<p>The latest on Ben Nelson's Minerva Project from this morning's WSJ. A vision of a new kind of university for the 21st century; I'm not entirely sure what I think of this.</p>
<p>The</a> Weekend Interview With Ben Nelson: The Man Who Would Overthrow Harvard - WSJ.com</p>
<p>Don’t waste your time.</p>
<p>Whatever you think, they are getting national press and have some serious folks paying attention. USA Today ran a story today in its Money section. The school is looking for a handful of volunteer students to apply to test drive the program in exchange for 4 years free. </p>
<p>One major hurdle before even the most intrepid should consider this new undergraduate program - the school does not appear to be accredited, yet.</p>
<p>You need a subscription to view this.</p>
<p>another article on the subject:</p>
<p>[TaxProf</a> Blog: WSJ: The Man Who Would Overthrow Harvard](<a href=“TaxProf Blog”>TaxProf Blog)</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem to be going away and it managed to become accredited. There is an article in the September issue of The Atlantic. Interesting.</p>
<p>Nonsense. This is not a serious alternative for college. It’s smoke and mirrors, held together by the sort of talk magazine business reporters like to hear. </p>
<p>Any students bright enough to get into the Ivies–which Nelson purports to admit (whether or not they’re interested)–have many other, more attractive options. Including communtity college and the public library.</p>
<p>Hahahahahahahahaaahahaha hahaha. Hahaha. Hah. Haaaa. Oh, wait, it’s not The Onion?</p>
<p>It seems to be awfully gimmicky and reminds me of an extended study abroad program on wheels…</p>
<p>This dude is not asking for taxpayer money, so he is welcome to give it a try if there are willing, paying participants. And it’s not like our present college framework isn’t dysfunctional. </p>
<p>I think the concept of having campuses in different countries and rotating the students simultaneously is interesting. I think you guys here who are sneering at this are being really elitist. The unwashed masses outside the CC bubble don’t go to elite 4 year universities that offer int’l exchange programs. By unbundling the services, he is essentially offering a bare-bones community college experience with the opportunity for int’l exchange. The prestige of Minerva will probably never exceed Harvard in my lifetime, but it may eventually get a decent reputation-- ya gotta start somewhere. </p>
<p>The devil is in the details, I wish him good luck.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a WSJ subscription, u can still read the article if u google the article’s title (the magic back door for viewing articles for free…).</p>
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<p>Seems like a great way to take a 4-year gap year</p>
<p>You are all commenting on a link I posted last summer. If you are interested in the project a year later here is the Atlantic article from this month.
<a href=“The Future of College? - The Atlantic”>The Future of College? - The Atlantic;
<p>Interesting. It fills a niche.</p>
<p>While I am not a booster of the project, I appreciate that someone is trying something novel. The current model of many Unis (astronomical tuition paying for climbing walls, food courts, and sports programs, aloof tenured faculty, etc.) needs some sharp alternatives. The gratuitous mockery of Minerva in this thread reminds me of Schopenhauer’s quotation
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<p>snarlatron, thank you for posting the link to the article from The Atlantic. Mentioned it to recently graduated S1 (two years, from top school, well employed from day 17) and he said it was one of his favorite subjects. Guess I’ll have to wait to see what he says once he reads it.</p>
<p>Would really appreciate for the thread to be transferred to a different forum (Parents?) since it really has nothing to do with Harvard except the name in the title of the thread.</p>
<p>Schopenhauer’s equation is a delight, of course, but I’m sure he would agree that many ideas that are ridiculed are quite deserving of that ridicule.</p>
<p>lol, this thread would surely get a more open-minded reception in another forum ;)</p>
<p>@J’adoube The reason I posted to this forum last summer is because in the original link Ben Nelson was specifically putting his vision toe-to-toe against Harvard.</p>
<p>@marvin100 Good point.</p>
<p>First, define “overthrows”.</p>
<p>Probably a lot of our issues throughout history have had to do with confusion over verbs and verb participles.</p>