USC or UCLA for Pre-Med?

RML
Tue, 25 Dec 2012 02:32:53 +0000

Blu,

Of course it isn’t statistically equal. But it does not mean anything either if you truly understood the nature of the award. In this case, you need to fully understand the nature of the award to be able to say something and later draw a conclusion on it. But the way I see you’re doing now, you’re as if looking at the person’s skin and then judge him based on it instantaneously – it’s a superficial process of making an analysis.

First of all, there involved a question of which school is better for winning a scholarship, Rhodes in the case. Then you concluded that those schools which have produced more winners are generally the better academic schools. I’m saying they do not tell exactly about the school’s academic standard. Why? Here’s why.

The Rhodes has criteria which seemed to favour and support private schools. In other words, some of the Rhodes’ criteria are averse, disinclined to public schools’ nature. That alone makes the whole process unfair, prejudicial, biased, and therefore, isn’t a good measure of assessing which schools are better in academics.

Second, there what seemed to appear a division of schools based on undergrad prestige. Whether you like it or not, there’s what they call, HYPSM. Then there’s the top 30ish/40ish, then the top 100ish, more or less. Schools that fall below HYPSM but within the top 30ish/40ish do not really set apart from each other. For example, Cornell (ranked top 12) isn’t really significantly superior to CMU (ranked # 28). Well, unless you’re overly crazy about minor details of things, then maybe there is. But most people that matter do not view college education that way.

Third, the Rhodes slots, aside from they’re highly specified (diverse, regional, etc.), are also limited – 30 to 32 slots only in a year. If, say, 15 of these slots are “devoted” for HYPSM that means there are now only 17 slots left for other schools to fight for.

The Rhodes scholarship, as specified, is also being awarded in Jamaica. Every year, one or two students from Jamaica get it. If we now have to follow your logic about using statistics to show which schools are better, etc, etc., then it will appear that Jamaican schools are more capable of winning Rhodes than American schools. But is that really true? Are Jamaican schools superior to American schools? Seriously??

Therefore, to apply your statistics on this subject and make a conclusion based on it is just irrational.