Mike Lin

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since November 9, 2009

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November 9, 2009, on Universities and Economic Growth:
The first day of Statistics 100 at the University of Michigan, the professor said our final grade was either the average score of our midterm and final, or the score of the final -- whichever was greater. Our labs and homework assignments did not impact our course grade. My roommate, also enrolled in the same course, didn't make the first class. I told him about the grading system. Neither of us attended another class, nor took the midterm. Before the final, we spent two days straight, reading the material and doing problem sets. I got a B+. He got an A-. I am ashamed to admit that I wasted all those lectures and labs that my family paid for. But what does it say about inadequacy and inefficiency of the lecture system when we arguably learned the practical application of our course material with 24 hours of self-study spread over two days and a $100 textbook? Compare that with the cost of the lectures and labs -- 64 hours spread over 16 weeks and $3,861-5,791 in tuition ...