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<p>Fine, then i’m glad to have entertained you. </p>
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<p>And I’m going to go out on a limb and posit that not all - and probably not even the majority - of the rejected students were rejected simply because the school felt that they couldn’t have successfully graduated. Honestly, most truly incompetent students won’t even apply to UM at all, as they know that they won’t get in. (If you graduated from high school with straight C’s, you’re probably not applying to UM.) Hence, there are clearly plenty of students who were are capable of graduating from UM, but who the school nevertheless rejects, almost surely for “lack of space” - the very space that those lingering students are occupying. </p>
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<p>Actually, I don’t think so, for I don’t in any way see what problems would be created. </p>
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<p>Why should they need to do this? Such a student has probably already demonstrated enough knowledge about engineering or architecture as an American Studies has demonstrated about, well, American Studies. What’s wrong with giving him a generic “engineering studies” or “architectural studies” degree for his trouble? Like I said, it’s no worse than the hundreds of thousands of other relatively useless degrees that are being granted every year anyway. </p>
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<p>I’m not talking about raising anybody’s self-esteem. They’re already conceding that they can’t or don’t want to complete the full-blown program. </p>
<p>But at the same time, I don’t see what’s so outrageous about giving them a degree that lets them compete with the hundreds of thousands of other new graduates who have degrees. At least we can put them on the same playing field as everybody else. </p>
<p>You, on the other hand, seem to be more interested in cruelly punishing people. Why so sadistic? </p>
<p>Besides, I would also note that I don’t think this is particularly different from the practice of PhD programs - including most engineering programs - granting ‘consolation’ master’s degrees to those students who can’t complete the PhD. Fine, he spent years trying to complete the degree, he passed his qual exams, made a good faith effort, but he isn’t good enough to complete the PhD. But at least you can give him something for his troubles, and which will allow him to obtain a relatively decent job. If engineering programs are willing to grant consolation masters, I don’t see what is so outrageous for them to also grant consolation generic bachelors degrees. </p>
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<p>Wrong - for it excludes all of those who enter finance and then obtain MBA’s (or other common grad degrees for former IB analysts, such as law degrees or economics PhD’s) - which is to say, the overwhelming majority of them. </p>
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<p>Um, actually, I’ve supported my arguments quite well throughout this entire thread, and it is sadly your arguments that have been supported by little more than hand-waving and hyperbole. I have shown that UM’s 4-year graduation rate is indeed substantially lower than Harvard’s 4-year rate. I have shown that Harvard is widely considered to be a better undergraduate program than UM, something that even Alexandre would not dispute. I have established that UM has vast financial resources, which, again, nobody has seriously disputed, and could therefore deploy those resources in a wide variety of ways if they so chose. </p>
<p>But most importantly of all, I continue to question the notion of why it is so utterly impossible to help those students who may want to learn something about engineering (or architecture), but may not necessarily need to complete the entire accredited degree program. What’s so wrong with helping these students meet their intellectual interests?</p>