Ignorance is Bliss

<p>hahaha. So i was just talking to my neighbor about schools and all, and i realized how dumb some people can be. He was whole heartedly convinced that a nearby mediocre community college was just as rigorous as schools like Harvard and MIT.</p>

<p>He also had this idea that MIT was one of the best engineering schools in the world (which it definitely is) but as well as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Caltech.</p>

<p>Seriously though, how could someone compare MIT to Cal Poly SLO (most people dont even know anything about Cal Poly). </p>

<p>Stupid Stupid neighbor.</p>

<p>Was your neighbor so stupid? Top universities attract the best researchers, not the best teachers.</p>

<p>It all depends on the geography and socioeconomic background. I mean if your dad were a hick living in a trailer park in Alabama (no offense to the hicks out there), you would not even know about those colleges.</p>

<p>Slorg, you dont exactly need a PhD to teach at a junior college, you just need a masters, so most teachers arent masters of their field. Also we are talking about rigor. To say that MIT work is just as hard as community college work is insane. </p>

<p>People study and party at community college.<br>
At MIT, people study, study, and study their @$$3$ off.</p>

<p>Which one is more rigorous?</p>

<p>I like SLO. It's a good school. One of the best engineering schools? I'd guess in the top 50, but I don't know if that would be considered "one of the best."</p>

<p>I agree on the community college thing. Harvard/MIT > CC.</p>

<p>What's wrong with Cal Poly? A great place to get your undergraduate education. I think that's all he was trying to say.</p>

<p>It is great for undergrad Architecture and Engineering...really it is phenomenal.</p>

<p>But for someone to say it is one of the best in the world along with Caltech and MIT is definitely a huge overstatement.</p>

<p>who is to say he is not right, I know alot of kids who went to comminity colleges and found the work load to be much greater than top science and engineering universities.</p>

<p>Pigs will fly when goat makes a useful post. It wasn't suprising that it is him that said that.</p>

<p>The work is more than they expected because they are community college students. Send a Harvard student to a CC and watch him fly through it. (No offense to CC students, but I had to be blunt)</p>

<p>Well the comment about community colleges was pretty dumb, but Cal Poly is a good school for engineering.</p>

<p>goat4d: Ah yes of course, because those same kids who are attending/attended community colleges also went to top engineering schools, and so have basis for comparison. Right?</p>

<p>Don't think so.</p>

<p>There aren't that many trailer parks in Alabama. They're much more plentiful in Mississippi and Arkansas.</p>

<p>I agree and disagree with the OP.</p>

<p>You're right about the CC comment. Community colleges may be challenging to some degree, but to compare your average CC to MIT is just ridiculous. </p>

<p>As for the other part...one thing to remember is that not everyone is College Confidential obsessed. People who are truly (overly?) educated about colleges are a small minority. The average person doesn't have time to memorize the top 20 list for engineering. Thus, most people will praise schools that they've heard good things about, rather than reciting the top 20 list in order. That doesn't make them ignorant, in most cases, it just means that they haven't meticulously researched all-things-college (and quite frankly, it's often not necessary to).</p>

<p>you know, maybe not the work load is as bad...but many people are at a community college because they cannot afford to go straight to four year schools. There's alot of idiots who screwed up in high school and live off their parents and "try" making it at community college...however there's just as many people who didn't have perfect grades, but couldn't afford, or make it into a good 4 year school.
a lot of students go to school and work full time, and eventually do transfer to a 4 year college...i have sooo much respect for these people, because they might not have had the toughest classes, but they did WORK HARD to get their education, just as much as someone at MIT might work hard. i think that's what your neighbor was implying.</p>

<p>pundudeus, that was not what he was implying. His exact words when i told him that academics at stanford, and MIT and harvard are much more rigorous than that at community colleges, he replied "no, all college is the same. That is a northeastern myth and all colleges are just as difficult to get good grades in."</p>