The Most Active Threads over the Last Three Days

Today I'll look at the most active threads over the past three days. The most active thread during that period was the thread asking whether private colleges and universities are only for poor people about which I wrote on Friday. So, I'll skip that one today and go to the next most active thread which was also about colleges. Titled, "Colleges removing useless majors" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum, the original poster happily reports that a number of colleges and universities have dropped majors that the original poster considers "useless". Most of these are humanities majors, though one of the universities mentioned is also dropping mathematics. This phenomenon, as well as the original poster's joy over the development, highlights a long-running division in the DCUM college forum and in the discussion of education generally. An increasingly vocal and influential group increasingly views college and university, in the words of one of those responding, as little more than glorified vocational school. There is little appreciation of knowledge for the sake of knowlege or any major that might not immediately lead to lucrative employment. STEM skills are emphasized instead of the humanities which once provided the foundation of advanced education. DCUM has always had a significant number of attorneys participating and a number of them provide responses in this thread in defense of some of the majors being dropped, especially English, arguing that communications is an important skill for many fields. Personally, I am very concerned about this trend, if it is indeed a trend. I am a firm believer in a well-rounded education and I have a great appreciation for the humanities. During a time in which basic facts of history cannot be agreed upon, it is disconcerting that the US may be educating fewer historians. An art major may not develop the next life-changing invention, but life would certainly be changed by the absence of art. I really have a hard time understanding those like the original poster who express actual happiness about these majors being dropped. Obviously, if she doesn't want to study those fields, nobody is forcing her to do so. But why does she take pleasure in fewer opportunities for others ? This is a strange type of thinking that suggests the original poster might benefit from increased exposure to the humanities and a broadened mind.

Staying in the "College and University Discussion" forum, the next thread was titled, "UVA Regular Decision Friday, 3/18". This thread was started back on March 14 in anticipation of the University of Virginia announcing its regular decision admissions results. The original poster made an error in the title because the Friday in question was actually the 17th, not the 18th. As those familiar with the repeated threads about the college admissions process that I have summarized will know, colleges tend to have several phases of admissions. First is early decision or ED, which requires accepted students to commit to the university. Next is early action, or EA, which does not require committing to the school. The final round is regular admissions which is what this thread is about. In the early part of the thread, much of the discussion focused on the earlier rounds and speculated about what those results might portend for Friday's decisions. Once the results were available, the thread filled with the usual combination of happy posts from those who received positive news and disappointed posts from those who didn't. Also as usual, many of those turned remained convinced that their child deserved admissions and it was only due to cheating, grade inflation, preferences for minorities, etc. that they were not accepted. Eventually, the thread turned into sort of a "lessons learned" discussion as posters reflected on their experiences and offered advice about the best strategies for getting in. Because UVA is considered Virginia's "flagship" university, most of those turned down will resort to backup up schools which will have a downstream impact that was also discussed towards the end of the thread.

Third, was a thread titled, "Favorite foods that have disappeared" and posted in the "Food, Cooking, and Restaurants" forum. The original poster lists Stella D’oro Angel wings as a favorite food of hers that has disappeared. Other posters followed on with long lists of mostly sweet foods that they miss. Many of the things mentioned, including the original poster's wings, I have not previously heard of, and therefore, don't miss. Some of the things mentioned I knew about, but didn't know they have disappeared. Some of those, such as Twinkies, I feel we are better off without. But it turns out that Twinkies are still around though some posters insist they are not the same as in the past. I was previously unaware of Frank's Black Cherry Wishniak soda, but now that I have heard of it, I also miss it. I had also not previously heard of Pinkberry, which was brought up, but that appears to not actually to have disappeared and is available at area airports. In a similar fashion, several other things that posters thought had disappeared turned out to be still available.

The next most active thread was the one about dating a conservative that I discussed last week. So, skipping that brings us to another thread in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Titled, "Brutal week", the original poster lists his child's college admissions results which include several rejections along with a number of acceptances. Given the acceptances, I would be loath to describe this as "brutal", but the original poster apparently had high expectations. Other posters seem to accept this description however and commiserate with the original poster. Several posters blame the rejections on the original poster's child being half Asian and half Jewish. The original poster says that his child attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City and expected that would help with admissions. In contrast, I think this is an another example of the DCUM Paradox in which attending highly competitive schools results in competing with other students from the same and similar schools and actually makes college admissions more challenging. One poster describes this a being a little fish in a big pond but I think it is more like being a big fish in a small pond filled with big fish in which the fishing limit is only one or two fish. Much of the discussion turned to analyzing the list of schools that turned down the student. Some found the schools to be too challenging and/or felt the original poster was overestimating his child's qualifications. These posters suggested that the original poster's child should have targeted slightly lower ranked schools. Several posters advised applying outside the East Coast so that the student would stand out from the crowd more. Eventually the thread was diverted somewhat by a dispute about whether posters were drawing conclusions about the original poster's child that were not supported by the available evidence. But other posters argued that honest feedback was more important than potentially hurt feelings.