<p>
Clearly you have not had Chick-Fil-A fries. And McDonalds used to put sugar on their fries. Do they still? Yes they were good, probably even top tier, but Chick-Fil-A fries are elite fries.</p>
<p>For engineering majors, the ABET accreditation does indeed set the lower bound on which courses must be covered for a B.S. degree. Colleges can not water this down if they want to keep their accreditation.</p>
<p>
Sigh. People have implied something pretty darned close. When somebody gives every single example of a state grad they know and says they are unemployed, or don’t know enough to answer questions in an interview, that is close enough for me.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s in this thread, but it is here on this website. I know because it is one thing I almost always respond to.</p>
<p>
One must be very skilled at being careful how they say things, lets it accidentally become apparent that one is selectively conscioulsy using smaller words. That could backfire.</p>
<p>
Are you having to think about how to type this post so we will understand it? This post just seems like normal conversation that anybody could understand. I honestly don’t see the need to go beyond this level of erudition in day to day life. Can you give me an example where that would be essential for communication?</p>
<p>ubcalumnus-</p>
<p>Harvard does offer calculus (2 sections limited to 15 students each with a third “with sufficient enrollment”), but that’s the lowest level of math offered. By contrast, UMass Amherst, the state flagship offers courses like “Elementary Algebra”, “Basic Math Skills for the Modern World”, and Trigonometry. The Harvard offerings on the advanced level are far more extensive than the offerings at UMass.</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> Mathematics Department : Mathematics Courses](<a href=“http://www.math.harvard.edu/courses/index.html]Harvard”>Harvard Mathematics Department Administration and Finance)
<a href=“https://www.math.umass.edu/Courses/course_pages.html[/url]”>https://www.math.umass.edu/Courses/course_pages.html</a></p>
<p>Of course, as others have reiterated, that doesn’t mean there aren’t gifted mathematicians at UMass, just that the general level of mathematical knowledge is bound to be greater at Harvard.</p>
<p>I have no idea how you could possibly have a genuine and open friendship with someone while at the same time censoring your words as you speak. I didn’t even do that with my kids when they were growing up. If somebody says something I don’t understand, I ask for clarification. I always sent my kids to the OED. </p>
<p>And I have relationships, real friendships, with people of all walks of life.</p>
<p>I do think Hunt may be onto something when he mentions that we only speak of certain things with certain people, as opposed to everything with everyone. But, also, I think college is one time in one’s life, also grad school, when the object is mainly to “get educated.” By all means surround yourself with the most intelligent and diverse people you possibly can.</p>
<p>But, when you leave that environment, don’t mistake your automechanic for an idiot, either, or the autodidact carpenter for a someone who can’t understand your ideas or your vocabulary. It may well be true that your Ivy educated banker understands less about Proust than the woman at the cash register in the grocery store.</p>
<p>carry on.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, [Harvard</a> Mathematics Department : Mathematics Courses](<a href=“http://www.math.harvard.edu/courses/index.html]Harvard”>Harvard Mathematics Department Administration and Finance) lists the following calculus courses in the fall:</p>
<p>Ma - 2 or 3 sections of 15 each (slow calculus; Ma and Mb = 1a)
1a - 6 sections of 30 each (first semester frosh calculus)
1b - 6 sections of 30 each (second semester frosh calculus)</p>
<p>
Hey, maybe that guy Deresiwiecz should switch to your plumber.</p>
<p>poetgrl, we have to take your word for it, but it just seems unlikely that a highly educated person will use the same vocabulary with everybody she encounters, even small children. I’m pretty sure I don’t–but I don’t really think about it, either. I’ve noticed that some people need to think about it a bit more–I often notice a problem of this kind when one of the pastors at my church has a “children’s moment.” Quite often she uses words that are unlikely to be understood by most of the children she’s addressing. And you can tell she’s trying to speak to them in simple terms, but just doesn’t always succeed.</p>
<p>Some of those Harvard freshmen taking calculus probably did have calculus in high school.</p>
