Amherst's most recent alum to get a nobel prize is from class of 1967. Doudna is 1985. Amherst's latest alum for a pulitzer is class of 1989. Pomona's was 1987. You're bragging about 60 year olds. |
Nice spin, if you can't win with count, then win with age. |
...which is the median age of a Nobel Prize winner (59). What, you think people are changing the world of science at age 25? |
That's exactly the problem with using recent Nobel and Pulitzer winners as a proxy for institutional quality. Nobel Prizes are often awarded decades after the underlying work is completed. The average Nobel laureate is around 60 when they receive the prize, and many are older. If someone graduates in their early 20s, you're frequently looking at a 30- to 40-year lag between college graduation and major recognition. A Nobel awarded in 2020 to a member of the class of 1985 isn't evidence of what a college was doing in 2019; it's evidence of what it was doing in the early 1980s. The same issue applies, though less dramatically, to Pulitzers. These awards reflect the accomplishments of individuals over entire careers, not the current state of an undergraduate institution. More importantly, the differences being discussed are tiny. We're talking about two elite liberal arts colleges with a few thousand students each. If one college has five Nobel laureates and another has one, that sounds enormous until you realize you're comparing outcomes driven by a handful of people across many decades. If you want to compare today's Amherst and today's Pomona, look at current faculty, graduate school placement, fellowship winners, research opportunities, student outcomes, and academic programs. Counting a small number of awards accumulated over half a century mostly tells you that both schools have produced some extraordinarily successful alumni. |
Why does this matter so much to you? From memory, Swat is something like 4th per capita for alumni to Nobel placement. It's a cool fact, but it doesn't really say much other than Swat has been lucky to attract some good students, who went to the right PhDs for the time. I don' think Swat of the 1980s is anything like Swat today. I actually know that not to be true, and it's a waste of time arguing about this stupid shit when 99% of Americans can't even pronounce, nor spell Swarthmore. |
| Do people see these schools as prestigious? They barely have 2000 students |
They might not be prestigious to the masses but they are among those who matter. But, you already knew that. |
I work in medicine and have never heard of anyone graduating from these irrelevant schools. Most of my coworkers would here Amherst and think it was a community college or the state school. |
Those coworkers are just less educated, period. |
For the sake of the argument, Yes. And you just did it |
Today's means nothing since your kids are looking for college, why not look into the future? Like Wall Street looking at stock, LOL. |
What are you saying yes to? |
Most people who went to Amherst College (and UMass Amherst for that matter) know the difference between here and hear. |
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According to DCUM, no one at Amherst has ever made a mistake! |