Monthly Archives: September 2011

September 28, 2011
8:42 pm
by: shellifowler

Tricycles in the Pentagon, Jiggling Atoms, and Tiny Neutrinos

I like it when I am reminded that the siloed boundaries between disciplines, between the sciences and the humanities, for example, are something to be questioned at every turn.   When two of my scientist colleagues said that they were … Continue reading → Continue reading →

September 28, 2011
5:11 pm
by: shellifowler

P.O. Box 1663 and Memex

Last week I wanted to have coffee and conversation with Vannevar Bush.  And, not just Vannevar.  I wanted to hang with the scientists for whom P.O. Box 1663 was a community of sorts in a particular historical moment: J. Robert … Continue reading → Continue reading →

September 19, 2011
8:18 pm
by: John Sangster

US News and College Rankings Reports

A colleague of mine in a course recently railed against the rankings of universities by US News and World Reports.  He argued that the US News rankings are “predominately useless,” that there shouldn’t be any holistic college rankings, and that the rankings are primarily intended for administrators and not prospective students.  His comments were well thought out and respectfully shared, but I respectfully have to disagree with all of his main points.  I feel that the US News ranking system is a valuable and necessary piece of work, but that things should be viewed within context.  My view of the interrelated guessing game that is the rankings system goes a little like this:

Teenagers want to go to a highly competitive university because they think that when they get out of school the strength of their degree will determine whether a company hires them, or someone else.  In order to choose a school that provides them the best opportunity for a good job, they rely on measures like the US News Rankings.  Companies, in turn, use the rankings of the various universities as an indicator of potential value for a prospective candidate, and choose to hire based on the degree because there are no better indicator variables around for work ethic and ability at one’s job tasks.  Since the companies use the rankings, it validates the views of teenagers who think that the rankings make a difference, thus the rankings are reinforced as being legitimate in everyone’s eyes.  It’s kind of like when I hand the cashier $50 for my groceries and leave the store; the cashier accepts the paper though there’s no inherent value to it, because someone else will accept the paper in the future.

Continuing the cycle, teenagers put time and effort into the SAT exam because they think it’ll get them into that competitive university and result in a good job.  Universities, in turn, use the SAT as a tool to differentiate among a vast pool of candidates, validating the worth that teenagers have placed in the exam, and voila, the exam has true worth.  Far from telling my own kids to disregard the exam when they reach that age, I plan to work with them to study for whatever the equivalent is at the time and help them to do their best at whatever chosen indicators are used for college admissions.  Complaining that the system is broken won’t improve your situation within the system.


In a capitalistic society during the information age, if it weren’t US News doing the rankings it’d be someone else, and the fact that they’ve garnered as much market share as they have means that they’re likely doing a pretty good job of it.  While it’s true that the criteria used by the rankings system does not take into account the individualized needs of a given student, it’s a structural problem due to the need to have a cohesive rankings system, and it’s not something that I feel should cause the rankings themselves to be disregarded.  With 4,400 institutions of higher education, the rankings are a valuable tool for prospective students to winnow their field of candidates, and are a useful tool.  Personally, when I was applying to schools I used the rankings system to put scholarship offers into context, and ultimately decided to ignore both the rankings and my misgivings about the environment of the campus to choose the least expensive of my undergraduate options.  In hind-sight, I wish I had paid more attention to the qualitative experience that the lower rankings implied I would experience as an undergrad.

Which brings me, finally, to the intended point of my post: that college choice and standardized test performance are indeed the most important things happening in your life when you do them, but are almost entirely irrelevant in the context of your life.  We are told in elementary school to work hard so we can get on the advanced track in middle school.  We are told in middle school to work in our advanced track so we can get placed in the AP courses in high school.  We are told in high school to ace our exams and do well in our classes so we can get into the best possible college.  We are told in college (and grad school) to work hard so we can get into the best possible job afterward.  We are told in our job to work hard so we can get the best possible salary.  We are told to obtain the highest possible salary, because after all, salary is equivalent to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Do we work to live, or do we live to work?

I once told a friend in sixth grade that if he didn’t do a better job on his homework that he wasn’t going to get into the college of his choice.  That friend eventually became the best man at my wedding, and to this day mocks me about the incident, and rightly so!  I’m now on the opposite end of the spectrum of thought, and I may have a rather unusual perspective among grad students, as I have a three-year-old, an 18-month-old, and a third child due next March.  My engineering degree did translate into a well-paying career like it was supposed to, but my job sapped me of energy and enthusiasm, which wasn’t fair to me or my family.  Now I’ve returned to grad school seeking to change my career in order to feel more challenged, and to increase, for lack of a better term, self-actualization.  I love the work I’m doing as a graduate research assistant but in all honesty, 10 hours of productive research during the day doesn’t even come close to the joy of spending 10 minutes reading my kids a book before bed.  I personally would recommend that everyone use the rankings generated by US News as ONE TOOL when conducting academic job searches after grad school, and I would also encourage the use of the rankings by high school kids and undergrads to choose schools for themselves.  There’s no reason to get bent out of shape about rankings or test scores when they’re put into context with life.  By extension: obtaining a coveted Assistant Professorship at an R1 University with a strong program in your field is not a guaranteed recipe for happiness!  However, since I’ve already obtained happiness in the form of progeny who are sometimes sane and always wonderful, I may as well pursue something else, like that R1 faculty position… Continue reading →