<p>I have genuine friendships with many people with whom I don’t share a common primary language. We cut out the esoteric language when we communicate because by doing so we improve the flow of ideas. You may say it’s different, but I see it as similar to tailoring one’s language to any other audience.</p>
<p>On the subject of poetgrl’s point about not making assumptions about the intellectual level of people you encounter in service/trade positions, one of the things I enjoyed most about working in a low-level staff position at the aforementioned Ivy was my fascinating co-workers. It seemed everyone I met was working on a PhD, a book, or some such pursuit in their off time. Working at the Uni was a great way to get a tuition discount and many of the jobs offered a high degree of flexibility. The secretary next to me was finishing her doctorate. Her husband took a minimum wage job as a night guard at the university museum, where he spotted one of his own paintings on display.</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § About Harvard: Degree Requirements](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/about/learning/requirements.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/about/learning/requirements.html)</p>
<p>I am guessing one can graduate from Harvard without ever taking a calculus class. I don’t see a real need for Calculus under empirical and mathematical reasoning. </p>
<p>[Empirical</a> and Mathematical Reasoning | FAS Registrar’s Office](<a href=“http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/empirical-and-mathematical-reasoning]Empirical”>http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/empirical-and-mathematical-reasoning)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For me, at least, the point wasn’t that anyone should surpass this level of erudition in daily conversation; it was that if I spoke naturally, I sometimes would do so. I avoid doing that because it’s generally made others (or me) uncomfortable.</p>
<p>That said, I am still in high school and was only explaining why I’d pay more to choose a school like MIT over a local state university based on the student body. I’m not sure how we’ve devolved into a conversation about how adults communicate with each other.</p>
<p>Just in the last two pages you all have used words I have never heard spoken outside of a classroom, or heard very, very seldom: arcane, autodidact, erudition, esoteric. Where do you guys live, that one can discuss Proust with the supermarket cashier?</p>
<p>Well, luisarose, I’m not actually talking about you. But, I suppose it may be an issue you will encounter as you travel along in life. I say don’t hold back. Speak as you will.</p>
<p>In my life, it causes no problems.</p>
<p>It may well be I naturally speak differently with different people, but honestly, I don’t think I do. I don’t have all my friends the exact same age, though, either. So, as you get older, you get to select from a much wider array of people with various interests. A young women who is headed for MIT might actually enjoy my car guy even more than me. The guy can do anything with any car ever built. A true genius. </p>
<p>Either way, Hunt, we have travelled far afield of the original post which claimed this anxiety to not speak in a natural way around lesser intellectual lights and into the zone of preachers and children. But we digress. ;)</p>
<p>ETA–GFG-- Around here you really would be surprised. You might be surprised by where you are as well. Of course, given your “friends,” maybe not. I don’t know.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We here are never quite sure how we devolve either.</p>
<p>Nobody I know seems bothered by any words I use. I don’t know if the cashier knows much about proust. If he knows much it is likely more than I know or really care to know</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I used to do this all the time as a kid. My son did it too. I think it is quite common among people who read books that contain words rarely encountered in daily life, particularly somewhat archaic terms. (Ague, for example. I remember much parental hilarity at my pronunciation of that one.)</p>
<p>Wouldn’t mispronunciation by fluent speakers be mainly an issue in languages where the written form does not have a consistent mapping to the spoken form (e.g. English)?</p>
<p>For me it was the word “detritus”. Finally my college age niece pointed it out. I was grateful. It was a fly down, spinach in the teeth moment. I’m sure other people had noticed but just didn’t say anything. I’d been mispronouncing it so long it sounded natural to me.</p>
<p>When I was young I would sometimes wildly mispronounce word I’d read or the names of story characters because I would see the words and know what they meant but I never slowed down enough to actually sound them out.</p>