| @Calalum:
I have taken significant number of undergrad courses at another prestigious university (though not Stanford,) and there was really no comparison in difficulty or the sheer volume of work. I also took a few technical courses at Harvard, and I have to say the same thing.
There is a reason why they use the firehose analogy for MIT and Caltech, and there is a reason why IHTFP exists for MIT but not Stanford. It's because it is harder. Also, some of the grad students from good private universities who TA'd my classes expressed some shock at the volume and rigor of homework given.
I also knew a lot of people who went to Stanford from my high school. They were laid back compared to the MIT people. And they were less academically intense.
I don't think programming ability is really a function of college anyway--it is generally largely self-taught.
Aren't you a humanities professor? How does that tell you anything about the level of rigor in the technical classes? I don't see how you could, say, look at the coursework in the chem E department and be able to comment on in it. |