<p>Hey mathboy, long time no e. 
You’re another contributor I respect for helpfulness and reasonable, thoughtful posts, and you’ve done it again. Just one quibble here…
How about “ask?” That’s one of the things I took issue with in the first place – the apparent sense of entitlement to responses that conform to the OP’s template.</p>
<p>Well, hmmm, maybe two quibbles:
Clearly he didn’t… but I think maruhan’s point is well taken: On the Net, it’s probably wise to worry about it a bit more than in person, since misunderstandings are easier online. Not sure I saw much real misunderstanding here, though – just good reasons for me to drop off the thread and move on.</p>
<p>Hope Berkeley’s treating you well! Finals this week? If so, good luck. :)</p>
<p>Hi geek_mom! Great to see you around too, …</p>
<p>Your points are well taken, and I’m sure I could just as well substitute “ask” for “tell” to achieve a more diplomatic phrasing, since in reality, telling rocketDA to post something in the form of request as opposed to demand is just asking.</p>
<p>My approach to posting might just be a little different - I’m quite free in posting things like “the majority of students at my school are mediocre at best as compared to so and so schools,” etc. However, I favor clarity and sufficient description, because usually the sense of offense goes away if the writer demonstrates having given thought to the proposal and covered the different angles it may be viewed at, even if the wording used is extreme. My own post was in response to:</p>
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<p>I think there was something done wrong, independent of courtesy, in the form of an incorrect evaluation, which led to the incorrect attitude. This is purely on the level of how the question being asked should be expected to be answered (for the sake of argument, even if it were OK to demand, rather than request, answers).</p>
<p>The reason I bothered is that in theory, the OP didn’t know rocket is a Mudd alum or anything, just some random fellow posting something or the other. </p>
<p>If the OP knew who rocket was, then it’s even more foolish. I hate it when someone with 5 years less (or worse) of math experience than I do tries to argue directly against advice I give them without even properly analyzing it.</p>
<p>But I’m trying to look past this, as on an internet forum, one can’t be expected to know all the posters. Yet, even under this analysis, the attitude strikes me as wrong.</p>
<p>OK, done preaching :)</p>
<p>^ Looks like we agree on the major points. Not surprising to me. 
Even making allowances for age differences, that kind of attitude (reflected in subsequent snippy comments such as “thanks… yes even you” and “I’m sorry you’re so sensitive”) just doesn’t spark the desire to spend time in research and/or writing to help a random stranger on the Net!</p>
<p>Yeah, I mean don’t get me wrong - the lack of courtesy and jabs were useless and uncalled for, but I wanted to go ahead and say there was a more fundamental issue, which nobody on here seemed to be addressing. I didn’t agree with the idea that “nobody said anything wrong, this is just an issue internet courtesy” which seemed to be going around. Rather, I agreed with rocketDA’s original objection.</p>
<p>I have seen enough petty jabs on CC not to care, but will make an effort to comment when someone has something truly wrong.</p>
<p>
Aaaah… gotcha. So if we come full circle to Josh’s original question…
… yeah, from the catalog, the biggest difference is probably a handful of Mudd core classes and all of the Mudd Engineering major classes. That’s… well… probably a pretty big difference.</p>