is, if you don't like math, you shouldn't be thinking of majoring in economics not just at MIT, but at ANY school. After all, no matter what school you're at, if you major in Economics, you're going to find yourself waist-deep in math.</p>

23

<p>Furman university has an excellent undergraduate political science department...</p>

24

<p>sakky, if you want to stick to your claim that the various Kennedys and Barney Frank are good examples of the politicians that Harvard has bestowed on the Commonwealth, be my guest. </p>

<p>Also, you've obviously never lived in Canada. They often hate Americans. My mother was from Canada and I spent many a summer in Ontario at my grandmother's place getting the fisheye from locals. And when I was studying at the U of Toronto, a professor from France pulled me aside and told me be careful, as just below the surface Canadians tend to have a burning hatred for Americans. I live in the Detroit area, and we all get the main Canadian TV network here. Watching their news coverage of the US would surprise people who think Canadians don't hate anything.</p>

25

<p>
[quote]
sakky, if you want to stick to your claim that the various Kennedys and Barney Frank are good examples of the politicians that Harvard has bestowed on the Commonwealth, be my guest

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<p>I never said that they were 'good' examples. I just said that they were examples of powerful politicians. This isn't a morality contest here. Whether you or I think they are good is irrelevant. What is relevant is that THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS think they are good. You might think that the people are being foolish, but hey, people have the right to be foolish. </p>

<p>Personally, I think the Harvard brand-name is overrated. But the fact is, whether we like it or not, it is the most powerful brand name in higher education. So, the logical conclusion is that people should prefer Harvard over BC if, for no other reason, than to be able to fool people with the brand name. But the purpose of a college is not really to teach you ethics. That's something that you have to pick up from your family and/or your religion or your personal conscience. All a college can do is help you get into a position of power. What you choose to do with that power is up to you. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Also, you've obviously never lived in Canada. They often hate Americans. My mother was from Canada and I spent many a summer in Ontario at my grandmother's place getting the fisheye from locals. And when I was studying at the U of Toronto, a professor from France pulled me aside and told me be careful, as just below the surface Canadians tend to have a burning hatred for Americans. I live in the Detroit area, and we all get the main Canadian TV network here. Watching their news coverage of the US would surprise people who think Canadians don't hate anything

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<p>Uh, trust me, you REALLY REALLY DON'T want to challenge me on my Canadian credentials, as honestly, I think mine are better than yours. I deliberately exaggerated in my last post, but you know what I mean. Canadians are pretty mild-mannered compared to most cultures. You're not going to find the intense anti-Americanism (or anti-any country) in Canada that you will find in many other countries. I would characterize Canadians as being often times annoyed by Americans, but certainly not 'hateful' of them. Nazi treatment of the Jews? That's hate. Stalin's treatment of minority groups of the USSR? Hate. Treatment of the various ethic groups in Bosnia to each other in the mid 90's? Hate. The treatment of Tutsis by Hutu's in Rwanda in 1994? Hate. Even in the present day - what's going on in Darfur is hate. </p>

<p>Canadians are often times annoyed and irritated by Americans (as many people around the world are), but to say that they truly hate them? Come on, that's way too strong. Are there going to be concentration camps, torture, and mass roundups and slayings of Americans by Canadians? THAT would be hate.</p>

26

<p>sakky, there's NO doubt that for national or international politics, Harvard alums and professors dominate. But I think a lot of people outside of Massachusetts would think that the same applies to Boston and Massachusetts politics. And that just isn't so. Outside of a few recent and long-ago blueblood governors and a few farcical members of congress, Harvard has underperformed and BC has overperformed.</p>

<p>Wow, sorry I challenged your Canadian credentials. Please don't send the Canadian Forces after me until I get my BB gun fixed.</p>

<p>Well, if you put the "hate bar" THAT high, yeah. I gotta admit that I don't recall the RCMP rounding up all the folks wearing NY Yankees hats in Saskatoon and forcing them into a burning McDonald's. You win the Strawman of the Day award. But booing the American national anthem at hockey games?</p>

27

<p>
[quote]
sakky, there's NO doubt that for national or international politics, Harvard alums and professors dominate. But I think a lot of people outside of Massachusetts would think that the same applies to Boston and Massachusetts politics. And that just isn't so. Outside of a few recent and long-ago blueblood governors and a few farcical members of congress, Harvard has underperformed and BC has overperformed.

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<p>How is that? Harvard has CLEARLY OVERPERFORMED on a political level in local politics. After all, you don't see that many UMass grads relative to Harvard grads who are successful in state politics, or even BU grads. BC, I agree has also overperformed, but Harvard has overperformed MORE.</p>

<p>The issue that you seem to be concered with it is that Harvard has not overperformed at the state level that they have done so at the national level. To that, I would say that that's true. But it's still overperformance, just not as much. But that has an easy explanation. Most Harvard students are not residents of Massachusetts and have no intention of staying. So clearly they're not going to do much for Mass state politics. BC, in contrast, tends to get a larger proportion of resident students. </p>

<p>Nevertheless, both Harvard (and, yes, BC) have outperformed on the state level. But I think it is still quite clear that Harvard has outperformed MORE. What does BC have that Harvard doesn't have? You talk about some farcical state politicans that Harvard has, but so what? They may be farcical TO YOU, but apparently the voters like them enough to keep voting them in. Maybe Barney Frank is a joke to you, but his constituents like him to keep bringing him back. Maybe the Kennedy's are a joke to you, but their constituents keep voting for them. You might say that those voters are being stupid, but that's not the point. People have the right to do things that we think are stupid. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Well, if you put the "hate bar" THAT high, yeah. I gotta admit that I don't recall the RCMP rounding up all the folks wearing NY Yankees hats in Saskatoon and forcing them into a burning McDonald's. You win the Strawman of the Day award. But booing the American national anthem at hockey games?

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</p>

<p>So what? That's relatively common. The US flag gets booed in Mexico during US-Mexico soccer games. It got booed throughout Europe during the runup to the War in Iraq, and still does. </p>

<p>But that doesn't equate to hate. Hate as expressed during athletic competitions would be the racist hooligans who comprise some of the population of soccer fans in Europe. Hate would be making monkey sounds to taunt a black player, or flying swastika flags and performing Nazi chest salutes during games. Now THAT is hate. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1798795,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1798795,00.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=63%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=63&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p07s01-woam.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p07s01-woam.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10617242/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10617242/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The truth is, there are plenty of people who really do want to kill or enslave others of a certain race or nationality. Canadians may be annoyed and irritated at Americans. But hate them? That goes too far. I don't know too many Canadians who actually want to kill or enslave Americans. </p>

<p>My point is, just be careful about how you use the word 'hate'. Hate is a powerful word that does not deserve to be diluted. Doing so simply makes a mockery of the instances of true hate. Booing the American flag at a hockey game is not even in the same galaxy as Nazis slaughtering Jews, or even Nazi skinhead soccer hooligans waving the swastika flag during games.</p>