General

OP, you need to lighten the hell up. I go to a top 5 public school which is somewhere in the top 30 if you include private universities. You're making people like me look like a bunch of assholes when they are not. Also, don't diss theatre classes. I'm a Chemistry and Dramatic Art double major and I GUARANTEE you have no idea what it's like being apart of the theatre lifestyle and taking upper level theatre classes and actually being a design member of a show or having to read plays for hours on end for your classes and have to write tons of papers and do stupid amounts of analyzing.

To be honest, I'm not even that mad you are talking down about other schools. Because I occasionally do that, but mostly jokingly. I'm more pissed about the fact you are talking badly about theatre. Being a hardcore STEM major (of which is one of the hardest STEM majors at my university) and a fine arts double major literally Struggle Bus 2: Electric Bogaloo.

do you respect people that don't go to college?

UofT! UofT!

[quote=Ecliptic]Wow, you are a genius. I never knew that. It took someone from a top 20 school to enlighten me to this incredible fact. Thank you you glorious top 20 ranked school STEM major.

The fact that YOU can attend a top 20 school makes me reconsider the credibility of any rankings.

"I don't doubt that students... But I just think less of those who choose to study something outside of the STEM sciences"

That makes absolutely no sense. What does the top 20 have to do with studying a STEM major?[/quote]
Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking too. I also get the feeling this person took what they are taking for "prestige" not because they are interested, which usually doesn't go well in engineering.

[quote=iiRoxanne]The fields I'm interested in going into are exclusive to students pursuing STEM fields. Like, engineers at GM or Ford (not saying this is exactly what I'm into) don't focus on social sciences.[b]If you want to become an engineer, you study engineering.[/b]
I don't doubt that students who attend schools outside of the top 20 are smart, but I just think less of those who choose to study something outside of the STEM sciences.[/quote]

Wow, you are a genius. I never knew that. It took someone from a top 20 school to enlighten me to this incredible fact. Thank you you glorious top 20 ranked school STEM major.

The fact that YOU can attend a top 20 school makes me reconsider the credibility of any rankings.

"I don't doubt that students... But I just think less of those who choose to study something outside of the STEM sciences"

That makes absolutely no sense. What does the top 20 have to do with studying a STEM major?

I'm not completely sure how high my school ranked, but it's the only school in the province which offers the final 2 years of B.Eng programs. Other schools in the province just transfer here.

TBH I've never seen the point of trying for GPA much, I don't really care about what the numbers say. I understand how it might be frustrating when others talk about their programs like that, but I don't even think of it that way.

If you take engineering (especially if you continue on to the later years, since people often switch a few years in) it's generally because the math/science courses have been a forte, and you enjoy problem solving. Once you get the hang of it, I find the courses have a lot in common as long as you approach things the same way. Specifically in mechanical engineering, a lot of the problem solving techniques that show up in one course show up in another course, even if the two are completely unrelated on the surface.

This is starting to tangent off so I'm going to try and condense it. I think personally I found my mechanical engineering degree a lot easier than I would have found like a psychology degree. I was able to learn courses in a matter of days just by knowing how it paralleled other subjects, especially because memorization was never prioritized, just problem solving and the ability to properly use information. In an arts degree all the reports and stuff would have killed me.

I don't really get the point in getting things like art majors, but if people want to learn about it, I don't really care either.

The richest person in the world didn't even finish college. Bill gates.

[quote=iiRoxanne]The fields I'm interested in going into are exclusive to students pursuing STEM fields. Like, engineers at GM or Ford (not saying this is exactly what I'm into) don't focus on social sciences. If you want to become an engineer, you study engineering.

I don't doubt that students who attend schools outside of the top 20 are smart, but I just think less of those who choose to study something outside of the STEM sciences.[/quote]

you shouldn't think lowly of someone who doesn't want to go into the stem field...
plus, going to uni that is "highly ranked" doesn't mean you're more intelligent
than someone that doesn't go to an ivy league school

I went to a poorly ranked university for undergrad. I am now in medical school which was top 10 when I applied. Some people go to "bad" universities because they're offered a buttload of scholarship money. I turned down multiple top 20s to attend my state school and i'm proud of it. War Eagle.

