tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post1273446336432454657..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: Blogging and CollegeJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-10480639777898077632011-04-12T08:22:17.336-05:002011-04-12T08:22:17.336-05:00Honestly that strikes me as really terrible advice...Honestly that strikes me as really terrible advice. 99.99% of students, even students who really plan on being bloggers, aren't going to end up as successful bloggers. Learning lists of facts and getting good grades are going to be more important for their future than the inessential skills of complex and nuanced thinking. I treasure my liberal education but frankly I treasure food on my table more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-46941279211786980332011-04-11T18:29:20.653-05:002011-04-11T18:29:20.653-05:00Yglesias reco is intriguing on two levels: first, ...Yglesias reco is intriguing on two levels: first, to the extent that grades are correlated with effort, then grades absolutely matter, in the sense that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class-Performers/dp/1591842247" rel="nofollow">effort</a> certainly <a href="http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html" rel="nofollow">matters</a>.<br /><br />However, if one (ahem) happens to be matriculating at a school where grades and effort become decoupled, then - in an abstract sense - grades lose importance as they cease to reflect effort. I can't speak for Yglesias' undergrad experience, but I did have a close relative get a PhD at Yglesias' esteemed institution; one year my relative had a roommate from their world-class law school about whom it could not be independently verified that he ever put the video game controller down. Apparently not unusual for that program.<br /><br />The second point is related: grades lose their meaning at a place like Harvard because the school's equity is pristine; there's no ladder for the school to climb by weeding out inferior students via bad grades, similarly there's no equity upside from elevating students achieving high marks. For the rest of us, lacking access to Harvard-quality equity, grades are actually fairly important, as they are - to borrow from Farley - an important rung on a ladder for which Yglesias' school's equity is already at the top.CSHnoreply@blogger.com