|
I know this tread has drifted away from the OP, but I feel I need to respond.
My prior comments are based on a career in government-sponsored applied research and corporate contracts with large research-oriented universities. I will admit that my opinion about undergraduate education quality is colored by my experiences in the U.S. government and large technology companies. Virtually everyone I have worked with in that field holds a Ph.D. or equivalent degree. In that world, undergraduate degrees are thought of (more or less) as fungible - like the old joke about opinions - everybody has one. Other than on a curriculum vitae, I do not recall anyone even mentioning where they attended undergrad.
I do remember my sophomore level government and math classes at UT-Austin. The government classes were 300 students in a large lecture hall with a 30-year-old assistant professor who had five graduate student TAs holding smaller weekly "discussion groups" with about 30 students each. My math courses were taught by 22-year-old assistant instructors/graduate students. Anyone who has attended lower level undergraduate classes UT-Austin has likely had this type of experience one way or another. So don't talk to me about quality of education.
Now when we talk about the quality of bachelor's degree, an ordinary bachelor's degree (one awarded without honors) from UT-Austin is clearly perceived by the world as better than an ordinary bachelor's degree from UTEP, UTA or UTD. You will get no argument from me about this fact.
But my question (and point) is this:
Is an ordinary bachelor's degree (one awarded without honors) from UT-Austin better than a first-in-class bachelor's degree awarded with highest honors from UTA?
Which degree (assuming all else equal) would most likely gain an admit to Impossibletogetinto Medical School which already has 5 UT-Austin grads in its 2022 class?
* * *
Finally, the only area presented in my earlier post that could rightfully be called speculation is my assumption that a UT-Austin admit who may graduate middle-of-the-pack at UT-Austin would be at the top of her class at a branch school like UTA. And since she is so "special and entitled," how could anyone say she wouldn't be?
|
Hybrid Mode