EDIT: Many "top" schools are also notorious for grade inflation. Some of the most challenging schools are not top 20. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/grade-inflation-colleges-with-the-easiest-and-hardest-grades/

My university was actually one of the hardest and it's nowhere near top 20 lol.

The sooner people realize that institutional prestige is mostly bull, the better. It kinda surprises me when people here talk about their education in terms of where they go or how much cred their school has.

When I was picking schools, I realized that one of our state universities had the most reputable program for the major I was interested in at the time. Even though they were "outranked" by swankier private universities, kids coming out of the state uni program were preferentially hired. I couldn't give two hecks about what my school's ranking was, because I don't need to affirm my social or intellectual standing to myself.

I attend a top 20 university as well, but we clearly dont go to the same school since mine does not have an engineering school. Based on this, you should know where I attend but regardless, I understand your viewpoint. I know people going to low state schools and bragging about their 4.0 in college even though they had a 3.0 in high school. I was ranked in the top 1% out of 800 kids in my graduating class, and I am struggling to keep a 3.5 at my college. THAT FINANCE AND COMP SCI DOUBLE MAJOR THO.

@iiRoxanne: Majoring in STEM and going to prestigious universities are not the same thing. Your title and thread talked mainly about looking down on people going to community colleges but now you look down on non-STEM majors as well? Different people have different interests. Just because you're pursuing STEM fields doesn't mean everybody else should as well. You should just live your life and not butt into other peoples' life choices. They have nothing to do with you.

Yum's absolutely right, you're entitled to your opinions and assumptions, but just make sure they're not baseless. Follow up with them and get to know others first.

@iiRoxanne LOL. High school plain out sucked.

you're still young. you havent experienced a lot in life. if you believe that "Advanced Theater 223" is easy, go ahead and take it then. believing that by attending a school that has a great reputation has set your life isnt that great considering that there are various examples of people who made it big who have either not gone to a prestigious school or even gone to school. with that being said, i think that you have a horrible opinion towards others.

I attend a top 100 university (SE/CS) and there are dumbasses all around me; being in a "nationally ranked" institution doesn't automatically make its students smart or above anyone else. I've met and worked with local community college students that were admittedly leagues above me, but I've also worked with students at my university that were leagues under me. It's not the school that matters -- it's the student's academic ability. Are you going to look down on a first year that's already taking calculus 3 and linear algebra at a non-ranked university or are you going to look down on a first year that's struggling with pre-calculus or calculus 1 in a top 20 school? Do you also happen to think less of someone that doesn't live in a 3,000sqft 3 bed/bath house too? I'm a SE major (plus applied math minor) -- it might not be as difficult as ME -- but it's still a STEM major. If you seriously think less of [i]all[/i] non-STEM students, then maybe you should rethink your academic future and get out of mechanical engineering.

You have a right to your own opinion, but I'm also entitled to call your opinion trash.

[quote=ShammyShakes]I find myself feeling the exact same way often. Never openly of course, just to myself. For example (just graduated high school), a close friend of mine took 4 AP classes this year: Spanish, Psych, Environmental Science, and English. I also took 4 this year: Calc BC, Physics C: Mechanics/Electricity/Magnetism, Bio, and Psych. Whenever he complained about "too much work" or "really tough exams," I would laugh it off with him, but deep down on the inside I always felt sort of envious. Dabbling into a little bit of Psych here, I'm gonna go on a tangent about Freud and say that we think this way to [i]rationalize[/i] or [i]justify[/i] our tedious work/study habits as well as our efforts. Pretty sure that AP classes can't compare to the rigor of actual advanced college classes, but I hope you get the jist of it. No one can tell you that your feelings are "wrong," though I think you'll be better off changing your viewpoints slightly. Maybe Theater is an extremely difficult class for that shy kid who sucks at speaking in front of crowds? What's easy for one person may not be for another. I've been trying to change myself, and I guess repressing these feelings from time to time really helps.

