A Defense of a Liberal Arts Education

Hume said:
I would not know. But usually top professors are hired to do research and not be bothered by students.
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That's not the way it works. Nobel laureates are not put into a cave to work in isolation. An important part of their career is training and mentoring America's next generation of great scientists. A whole generation of physicists cut their teeth studying and working under Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman.
 
Cypress said:
That's not the way it works. Nobel laureates are not put into a cave to work in isolation. An important part of their career is training and mentoring America's next generation of great scientists. A whole generation of physicists cut their teeth studying and working under Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman.
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really don't give a shit
 
Moosakofsky said:
Good!
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If LSU could afford it and pull it off, they would recruit and hire Nobel laureates, Fields Prize laureates, and Holberg prize laureates for their faculty in a heartbeat.
And the LSU Board of Regents would be high-fiving each other for pulling off such a coup.
 
Cypress said:
Interesting. So you do not think having had 100 to 150 Nobel laureates spread across physics, chemistry, medicine, economics is an indicator of the quality and prestige of the institution.

That seems like a very bizarre conclusion.
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No, simp, what I meant was that these universities you seem to be slagging off are actually powerhouses of innovation. But not all great innovation gets a Nobel and the lack of a Nobel does NOT mean it is less than.
 
Cypress said:
If LSU could afford it and pull it off, they would recruit and hire Nobel laureates, Fields Prize laureates, and Holberg prize laureates for their faculty in a heartbeat.
And the LSU Board of Regents would be high-fiving each other for pulling off such a coup.
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Earlier you took a swipe at Florida. Yet Paul Dirac wound up working for FSU. (You can google that name, so you can name check it later when you want to sound smart). Must have fallen on hard times to wind up at FSU, eh?
 
Cypress said:
If LSU could afford it and pull it off, they would recruit and hire Nobel laureates, Fields Prize laureates, and Holberg prize laureates for their faculty in a heartbeat.
And the LSU Board of Regents would be high-fiving each other for pulling off such a coup.
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So what would be the advantage for me or my kids if I or they had attended a university that had a Holberg Prize winner?
 
Moosakofsky said:
So what would be the advantage for me or my kids if I or they had attended a university that had a Holberg Prize winner?
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Likely not much. Your kids are gonna get taught by a TA anyway. They'll never see the Holberg Prize winner, nor will the university require much if any teaching by said prize winner, likely.

The ADVANTAGE of a Nobel or Fields medal prize winner is that it brings prestige to the uni which can then get more grant money. Sure, that's a boon to the students in that it opens up grad opportunities, but for your unnergrad that's gonna be weak tea overall.

Research and teaching functions of the university are very much different coins altogether. The uni is getting more and more interested only in the research because it brings in grant money. The education part becomes secondary to some extent. The rise of the hiring of adjunct rather than full faculty is all you need to see to know that.

This stupid "trophy wall" approach to value shopping in academia belies a real misunderstanding of what a good university actually is.

PLUS, and this is the part Cy doesn't understand, there's groundbreaking research that really moves the needle without ever being in line for a Nobel. And many of the unis he's slagged on this forum are responsible for a lot of great stuff we all enjoy today.
 
Cypress said:
JPP is literally the only place in the world I've ever had people tell me that having Nobel laureates is basically unimportant, insignificant, or pathetic.

A university that consistently maintains and produces Nobel laureates typically gets access to the best grant funding, has the best research labs, and recruits the best and most promising grad students.
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Science is not a prize, Cyborg.
Science is not government funding.
 
murph63 said:
Likely not much. Your kids are gonna get taught by a TA anyway. They'll never see the Holberg Prize winner, nor will the university require much if any teaching by said prize winner, likely.

The ADVANTAGE of a Nobel or Fields medal prize winner is that it brings prestige to the uni which can then get more grant money. Sure, that's a boon to the students in that it opens up grad opportunities, but for your unnergrad that's gonna be weak tea overall.

Research and teaching functions of the university are very much different coins altogether. The uni is getting more and more interested only in the research because it brings in grant money. The education part becomes secondary to some extent. The rise of the hiring of adjunct rather than full faculty is all you need to see to know that.

This stupid "trophy wall" approach to value shopping in academia belies a real misunderstanding of what a good university actually is.

PLUS, and this is the part Cy doesn't understand, there's groundbreaking research that really moves the needle without ever being in line for a Nobel. And many of the unis he's slagged on this forum are responsible for a lot of great stuff we all enjoy today.
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Science is not a prize.
Science is not prestige.
Science is not government funding.
 
Cypress said:
But you also aren't on the faculty recruiting committees of a major American university. They undoubtedly put a premium price on recruiting faculty who are Fields laureates or Holberg prize laureates.

I guarantee you any serious graduate student in mathematics has heard of the Fields Prize.
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Mathematics is not a prize, Cyborg.
 
Cypress said:
Medicine and economics.

Mathematics has the prestigious Fields prize, and I'm sure humanities have their own prestigious professional awards which add to the prestige of a university.

Undergraduates typically have limited contact with Nobel laureates. Laureates are usually important enough to mainly be supervising graduate students, managing labs, teaching graduate seminars.

The vast majority of colleges do not have Nobel laureate. And only the most elite students generally will ever have an opportunity to work with a Nobel laureate, so naturally most undergraduates are not explicitly talking about Nobel laureates. At Kansas State U. and University of Maine it's a non-issue.
.
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Mathematics is not a prize, Cyborg.
Science is not a prize either.
 
Cypress said:
That's not the way it works. Nobel laureates are not put into a cave to work in isolation. An important part of their career is training and mentoring America's next generation of great scientists. A whole generation of physicists cut their teeth studying and working under Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman.
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Science is not a prize, Cyborg.
 
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