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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 14, 2020, at 20:13:17
more plausible:
smart kid looking into colleges... gets the HARD SELL from various smaller state schools in California. These schools likely fetch HIGH out of state tuition by parents thinking they are investing in social capital. Their kids will get to hob-knob with the LA movie stars, you get the idea.
So the schools want the kids of the movie stars. For the social capital those kids bring to the school. To help the schools get the money from the out of state parents.
What is in it for the kid?
I guess if they aren't very smart and they want everything handed to them on a silver platter... I guess that's the promise, really.
On the other hand... Just because your parents are movie stars doesn't mean they are dumb as posts. Doesn't mean their kids are.
Full House (I didn't watch it much) was, from memory, one of those feel good healthy wholesome entertainment kinds of shows. In the first place. Up there with ''Charles in Charge'' and other crap like that. The sort of show that people could do worse than to emulate, I mean to say.
Anyhoo... Supposing you are smart and hardworking and you want to be appreciated for those kinds of things.
Suppose your social capital that you have accumulated for yourself came from your working hard etc. I don't know about her. I don't know about her life.
I see the people on ''Critical Role'' etc and they moved to LA and spent many years auditioning and the hard slog of reading lines with no context. Etc. No glamor. Tiny apartments. Lots of disappointment. They persisted. They are some sense of ''big time'' now -- but they got there by sweat of their brow (together with luck, don't get me wrong) but I don't see that they would want to expediate the journey of others who hadn't comperably invested and worked hard for success.
And kids of parents.. Well.. College is supposed to be them on their merits. And it's hard to separate entry merit when kids live in their parents bubble but the kids are supposed to look for someplace they think they may fit. They. Them. Rather than them -- because of their parents.
And I bet it would be demoralising, really, for a smart and hardworking person to find that colleges were actively trying to recruit me because of who my parent was. Or because I had some beauty product contract -- that would be lots of social capital for the Uni to make money off out of state student fees.
So...
What to do??
About this terrible situation where the State Schools of California are profiteering off of the social capital of LA movie stars and the like??
Well...
One could teach them a lesson...
Suppose one submits an application that says one did row in college with a photograph of one rowing on teh concept II rower in the college gym?
Suppose one did. That's the truth.
If the college decides (all independent-like) to regard the applicant as an 'elite college athlete' and get them entry that way -- then that is on the college not the applicant.
I guess that's something that happens. THe University re-classifies or re-categorises students sometimes without the students knowledge because they want the social capital of the student.
That is the only sense that I can make of this.
Maybe she actually does want to go to college. But maybe she actually wants to meet intellectually interesting and so on individuals. Get to hang out with people who she finds interesting for various skills and talents from various walks of life.
The only way she can get to do that...
Well...
This is one kind of a costly signal.
I guess.
That's the only sense I can make of this.
And then the trial in Boston. Because once this outs in the trial criminal charges against the Universities of California I guess.
Is that the idea??
Posted by alexandra_k on May 14, 2020, at 20:22:46
In reply to operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 14, 2020, at 20:13:17
i watch videos of orthopedic residency programmes sometimes. for inspiration or motivation or something.
they convey an ideology or something. even if not achieved. it conveys something...
like how the programme at Penn is a bit hierarchical. two students of each year picked out for fellowship from the get go. so i suppose the cohort either respects those two as leaders for the cohort or tries to usurp them... or... i don't know...
then some programmes are really really large. large cohort. like 25 or 30. and you follow sports teams...
there was one in california somewhere. all women. strangely. they all seemed nice. it seemed really nice. really nice. except... it was in california. so lots and lots and lots of people want to go there probably -- right?? and so i guess i sort of didn't look into it anymore because it was a program in california. and everyone would want to go there for the weather and the beach and the lifestyle and so on..
which is a bit judgey of me.
and now i can't find which programme it was...
Posted by alexandra_k on May 14, 2020, at 21:59:16
In reply to Re: operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 14, 2020, at 20:22:46
and of course i understand that they are making it seem about undergraduate admissions to state schools...
but there has long been concern about federal judges all coming out of certain law schools.
whether they be private or public schools might make a difference.
but now we are talking about *federal* (aka public) judges.
i don't know how things are in medicine with respect to medical admissions or residency or fellowships. no idea.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 15, 2020, at 2:46:06
In reply to Re: operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 14, 2020, at 21:59:16
I guess there is also this problem where...
I... For example... Wanted to study English Literature. I did. That was what I wanted to do. Above all else. I also wanted to study Philosophy. Because it seemed to me to be Very Interesting (from what I knew of it from Socrates from Classics and from a lecture on Personaly Identity from University Open Day.).
So I worked (at Secondary School) just enough to gain admission to that. At my local college.
But...
Suppose...
Suppose my local college knew I had millions and millinons of dollars AND that my aim was to get accepted to my local college to study arts.
I suppose then they would want bribes and so on t make it (what was supposed to be the inevitable) so. I mean...
Why not?
Posted by alexandra_k on May 15, 2020, at 5:05:30
In reply to Re: operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 15, 2020, at 2:46:06
I mean, don't think I didn't grow up watching LA Law.
That's why I played the saxophone (briefly). I could only play the start the theme song and part of Bryan Adams... Some song, I forget...
