Liberal Arts School?

[DanMa1156]

The rankings do mean a great deal, for better or worse. The number of applications a college receives fluxuates greatly based on them, which affects the selectivity of the school. That selectivity is probably what people are really looking for, rather than the actual quality of the degree. Someone who knows that a certain college only accepts 10% of applicants will tend to think more highly of someone who's graduated from there.

In any case, I'd rather have colleges ranked on academics, vice sports. I think it's important that service academies are ranked, so that people realize that they're actually high-caliber institutions, vice just trade schools.

To be frank, if your undergrad institution is near the top of the rankings, the cachet will probably help you out later. Anything outside the top tier, they're all the same. The regional prominence is also a big deal. For example, If you want to be governor of South Carolina, the Citadel will probably set you up pretty well. Outside the South, no one will care.

I'm just hoping Cavt didn't go to Penn!:icon_wink

Great points - but just as a side note, there was an economic study done a couple years ago, and it found that in the end, personal devotion and motivation and intelligence were the biggest factors of success. Their control group was those that got into both Ivy Leagues and State Colleges and found that in the years after graduation they were mostly all in the same income level. Granted, I concede, something very selective like President/Governor etc., having been in some sort of "good ol' boys" club/selective college will probably help you down the road.

 

[phrogpilot73]

As much as I hate to rank schools on athletics, there's something wrong with a place whose biggest intercollegiate sport is croquet...

Not nearly as wrong as not having grades... The great books curriculum is interesting. The annual croquet match against USNA (which I'm sure is probably going to go away, since it doesn't prepare the midshipmen for war) came about rather humorously. Legend has it that in the early 1980's, a Mid and a Johnnie were in a bar and the Mid challenged the Johnnie telling him that USNA could be St John's in any sport. The Johnnie selected croquet. They have been playing every year since. USNA won that first year (as well as 4 other times, only 5 wins total), but then St John's quickly realized that they could put out a huge spread (including booze) and that the Mids would drink enough to impair their playing abilities.

So Scoober - did you hang out at the Moon, drink coffee, and harass mids all day?

 

[gaijin6423]

Scoober, were you the guy who called me a 'baby killer' out in DTA my 2/c year? If so, sorry about that broken nose and those teeth I knocked out, but to be fair, I did cut my hand crushing your face. The antiseptic spray burned like hell.

 

[xj220]

Ha, did you guys have the neo-nazi "is Israel worth it?" guys during march ons?

 

[phrogpilot73]

Ha, did you guys have the neo-nazi "is Israel worth it?" guys during march ons?

Yup. Apparently as A4s likes to say "the more things change..." My Dad is '63 from USNA, and he said the Johnnies used to harass them during march over as well. Being that it was the "old school" days, he told me that as they were being harassed, Johnnies would always come dangerously close to the company formations. More often then not, they'd grab one - pull him into the middle of the company (so an untrained eye could not see it), and beat the piss out of him. I wanted to do that a couple of times when I was there...

 

[scoober78]

Scoober, were you the guy who called me a 'baby killer' out in DTA my 2/c year? If so, sorry about that broken nose and those teeth I knocked out, but to be fair, I did cut my hand crushing your face. The antiseptic spray burned like hell.

Nice...I see the cat-call was totally unwarranted...

Get real...

So Scoober - did you hang out at the Moon, drink coffee, and harass mids all day?

Nah...I worked at O'Brien's as a bartender and was too busy doing...well...anything...to be the typical "Johnnie". I enjoyed the school, ie. the books and discussion, but the f-in people killed me. I couldn't stand 90+% of them...hence my short stay.

 

[gaijin6423]

I enjoyed the school, ie. the books and discussion, but the f-in people killed me. I couldn't stand 90+% of them...hence my short stay.

Kidding aside, the idea of a school like St. John's, where people go because they really do like to learn via their own methods and discussion, would appeal quite a bit to me. But like you said, I think more than a few of the people would irritate the piss out of me, and I doubt I would last long there.

In a serious (and perfectly non-violent) discussion with a Johnnie once, this guy brought up the idea that we (USNA types) just couldn't grasp the idea behind St. John's, because we weren't able to let go of our own perspectives long enough to entertain someone else's. I argued that the exact same thing could be said about many of his fellow students, as they always seemed to have a tendancy to take the anti-military/war/whatever party line, without being able to look at it from another side. He pretty much said that he had never thought about it that way before.

I guess my point is, the ideas behind both universities are sound, but there are serious gaps their takes on learning, education, and developing students.

Edit: For the record, the one time I was actually called a baby-killer, I responded with, "Well, of course I kill them. What, do you expect me to eat them alive?" That stunned the guy more than enough for me to exit gracefully.

 

[HH-60H]

In a serious (and perfectly non-violent) discussion with a Johnnie once, this guy brought up the idea that we (USNA types) just couldn't grasp the idea behind St. John's, because we weren't able to let go of our own perspectives long enough to entertain someone else's. I argued that the exact same thing could be said about many of his fellow students, as they always seemed to have a tendancy to take the anti-military/war/whatever party line, without being able to look at it from another side. He pretty much said that he had never thought about it that way before.

So I guess you proved him right.