NE/Mid-Atlantic bias on this forum

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm not sure how to say this more clearly - I am interested in LOCAL perspective from DIFFERENT regions. As I thought I made clear, DCUM seems to provide the local perspective of this region. The original inquiry was whether anyone knows of similar forums in other regions that are in areas (like Washington) where college grads are actually finding jobs. I've read many posts here from people who say they've lived in different regions and I'd hope that such people may be aware of similar local forums. I know where to find the national perspective, but that is NOT what I'm looking for.

BTW I apologize if any feel insulted by what I think is a pretty obvious observation that the comments in this forum reflect a regional bias that is quite different from the views in other regions. As noted, the expression of regional bias is useful for understanding how people here think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm not sure how to say this more clearly - I am interested in LOCAL perspective from DIFFERENT regions. As I thought I made clear, DCUM seems to provide the local perspective of this region. The original inquiry was whether anyone knows of similar forums in other regions that are in areas (like Washington) where college grads are actually finding jobs. I've read many posts here from people who say they've lived in different regions and I'd hope that such people may be aware of similar local forums. I know where to find the national perspective, but that is NOT what I'm looking for.

BTW I apologize if any feel insulted by what I think is a pretty obvious observation that the comments in this forum reflect a regional bias that is quite different from the views in other regions. As noted, the expression of regional bias is useful for understanding how people here think.

Your original post was pretty incoherent. So is this one. You are looking for a regional perspective, right? Bias was a poor word choice.

[Anonymous]

You could try the city data forums:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/

They're not really college specific, most of the threads seem to be advice for people planning to move somewhere, but in looking at the range of topics, I don't think a thread on advice for college for people from a certain area or hoping to find jobs in a certain area would be out of line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm not sure how to say this more clearly - I am interested in LOCAL perspective from DIFFERENT regions. As I thought I made clear, DCUM seems to provide the local perspective of this region. The original inquiry was whether anyone knows of similar forums in other regions that are in areas (like Washington) where college grads are actually finding jobs. I've read many posts here from people who say they've lived in different regions and I'd hope that such people may be aware of similar local forums. I know where to find the national perspective, but that is NOT what I'm looking for.

BTW I apologize if any feel insulted by what I think is a pretty obvious observation that the comments in this forum reflect a regional bias that is quite different from the views in other regions. As noted, the expression of regional bias is useful for understanding how people here think.

Here's a tip: if you don't want to insult people, don't use words like "dense" and "anal retentive". I'm surprised we'd have to explain this to you.

I guess some of us are struggling with why you want this, and that's getting in the way of starting to answer your questions. It would be one thing, and much more comprehensible, if you told us that DC has his heart set on working in LA (for example) and so you need just an LA-based forum. But you want a bunch of forums. Is your DC really be planning to select one college from each of the Chicago, Boston and LA regions? Are you writing an article? Sorry to pry, but if the request made more sense, maybe more people would start to answer it.

[Anonymous]

I can see why she'd want what she's asking for. E.g. you don't know if schools that aren't respected locally (where people may actually have a fair amount of experience working with grads or encountering the in other settings) are being marketed nationally to publics that, in the absence of any meaningful experience, might be more influenced by hype.

It's like wondering whether the restaurant being recommended is a neighborhood gem or tourist trap.

[Anonymous]

UVA is a very good school, but I do think people here overrate it. It was like UT when I lived in Texas.

I think people under-rate schools like Northwestern. Even outside of Chicago/the Midwest, Northwestern has a great reputation and is very selective.

I think many of the small liberal arts schools have very strong academic reputations nationally. I don't think you are at any disadvantage going to Bowdin if you want to work in, say, Chicago or LA. People move around so much for work these days, anyway, that it seems odd to lock yourself into one location based on some odd measure of perceived regional prestige.

The thing is a large number of the good small liberal arts schools are located in the Northeast. I don't think that means that people should discount ones in other parts of the country that are very strong like in the midwest Oberlin, Kenyon, Carleton, Macalaster, etc. or on the west coast Pomona, Reed, Occidental, etc. Pretty much, most of these schools we are talking about have an under 30% acceptance rate and are very selective. They would all give you a great education, and one should look at what is the best fit for the student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can see why she'd want what she's asking for. E.g. you don't know if schools that aren't respected locally (where people may actually have a fair amount of experience working with grads or encountering the in other settings) are being marketed nationally to publics that, in the absence of any meaningful experience, might be more influenced by hype.

It's like wondering whether the restaurant being recommended is a neighborhood gem or tourist trap.