Hmm.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 15, 2020, at 5:32:39
In reply to Re: operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 15, 2020, at 5:05:30
Come to Auckland as a full fee paying international student!
We will say you are 'special' and let you start when you are 18 (not wait until you are 20).
Then treat you like garbage... Until you try and kill yourself... At which point we will throw you into a mental institution, where you can be raped by an in-patient...
Your psychiatrist can tell the University you can't get the help you need in NZ, so after you have full fee paid for 4 years of a conjoint 5 year double degree program...
You can be shipped off back home (in disgrace) to your parents. After paying for 4 years of a 5 year program with... No Degrees. Nada. With nothing.
Tis the kiwi way.
Fo sho.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 16, 2020, at 18:09:04
In reply to Re: operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 15, 2020, at 5:32:39
and apparently not.
apparently the kids did attend the school.
apparently one of them posted to youtube about how they hated school.
apparently it really genuinely does actually seem to be a case of complete and utter stupidity on behalf of the parent.
i think it is a bad thing. doing away with standardised test / examinations.
generally.
generally. i think that is true.
i suppose that is because local interests always work to undermine me. always to work to profit other peoples kids.
independent / external examinations mean my work can be assessed on it's merits. rather than being passed over for the work of the kids of the tribal chief leader.
i generally think more local standards are a regression. they are in this part of the world.
if there isn't a standardised admissions testing component then how are places decided? which teachers rant about which kids the most?
i don't understand / know why it isn't possible to clean up the testing system.
to have mechanisms to catch cheaters. to punish them properly.
there are issues with the standardised content -- of course. but that's when / how you have high quality content that is available to student however many years in advance.
i am just so utterly and bitterly disappointed in the education system. in new zealand most particularly. our leaders seem to have been intentionally running it into the ground. i suppose out of their anger and frustration and resentment that they couldn't get jobs overseas?? i don't know. i don't know what it is. they don't seem to be working for good. they seem to enjoy being bullies and slavers.
they can't out and say that i'm too old. that i'll ruin the whole culture of oppression they've got going on...
horrible people.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 16, 2020, at 18:23:22
In reply to Re: operation: varsity blues, posted by alexandra_k on May 16, 2020, at 18:09:04
''capstone course'' is what they call it. that stage 3 bottleneck where the lecturer decides whether you will to honors or masters or be chased out of the university entirely. and which subject you wil do it in.
i think it is because they have got it into their heads that it is their job to decide. their job to decide what subjects people do (to convey that message with grades) and their job to decide the rate of advancement. where you do honors if you have high enough grades for that and masters otherwise.
so masters is viewed as a rubbish second rate degree.
only sometimes people have other plans. in which case masters can be a time-filler between finishing things up here and starting things up in the northern hemisphere. in which case the student has plans to leave. in which case the lecturers are entitled to be really really really really really really really mean to them on their way out.
including over-working them with low-paid teaching work to try and undermine the completion of their masters projects. and so on. being horrible about them. being unhelpful about them. maybe even delaying getting them to examiners. and they are entitled since the student has plans to leave them -- right?
so the new zealand university system thinks those studnets (the ones who planned to / wanted to leave) are stupid -- for not proceeding to phd. because the aim is to grub your way to the end of the education system as quickly as possible. obviously. so nobody in their right mind would, for example, delay for 2 years in order to start a 3 year degree someplace more internationally recognised or 5 year degree someplace with a 2 year coursework component first. that just doesn't compute for them.
they can't say i'm too old. because there are laws against that.
my sister (and others) have said 'are you sure you want to do it when you have to do all this fighting with all these awful people just to get to start?'
i console myself with the thought that these are the idiots who were kicked back. they don't work with patients. no patients would let them anywhere near them, of course. they don't have anything to do with the hospitals. they have this pomp and titles thing going on with the univesrity where they can feel all special and important. maybe where they can take bribes even from people and go visit secondary schools and so on...
people... my people... wouldn't want a job like that. wouldn't want to do that job. what an awful job. these people like that job. and they use that job to... uh... to... uh... well... i suppose i do understand that i'm suppose to think that they have all kinds of power to make my life hell. their job is to notarise the f*ck*ng forms already. sign the form when the person has met the requirement. don't sign the form when the person hasn't. why is it that hard? are they really that f*ck*ng stupid that they can't even f*ck*ng do that?
i hope someone sues the university of Otago for that f*ck*ng tool standing up in front of the media and proclaiming 'hohoh ho we've been signing students off who didn't complete their work requirement for quite some time now, in fact i'm pretty sure that back when i did my work place requirement in my own case...' sue the university for undermining the value of the degree.
there is some internship system process thing now. where it is online. so universities that have signed up... so the path is smoothed. so there is a processs. get these forms in by that date. so you don't have to suck too many d*cks to get your supervisor to write you a f*ck*ng reference and upload it to the system. that's what it indicates, i suppose. it says as much. something about how universiteis are tired of being stuffed around by other universities when the employees don't send the required documentation through so they can process the students arrival.
nz universities are not part of the internship program. that's right. because they don't want the kids leaving.
it's this sick f*ck*ng attachment disorder. instead of working to develop something wehre people wnat ot be. instead of going 'our students go overseas... but overseas students come here...' instead of going 'these studnets graduate... and then these studnets start' there is no flow. there is no throughput. they f*ck*ng cling to things.
This is the end of the thread.
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