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What are the differences in undergraduate populations between universities / colleges? If any.
I'm current at SFU, a university in Western Canada and sometimes I feel that since it's not too difficult to get into my school, the student population is... on average, not as intelligent, passionate, knowlegable, and awesome as other more difficult to qualify for institutions.
I think the only way to know is to go study or participate in different institutions. I haven't done this because it's not easy, but I'm wondering if any of you have or just have opinions on this.
I think overall there "probably" isn't any considerable differenece undergraduates more reflect their age than their level of instituion but ahh there are definitely some biases in my cognition.
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Look back at high school, were there any significant differences between the top students and the average students?
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On March 21 2012 18:43 Klockan3 wrote:
Look back at high school, were there any significant differences between the top students and the average students?
I'm going go with with yes, but I'll be comparingtop students in more academic high schools versus my high school which didn't have that much deviation.
I guess that sort of answers my question in a pretty solid way. But hmm... I want emprical evidence D=
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There's a big difference between the average student in Harvard and the average student in University of Phoenix. Now taking these extremes, the rest of the universities fall somewhere in between. If you compare the grades of incoming freshman, you should be able to see a trend.
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I go to UC Berkeley, and I must say that there is a ton of variability in the intelligence of students I interact with. Sometimes you talk to someone, and you wonder how they got in, and other times you talk to someone and you wonder why they aren't already out working for some tech company. However, this is something I feel would be true of any institution, a result of the almost random college admissions process (bitter ivy reject here :p).
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On March 21 2012 18:27 jodogohoo wrote:
What are the differences in undergraduate populations between universities / colleges? If any.
I'm current at SFU, a university in Western Canada and sometimes I feel that since it's not too difficult to get into my school, the student population is... on average, not as intelligent, passionate, knowlegable, and awesome as other more difficult to qualify for institutions.
I think the only way to know is to go study or participate in different institutions. I haven't done this because it's not easy, but I'm wondering if any of you have or just have opinions on this.
I think overall there "probably" isn't any considerable differenece undergraduates more reflect their age than their level of instituion but ahh there are definitely some biases in my cognition.
It isn't,
You often don't see SFU getting students from out of the province (I don't live in BC so I don't know but I have not seen anyone apply for SFU) because students from say Ontario can simply apply for better universities. Hard fact is that SFU ranks bit lower than middle on Canadian University rankings. Therefore, it is obvious that the average level of students will be different compared to say the top tier universities.
For instance, UofT accepts a LOT of students, but they fail a lot of students too. By 3rd or 4th year in a very competitive program, only the elites survive. So when you compare UofT 3rd or 4th year in say Engineering or computer science to SFU 3rd or 4th year comp sci, the level will be very different. But the average level of 1st year students will not be so different.
Meanwhile, McGill takes in less students who did well in highschool, so the average level of students will be different from the start. However, I am not sure what it would be like in 3rd or 4th year. Personally I've seen a lot of idiots go to McGill and Queens from my highschool and they have no problem surviving and partying at the same time 
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I honestly can't think of a University in Canada that would be hard to get into for just a general undergraduate degree.
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As for general intelligence level of the entire campus, I'm sure there is a difference between campuses.
However, if your a hard science major (physics, engineering, chemistry, Pre-med, etc). You'll find the general intelligence level among these majors is significantly higher than the general level for the campus. (at least after the freshman have all washed out)
There are usually a few brilliant guys and gals in business or arts majors. But intelligence level may depend more on what undergraduate degree they are seeking rather than the campus itself.
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If they study psych and in the US, chances are they are skating by with little intelligence, its kind of a joke degree, same with communications and liberal arts majors.
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On March 21 2012 19:24 TOloseGT wrote:
There's a big difference between the average student in Harvard and the average student in University of Phoenix. Now taking these extremes, the rest of the universities fall somewhere in between. If you compare the grades of incoming freshman, you should be able to see a trend.
There is also a noticeable difference between student bodies even amongst the top schools, though not in terms of intelligence/raw numbers but interest. Places like Harvard and UPenn, for instance, are incredibly career-focused schools filled more with students who strive to be movers and leaders, while places like Swarthmore and UChicago pander more towards thinkers who wish to go into academia. (I feel like schools like Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Stanford, MIT, etc. fall somewhere between the two.)
Lol, making fun of lib arts, communications, and psych majors. Two of the most brilliant girls I knew in HS majored in those two subjects (one communications major at UPenn, one psych major at Princeton). Let me tell you, it's no fucking joke. It can be if you make it one, but it doesn't have to be.
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There are different kinds of intelligences (Ed Psych finally paying off), so to compare pre-med students against Art students and call one group "more intelligent" is not really accurate. They may get better grades in the same generals (bio and shit like that), but grades are not reflective of intelligence alone. For example, compare my friend and I. I got a higher score on some standardized test, but I procrastinate on homework and studying, where she busts her ass on those things. Who gets better grades? (Hint: Not me).
It's a wide range across all campuses, and no matter where you are you'll be able to find smart people and dumbshits.
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On March 21 2012 23:50 Smoot wrote:
As for general intelligence level of the entire campus, I'm sure there is a difference between campuses.
However, if your a hard science major (physics, engineering, chemistry, Pre-med, etc). You'll find the general intelligence level among these majors is significantly higher than the general level for the campus. (at least after the freshman have all washed out)
There are usually a few brilliant guys and gals in business or arts majors. But intelligence level may depend more on what undergraduate degree they are seeking rather than the campus itself.
i also found this to be true. i am an engineering major and among the classes i have taken in the "easier" departments like econ and poli sci, i found that the students in those majors are simply not as intelligent in terms of doing well in the class.
but intelligence in the classroom doesn't have a lot to do with being an intellectual. i have also found that there are more "intellectuals" in easier majors.
and in general, i think among young people there is a movement away from having a thirst for knowledge and from bettering themselves and from learning all kinds of shit.
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I think you guys are forgetting that dumb people who major in communications stay in communications, whereas dumb people who major in let say math, physics, engineering, [insert any hard major], etc switch to easier majors or gets dropped out of college completely. And of course, the amount of required work and time one has to put in in engineering deters slackers from ever considering engineering in the first place. If you are comparing natural smartness aka IQ maybe there isn't so much difference between liberal art majors and hard science majors, but if you think you can get smarter and more intelligent by working and studying hard, then overall the latter will trump the former
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On March 22 2012 03:22 Diglett wrote:Show nested quote +On March 21 2012 23:50 Smoot wrote:
As for general intelligence level of the entire campus, I'm sure there is a difference between campuses.
However, if your a hard science major (physics, engineering, chemistry, Pre-med, etc). You'll find the general intelligence level among these majors is significantly higher than the general level for the campus. (at least after the freshman have all washed out)
There are usually a few brilliant guys and gals in business or arts majors. But intelligence level may depend more on what undergraduate degree they are seeking rather than the campus itself. i also found this to be true. i am an engineering major and among the classes i have taken in the "easier" departments like econ and poli sci, i found that the students in those majors are simply not as intelligent in terms of doing well in the class. but intelligence in the classroom doesn't have a lot to do with being an intellectual. i have also found that there are more "intellectuals" in easier majors. and in general, i think among young people there is a movement away from having a thirst for knowledge and from bettering themselves and from learning all kinds of shit.
it's just that those majors require less work ethic so lazier people take them so they do worse, when your major requires a ton of work ethic of course there's gonna be loads of people in it that do well at school. All work ethic baby
You know when i first read this topic post all i thought was 'UofT has alooooooot of asians' , at my school there's plenty of hard working people scattered across all different majors
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EPT