So she wants to go on Chicago Urban Moms and ask if they will still respect her kid if he goes to GMU or UNC? She wants to go on LA Urban Moms and ask if they will respect her kid if he goes to Iowa State? Why would this be better than just asking on College Confidential?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

BTW I apologize if any feel insulted by what I think is a pretty obvious observation that the comments in this forum reflect a regional bias that is quite different from the views in other regions. As noted, the expression of regional bias is useful for understanding how people here think.

The only laughable thing here is what an asshole you are.

[Anonymous]

I seriously wonder how some people on this forum manage to log onto their computers. For others, I wonder how often they venture outside the beltway.

I know there are insightful people in this region, but I suppose they have better things to do than troll this forum with non-responsive posts questioning WHY sone is asking something that they either don't understand or have zero chance of providing a meaningful response to.

I have no further patience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see why she'd want what she's asking for. E.g. you don't know if schools that aren't respected locally (where people may actually have a fair amount of experience working with grads or encountering the in other settings) are being marketed nationally to publics that, in the absence of any meaningful experience, might be more influenced by hype.

It's like wondering whether the restaurant being recommended is a neighborhood gem or tourist trap.

So she wants to go on Chicago Urban Moms and ask if they will still respect her kid if he goes to GMU or UNC? She wants to go on LA Urban Moms and ask if they will respect her kid if he goes to Iowa State? Why would this be better than just asking on College Confidential?

No, she wants to go to Chicago Urban Moms and ask if they'll respect her kid if s/he goes to Wash U or Kenyon or Marquette. Or to ask LA Urban moms how they'd compare job applicants from UCSB vs. USC.

[Anonymous]

No, she wants to go to Chicago Urban Moms and ask if they'll respect her kid if s/he goes to Wash U or Kenyon or Marquette. Or to ask LA Urban moms how they'd compare job applicants from UCSB vs. USC.

I don't live in DC, I just follow mom blogs and forums. The only forum that comes close to this extensive is the Berkeley parents network and city-data for some cities. I've been pretty impressed by the breadth of topics covered on this site, as well as the number of people active on it. I also think the website is intuitively designed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I seriously wonder how some people on this forum manage to log onto their computers. For others, I wonder how often they venture outside the beltway.

I know there are insightful people in this region, but I suppose they have better things to do than troll this forum with non-responsive posts questioning WHY sone is asking something that they either don't understand or have zero chance of providing a meaningful response to.

I have no further patience

Gee, if only you could write.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see why she'd want what she's asking for. E.g. you don't know if schools that aren't respected locally (where people may actually have a fair amount of experience working with grads or encountering the in other settings) are being marketed nationally to publics that, in the absence of any meaningful experience, might be more influenced by hype.

It's like wondering whether the restaurant being recommended is a neighborhood gem or tourist trap.

So she wants to go on Chicago Urban Moms and ask if they will still respect her kid if he goes to GMU or UNC? She wants to go on LA Urban Moms and ask if they will respect her kid if he goes to Iowa State? Why would this be better than just asking on College Confidential?

No, she wants to go to Chicago Urban Moms and ask if they'll respect her kid if s/he goes to Wash U or Kenyon or Marquette. Or to ask LA Urban moms how they'd compare job applicants from UCSB vs. USC.

Once again. Her kid can only attend ONE college. So if she's interested in SEVERAL different job markets, she needs a NATIONAL perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA is a very good school, but I do think people here overrate it. It was like UT when I lived in Texas.

I think people under-rate schools like Northwestern. Even outside of Chicago/the Midwest, Northwestern has a great reputation and is very selective.

I think many of the small liberal arts schools have very strong academic reputations nationally. I don't think you are at any disadvantage going to Bowdin if you want to work in, say, Chicago or LA. People move around so much for work these days, anyway, that it seems odd to lock yourself into one location based on some odd measure of perceived regional prestige.

The thing is a large number of the good small liberal arts schools are located in the Northeast. I don't think that means that people should discount ones in other parts of the country that are very strong like in the midwest Oberlin, Kenyon, Carleton, Macalaster, etc. or on the west coast Pomona, Reed, Occidental, etc. Pretty much, most of these schools we are talking about have an under 30% acceptance rate and are very selective. They would all give you a great education, and one should look at what is the best fit for the student

NW is NOT underrated. Look at its ranking.

If you want to talk about underrated school try Carnegie Mellon.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but perhaps she believes (a) that her kid is likely to end up employed in the region where s/he goes to college and/or (b) local knowledge is a useful (and different) thing from vague impressions drawn from a random selection of posters from all over the US.

She didn't exactly ask in a way that was likely to elicit helpfulness in response, but her question isn't inherently stupid. And you're just as obnoxious as she is.

Oddly enough, both of you seem to think that there could be a meaningful discussion about job markets without any reference to field/industry.