Anyone who dismisses your feelings/thoughts though needs to experience firsthand how rough life as a Mechanical Engineer (Biomedical here) major really is in order to understand where you're coming from though.[/quote]

This is definitely my favorite comment. I completely understand the struggle of high school, because I worked my ass off to graduate top 10 of my class of a thousand.

I think you're right that I need to consider perspective before I completely dismiss my Facebook friends' academic careers.

Thanks for agreeing that you understand what I mean and you have a similar train of thought. I don't talk to my friends about this because even as engineers, they would scold me for being cruel, but in my strain of reason, I still think it's justified.

Best of luck with BME. Lots of imaging courses await you

I find myself feeling the exact same way often. Never openly of course, just to myself. For example (just graduated high school), a close friend of mine took 4 AP classes this year: Spanish, Psych, Environmental Science, and English. I also took 4 this year: Calc BC, Physics C: Mechanics/Electricity/Magnetism, Bio, and Psych. Whenever he complained about "too much work" or "really tough exams," I would laugh it off with him, but deep down on the inside I always felt sort of pissed off. Here I was killing myself over derivations and proofs, while my pal tested the pH of soil in class.... Dabbling into a little bit of Psych here, I'm gonna go on a tangent about Freud and say that we think this way to [i]rationalize[/i] or [i]justify[/i] our tedious work/study habits as well as our efforts. Pretty sure that AP classes can't compare to the rigor of actual advanced college classes, but I hope you get the jist of it. No one can tell you that your feelings are "wrong," though I think you'll be better off changing your viewpoints slightly. Maybe Theater is an extremely difficult class for that shy kid who sucks at speaking in front of crowds? What's easy for one person may not be for another. I've been trying to change myself, and I guess repressing these feelings from time to time really helps.

Anyone who dismisses your feelings/thoughts though needs to experience firsthand how rough life as a Mechanical Engineer (Biomedical here) major really is in order to understand where you're coming from though.

@iiRoxanne: Math and econ

I was looking at the social aspect of each college's campus in my junior year. I was really awkward in high school so I needed to find a place that could fix me.

[quote=RitoPls]I felt the same but then became indifferent to it once I realized undergrad didn't really matter. I went to Michigan (~top 25) for a year, dropped out, now I'm starting at Stonybrook (~top 80) in August and it's really all the same crap if it's not Ivy, MIT, or Stanford. I think the key is to just not drown yourself in debt and enjoy yourself sooo ya.[/quote]

If you don't mind me asking, what are you studying?

I agree that debt sucks, but I got a full ride to my school (lol inb4 people start calling me a pompous jerk) so debt wasn't an issue. When I looked at colleges, I was thinking purely academics and prestige. My university happened to have everything and more.

You think you're special now, but once you graduate you won't be. As you should know, what college you go to doesn't necessarily correlate with intelligence. People may have different qualifications. You can set higher standards for yourself but you should not have lower opinions of people who don't have the same standards for themselves. You don't have the right to judge others since you don't know the extent of their intelligence.

Also, "unranked" and community colleges can have outstanding professors that teach better than professors in your school. There's also the fact that they may be smarter than you in other fields. And seeing as you've never taken those courses you mentioned in your paragraph, I doubt you can make judgements.

Shallow assumptions but justified *opinion* since everyone is entitled to their own opinion yada yada

[quote=icemage11]I used to think like you but it's like feeling good about yourself because you're popular in high school. Everyone knows that no one cares if you were popular in high school or not after you graduate and start college, and it's the same after you graduate college and start working. You'll be meeting and working with tons of brilliant people that went to a lesser prestigious school but at the end of the day you're still doing the same stuff.[/quote]

The fields I'm interested in going into are exclusive to students pursuing STEM fields. Like, engineers at GM or Ford (not saying this is exactly what I'm into) don't focus on social sciences. If you want to become an engineer, you study engineering.

