Stanford re-instates varsity sailing...

[NaptimeAgain]

This isn't just Stanford...
U of Md, same thing.. students are a minor afterthought, if not a major inconvenience to the faculty and management. The utter disdain sometimes directed at students by instructors/faculty and staff illustrates their purpose is not educational, but rather financial. Unending construction continues moving the student parking miles away from the class buildings by building in what had been student parking lots for buildings that have nothing to do with education.
Grow grow grow... aquire money, spend spend spend- and repeat. I very much encouraged my kids to not go to large colleges as my experience at them was terrible and I ended up transferring to a very small school. Ironically, my kids did apply to U Md as a safety school and got zero financial incentive to go there. They got big scholarships that covered most of their tuition at much better small private colleges, so they have done college debt free with the money I saved for them.

American youth is being sold a bill of goods that they have to have a college degree. So many of the majors are utterly useless as far as career or professional skill enhancement, and yield little to nothing as far as elevating the overall standard of society- but they do generate a lot of expenditures that make a small subset of people very rich.

Maryland football has been at best mediocre for decades. Cannon fodder for the Big 10 now. If an academic program had the same performance it would probably been closed...

 

[bgytr]

Maryland football has been at best mediocre for decades. Cannon fodder for the Big 10 now. If an academic program had the same performance it would probably been closed...

Performance isn't wins and losses, it's measured in money- winning is secondary. Same with academic standards- instilling knowledge and skill in the next generation of the workforce is low down on the list. Revenue generated is what matters.
Similarly, Orioles (assuming your naptime handle is local)... Angelos don't give a hoot on the O's performance, he's looking at profit margin v. risk. He's been happy being a farm team for the Yanks and Red Sox for a long time.
It's a copious trend in our culture.

 

[NaptimeAgain]

Yup local. I haven't cared about regional pro sports for 30 years. No rooting interest in Nats, Orioles, Commies, or Ravens. Men's lax was interesting for awhile. I guess that if one looks at rich alumni donors, they are more likely to have played the non revenue sports.

 

[Alan H]

I still work at Stanford Med Center, but not in the Hospital.
I would absolutely come here for a graduate degree in a whole bunch of fields: engineering of any kind, bio-medical or cellular biology...absolutely.
If I was 18 years old and I already knew that I wanted a PhD in some field, then having "Stanford " on your application is great. There are lots of other things which are great about Stanford. That said, I wouldn't come here as an undergraduate for any program outside of a narrow band of sciences and tech, or if I was absolutely dedicated on getting a PhD. There's no point.

I'm not someone who thinks that the function of college is to crank out people with "marketable job skills". If that was the case then cut all the arts programs, the literature programs, and all humanities. The only "soft" stuff offered is coursework directly being able to write well, and multimedia literacy. Who needs a course in 18th century French literature, or any sort of music or fine arts? They're a waste of time.

No. NO.

That's not what college is for.