September 19, 2011
8:18 pm
by: John Sangster

US News and College Rankings Reports

A colleague of mine in a course recently railed against the rankings of universities by US News and World Reports.  He argued that the US News rankings are “predominately useless,” that there shouldn’t be any holistic college rankings, and that the rankings are primarily intended for administrators and not prospective students.  His comments were well thought out and respectfully shared, but I respectfully have to disagree with all of his main points.  I feel that the US News ranking system is a valuable and necessary piece of work, but that things should be viewed within context.  My view of the interrelated guessing game that is the rankings system goes a little like this:

Teenagers want to go to a highly competitive university because they think that when they get out of school the strength of their degree will determine whether a company hires them, or someone else.  In order to choose a school that provides them the best opportunity for a good job, they rely on measures like the US News Rankings.  Companies, in turn, use the rankings of the various universities as an indicator of potential value for a prospective candidate, and choose to hire based on the degree because there are no better indicator variables around for work ethic and ability at one’s job tasks.  Since the companies use the rankings, it validates the views of teenagers who think that the rankings make a difference, thus the rankings are reinforced as being legitimate in everyone’s eyes.  It’s kind of like when I hand the cashier $50 for my groceries and leave the store; the cashier accepts the paper though there’s no inherent value to it, because someone else will accept the paper in the future.

Continuing the cycle, teenagers put time and effort into the SAT exam because they think it’ll get them into that competitive university and result in a good job.  Universities, in turn, use the SAT as a tool to differentiate among a vast pool of candidates, validating the worth that teenagers have placed in the exam, and voila, the exam has true worth.  Far from telling my own kids to disregard the exam when they reach that age, I plan to work with them to study for whatever the equivalent is at the time and help them to do their best at whatever chosen indicators are used for college admissions.  Complaining that the system is broken won’t improve your situation within the system.


In a capitalistic society during the information age, if it weren’t US News doing the rankings it’d be someone else, and the fact that they’ve garnered as much market share as they have means that they’re likely doing a pretty good job of it.  While it’s true that the criteria used by the rankings system does not take into account the individualized needs of a given student, it’s a structural problem due to the need to have a cohesive rankings system, and it’s not something that I feel should cause the rankings themselves to be disregarded.  With 4,400 institutions of higher education, the rankings are a valuable tool for prospective students to winnow their field of candidates, and are a useful tool.  Personally, when I was applying to schools I used the rankings system to put scholarship offers into context, and ultimately decided to ignore both the rankings and my misgivings about the environment of the campus to choose the least expensive of my undergraduate options.  In hind-sight, I wish I had paid more attention to the qualitative experience that the lower rankings implied I would experience as an undergrad.

Which brings me, finally, to the intended point of my post: that college choice and standardized test performance are indeed the most important things happening in your life when you do them, but are almost entirely irrelevant in the context of your life.  We are told in elementary school to work hard so we can get on the advanced track in middle school.  We are told in middle school to work in our advanced track so we can get placed in the AP courses in high school.  We are told in high school to ace our exams and do well in our classes so we can get into the best possible college.  We are told in college (and grad school) to work hard so we can get into the best possible job afterward.  We are told in our job to work hard so we can get the best possible salary.  We are told to obtain the highest possible salary, because after all, salary is equivalent to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Do we work to live, or do we live to work?

I once told a friend in sixth grade that if he didn’t do a better job on his homework that he wasn’t going to get into the college of his choice.  That friend eventually became the best man at my wedding, and to this day mocks me about the incident, and rightly so!  I’m now on the opposite end of the spectrum of thought, and I may have a rather unusual perspective among grad students, as I have a three-year-old, an 18-month-old, and a third child due next March.  My engineering degree did translate into a well-paying career like it was supposed to, but my job sapped me of energy and enthusiasm, which wasn’t fair to me or my family.  Now I’ve returned to grad school seeking to change my career in order to feel more challenged, and to increase, for lack of a better term, self-actualization.  I love the work I’m doing as a graduate research assistant but in all honesty, 10 hours of productive research during the day doesn’t even come close to the joy of spending 10 minutes reading my kids a book before bed.  I personally would recommend that everyone use the rankings generated by US News as ONE TOOL when conducting academic job searches after grad school, and I would also encourage the use of the rankings by high school kids and undergrads to choose schools for themselves.  There’s no reason to get bent out of shape about rankings or test scores when they’re put into context with life.  By extension: obtaining a coveted Assistant Professorship at an R1 University with a strong program in your field is not a guaranteed recipe for happiness!  However, since I’ve already obtained happiness in the form of progeny who are sometimes sane and always wonderful, I may as well pursue something else, like that R1 faculty position… Continue reading →

September 6, 2011
4:42 am
by: kelseybrunton

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post. Here are some suggestions for your first post. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by […] Continue reading →