New Obama ad: Pathetic or very pathetic?

[regexcellent]

Luck of the draw I guess? Maybe your university was actually properly run.

Another thing I like about RIT is the fact that the only large lectures are conducted by the Liberal Arts department. Which nobody cares about, is tiny, and gets very little funding. All of the others maintain class sizes from 15-35.

[Asher]

U of C is also 25 years older. Where was U of C back in 1980?

Who cares, Ben? We're talking about schools today. They didn't even rank them back then.

[Ben Kenobi]

What the ****? UBC is NOTHING like an Ivy League School.

It's the closest equivalent to an Ivy league school (along with McGill and University of Toronto).

Why is that a surprise, and more importantly why the **** is it relevant?

Because it demonstrates that University of Calgary is ranked appropriately, as a mid tier state university equivalent. Sort of like Iowa State. (edit, not fair. Iowa State has more money). Texas Tech then. U of C is about the same in quality and size to Texas Tech.

The UofC's endowment is over 7x higher than UNBC's. Clearly it is 7x better. Amiright?

You just said that endowment is irrelevant.

[Asher]

It's the closest equivalent to an Ivy league school (along with McGill and University of Toronto).

Because it demonstrates that University of Calgary is ranked appropriately, as a mid tier state university equivalent. Sort of like Iowa State. (edit, not fair. Iowa State has more money).

Endowment doesn't mean what you think it means if you this line of arguments up.

By your reckoning, rankings should be done by endowment size. That's beyond ridiculous. An older, more established university will have a larger endowment. That speaks nothing to the quality of the instruction.

You just said that endowment is irrelevant.

Whoosh.

[Ben Kenobi]

Who cares, Ben? We're talking about schools today. They didn't even rank them back then.

Universities have to start somewhere. UNBC has made strides. They could move up a category (to join with SFU), and I don't think folks would blink.

[Ben Kenobi]

By your reckoning, rankings should be done by endowment size. That's beyond ridiculous. An older, more established university will have a larger endowment. That speaks nothing to the quality of the instruction.

It's an empirical measurement that permits one to rank all schools together.

[Asher]

I'm sure UNBC is the Little University that Could and is getting Better All The Time.

That doesn't change the fact that it's not in the same league as the UofC, and therefore not comparable.

[Asher]

It's an empirical measurement.

Therefore men with larger endowments are more intelligent.

[Ben Kenobi]

That doesn't change the fact that it's not in the same league as the UofC, and therefore not comparable.

Slowwy has a degree from Texas Tech. Measuring by endowment - he's just as smart, if not smarter than you.

[Ben Kenobi]

Doing it by endowment - interesting breakdown.

I think this is the best category - an elite category (UT has 3x that of the smallest), a middle category (largest has 5x the smallest), and finally the small category, where UNBC has about 6.5x the smallest endowment. Or just do four breaks: Elite, Large, Middle and Small. 4 elite, 8 large, 16, middle and finally, 20 small schools. UNBC's not ready to move up just yet. Sherbrooke gets, 'most overrated university ever'.

University of Toronto: 1518 million
University of British Columbia: 1050 million
McGill University: 920 million
University of Alberta: 800 million

Queen's University: 558 million
University of Calgary: 517 million
McMaster University: 513 million
Dalhousie: 392 million
University of Western Ontario: 362 million
University of Manitoba: 342 million
York University: 338 million
University of Victoria: 296 million

University of Waterloo: 247 million
Carleton University: 230 million
University of Guelph: 218 million
Simon Fraser University: 209 million
University of Saskatchewan: 200 million
University of Montreal: 189 million
University of Lethbridge: 147 million
Laurentian University: 143 million
Concordia University: 121 million
Mount Allison University: 110 million
University of Laval: 108 million
University of New Brunswick: 104 million
Saint Francis Xavier University: 100 million
Ryerson: 95 million
University of Sherbrooke: 90 million
UQAM: 86 million

UNBC: 65 million
Memorial University of Newfies: 62 million
University of Windsor: 50 million
Brock University: 42 million
Wilfred Laurier: 41 million
Acadia University: 40 million
Brandon University: 34 million
Bishop's University: 33 million
University of Winnipeg: 32 million
Lakehead University: 31 million
Trent University: 26 million
University of Regina: 26 million
Nipissing University: 25 million
UPEI: 20 million
University of Moncton: 20 million
Mount Saint Vincent: 18 million
Saint Mary's University: 17 million
UOIT: 13 million
Cape Breton University: 12 million
St. Thomas University: 10 million

[Hauldren Collider]

At research universities your professor does his research while TAs actually do the teaching.

At RIT our professors are expected to be teachers first. If they suck at teaching they get fired. They don't get held on because they're good at research but bad at teaching.

A tenured professor I had last quarter told me that tenure here doesn't actually prevent you from getting fired. It just means you can't get fired based on stuff you publish.

At Carnegie Mellon TAs teach recitation which is basically just going over the lecture again in a small-group setting and answering questions. They also grade homework.

[Asher]

UofA is not elite in any way.

Your rankings are horse****, as expected.

[Ben Kenobi]

UofA is not elite in any way.

Your rankings are horse****, as expected.

It's a rule of law. All state universities are inferior to University of X. You're an alumnus from Alberta State.

[Guynemer]

NO ONE GIVES A SINGLE ****ING **** ABOUT THIS BULL****, JESUS ****ING CHRIST, IF YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO ARGUE AT LEAST ARGUE ABOUT SOMETHING INTERESTING

[Ben Kenobi]

You'd actually prefer yet another gay marriage debate? This one is much more interesting...