August 09, 2003

Adult Education

What a maroon:

Ok say I do take a few math classes and get a few Cs [ed: in community college], well then my GPA goes under 3.0 and I can forget about transfering into a good 4 year university, I can also forget about scholarships and grants which also require a high GPA of above 3.0 or 3.5, I really cannot afford any Cs and I know for a fact that its simply impossible for me to get an A or B in math. I take classes which I know I can/will get an A or B in...

Maybe if universities werent so strict and competitive on the GPA issue I could actually focus on learning but right now I have a goal, that goal is to get into Harvard, Tufts, Boston College,Boston University or North Eastern, all which are ELITE private universities which will NOT let you in with a sub 3.0 GPA, you most likely wont get in with a sub 3.5 GPA, so no its not about "learning" right now, its about moving up the ladder, it will be about learning once I get into university, thats when I'll take math clases, get a C or two, and learn something.

Does he really believe that a B average at JC will get him into BU, much less Harvard? Mind you, that's a B average without the "tough" classes like Calculus I. Reading the rest of the thread, it seems an awful lot of these IT geeks couldn't hack it, either. No wonder these people are worried about outsourcing. Even if abstract math has little to do with system administration or basic programming, I bet the Russian, Indian and Chinese programmers got their calculus, etc. in high school. Sure, you don't need a degree to be a programmer or a geek, but you should at least be a sentient being. Based on their Slashdot posts, it's not as if they're particularly talented at language, either.

OK, one doesn't have to be particularly good at math to be an Alpha Geek. It's all about curiosity änd problem-solving ability. Of course, he was bad in math compared to MIT grad students and Nobel-winning UChicago econometricists. Anyone who can do multivariate regression analysis in his sleep deserves his props.

Posted by mikewang on 04:28 PM