SntISn't it true all Florida schools suck? A 3.5 in Florida is reduced to a 2.5 in the nort east when you transfer. Terrible stupid place to go to school. Free or not.
I worked in the admissions office at UW-Madison when I was pursuing my undergrad, and I don't recall grade inflation being taken into consideration for transfer students from Florida. I call bullshit on this one. Only graduate admissions advisers at some Ivy League schools take that into consideration. If you attended a non-Ivy League or non-flagship school for your undergrad, they will knock your GPA down about .50-.75 points. If you were referring to public high schools in Florida or the southeast, I would agree with you. Just show up with a pencil and you earn an "A".
doesn't make sense. why would entry be free? first, it is already extremely difficult to get into MIT or other such schools so free gives you nothing extra here. second, the web courses are great marketing and that is what I suspect they are there for; it's a draw to get people to pay for a degree from MIT along with helping the MIT brand.
This is the real battlefield in the war between socialism and capitalism. Open courseware, open software, etc. People are putting their work out there for free, from operating systems to crappy guitar lessons on youtube. I think this is pushing the American psyche toward the left more than Hannity or Glenn Beck are pushing it to the right. The MIT Walter Lewin physics lectures are GREAT! Almost as good as the 'Feynman lectures on physics'
"All 40 students of this charter class that begins Monday have received full scholarships totaling $7 million, donated entirely by members of the community -- including individuals, hospitals, banks and law firms." I think this OP misrepresents the intent, based on this article. It was the charter class only, and the school did not make it free, the $$ came from donations.
In the FWIW department i have a few comments re grade inflation, some of which are rather obvious.. Grade inflation = a grade higher than would be warranted on the basis of achievement. Grade Compression = low level of discrimination between levels of achievement. Inflation and compression can occur together, particularly in the least selective institutions. When this occurs, grades become nearly meaningless. A major contributor to grade inflation was the advent of funding formulas for public educational institutions. It was with these formulas that universities began to be "paid" based primarily on enrollment. (other factors too of course, but enrollment is now usually the biggie.) Another factor: Lyndon Johnson's "great society". Prior to this about 38% of high school graduates went on to earn 4-year degrees. Now just about anyone who wants to can at least give it a try somewhere. Put that together with funding formulas and "retention" efforts, and you get grade inflation which in the case of very non-selective institutions also results in grade compression. The most selective private schools and the most selective public institutions, have perhaps experienced grade compression more than grade inflation. Corresponding Letter Grades at non-selective institutions are not comparable to those at selective institution. There are good reasons to want to reduce both grade inflation and grade compression, and there are fairly easy ways to accomplish it, but there are few champions of this idea, and little popular support for it.
If I needed credentials and wanted to trade I would consider the External Degree program at the University of London. No student loans necessary probably. It is a worldwide program that is based on reading lists and exams. It has been around since 1858. They offer undergraduate programs in Economics and Finance and Banking and Finance. http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/prospective_students/index.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London_External_System It is possible to get a London School of Economics degree through the program... (Soros is an alum) Of course, you have to order the books, study and pass the tests. A large number of students do it every year without traveling to England. Hey, another option. The U.S. should offer the same type of exam based system for free to anyone who wants to take the tests. You can spend the money and go to college or take the tests. I would bet that many who attend the traditional schools would have a hard time passing the subject tests. Probably not going to happen soon. However, I would avoid the internet schools like U of Phoenix as it is just a scam and not in the same class as University of London. Good luck,
That's a great program to know about. I assume the exams in the external program are supervised and controlled in some way. That you have to go to an exam center of some kind to take them.