I don't doubt that students who attend schools outside of the top 20 are smart, but I just think less of those who choose to study something outside of the STEM sciences.

I felt the same but then became indifferent to it once I realized undergrad didn't really matter. I went to Michigan (~top 25) for a year, dropped out, now I'm starting at Stonybrook (~top 80) in August and it's really all the same crap if it's not Ivy, MIT, or Stanford. I think the key is to just not drown yourself in debt and enjoy yourself sooo ya.

yeah id say your a piece of garbage

This reminds me of reading some of the threads on here a long time ago about how some anime influenced kids would think theyre different than the world, feel misunderstood and think theyre vastly more intelligent than everyone else. Those people need to be brought down and humbled.

I used to think like you but it's like feeling good about yourself because you're popular in high school. Everyone knows that no one cares if you were popular in high school or not after you graduate and start college, and it's the same after you graduate college and start working. You'll be meeting and working with tons of brilliant people that went to a lesser prestigious school but at the end of the day you're still doing the same stuff.

Not everyone is into STEM and reading that paragraph makes me think less of you.

[quote=iiRoxanne]On what ground?[/quote]

Lol how typical. Your super smart STEM major who is intelligent enough to see through society's BS but too stupid to see their own petty judgmentalism. I'm shocked.

Whoever says it's shallow of you wants to avoid the nuances of society and our emphasis on prestige.
You have every right to think more highly of yourself objectively, relative to your school's reputation and potential future paths, but to be obnoxious about it is a different matter. Unless you legitimately are hot stuff and an all-around badass, you better check your ego, because someone more well-rounded and more successful in your field of study probably exists.

[quote=OnlineMusic]Well, youre in a top 20 school so you think other people who dont go to them are lesser than you. Thats doesnt make them inferior to you (intellectually) or anything. Just because you go to a better school and are aiming for something higher doesnt make you smarter. Just me 2 cents[/quote]

It's not as exclusive to the top 20 though. I just find it hard to take people in local schools seriously when they're not pursuing a quantitative field.
I'm sure they're awesome at whatever they're doing, but resumes and post job employment rates speak for themselves..

Edit: assumptions may be assumptions, but can you honestly argue that a degree in a liberal field merits the same respect as someone in a science field?

[i]I chuckle and [b]assume[/b] their lives are easy and their academics aren't challenging[/i]

^ You more or less answered your own question.

Please put that superiority complex away.

Why would you assume that everyone is taking theatre and accounting classes if they are not in a highly ranked university? Even if they are not involved in STEM there are many other areas of study. Furthermore, if you don't have experience taking these classes at a university how can you say they are easier? Finally, university rankings do not directly represent the knowledge that someone can take away. I believe that what you learn, and not where you learn it is most important. Professors at these universities have often graduated from higher ranking schools. Assuming that these professors are passing on the same knowledge learned at their university, it seems difficult to distinguish the curriculum of the universities by rank.

[quote=iiRoxanne]On what ground?[/quote]

Well, youre in a top 20 school so you think other people who dont go to them are lesser than you. Thats doesnt make them inferior to you (intellectually) or anything. Just because you go to a better school and are aiming for something higher doesnt make you smarter. Just me 2 cents

you are a nerd

[quote=OnlineMusic]Pretty presumptuous of you if you ask me[/quote]

On what ground?

Pretty presumptuous of you if you ask me

[quote=mitarumetaro]A lot of programs in a lot of top 100 schools are pretty soft...[/quote]

Idk I said top 100, but I think a more lengthy version is:
I think less of people who attend universities not in the top 50 or those who are not pursuing technical STEM degrees

A lot of programs in a lot of top 100 schools are pretty soft...