Re: How important is school reputation for MS in Biostatistics?


rrcolby@xxxxxx wrote:

> The problem is that those grades need to be more goal-oriented than
> just for the sake of academic accolades. For instance, an internship at
> Goldman Sachs or Boston Consulting Group may require those marks as
> well as admissions to a law or medical school.

The problem is that the US society is _overcompetitive_ (as I noted
once at the 'other' forum). The guys at Goldman Sachs needed a way to
cut a number of internship applicants, and they came up with an
artificial criterion: "Let's hire the guys who has a higher cumulative
number in their piece of paper !". But did they get the best people ?
Not necessarily. This criterion is too crude -- it can measure how well
the incumbent can bust his ass in an artificial activity, but it does
not measure the other important qualities such as the capabilities for
the activity and the social 'aptitude'. So we see everyone busting
their asses off in an artificial activity. I now see this for what it
is, and I'd better spent my energy for doing something else which would
promote my career better. Maybe I would go to a medium-prestige
university (instead of top-ranking one), but I would have time and
energy to explore the activities relevant to the future career, e.g.
get to work alongside the practitioners of the filed, and then I might
find that something in the work interests me genuinely, and I would
develop this occupation further and capitalise on that.

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