Scholarships are for "leaders" and other college poppycock

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Joined: 27 Jan 2017
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07 Feb 2017, 12:49 pm

I'm clearly not cut out for university bureaucracy. The list of potential scholarships was just released and each one asks for examples of "outstanding leadership." Well, that's not me. Even the academic scholarships, which I qualify for in terms of grades, want additional extracurricular leadership activities. I guess I'll just keep paying full price.

Now today in chemistry we get assigned to groups of four to do an unguided lab experiment and a scientific paper. Luckily we do the papers individually so no need to worry about choosing between pressing my points or staying quiet while the group turns in a sub-par paper. The downside is that each group member has to anonymously evaluate every other member and one of the categories (I kid you not) is "attitude, facial expression, and body language." Well, %&$# me. I neither want to be evaluated by others for this nor do I want to score others in this category. Ugh. I just want to do my own labs, write my own papers, and be left alone!!

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Darmok
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07 Feb 2017, 12:59 pm

TuesdaysChild wrote:

The "leadership" cult that is widespread in higher education is something I specifically detest. The first true sociopath I ever encountered in life (and how I learned what one was) was low-level campus bureaucrat who used to go around with a "LEADERSHIP" cap on.

Similarly, "group work" is an obsession with many educationists (not educators). They themselves don't like outliers and are threatened by individual thinkers, so they set up a system that suppresses them.

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BTDT
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07 Feb 2017, 1:21 pm

You don't have to be a leader to get a scholarship. You can do things like enter science fairs and the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.
https://student.societyforscience.org/s ... ough-years

But, it is my observation that NTs do much better if they have a leader, someone that can decide what everyone else does, an then have everyone work together as a team. So, it isn't surprising to me that you would give scholarships to people who are merely average at math, science, technology, and writing, but have good leadership skills. Organizations that have good leaders consistently do well year after year. Sometimes the results are quite astonishing compared to similar organizations that have everything going for them except leadership.

http://fortune.com/2016/10/05/remembering-steve-jobs/

TuesdaysChild
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07 Feb 2017, 1:37 pm

BTDT wrote:

Yes, I have thought about doing a project and writing a scientific paper. The biggest obstacle is time. I do school and work full-time and am working on a research project with the biology department. Maybe it will slow down over summer semester and I will have more time to put a project together. I get stressed out if I have too many things going on at once.

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Darmok
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07 Feb 2017, 1:39 pm

^^ Yes, one of my observations on the campus educrats who were most obsessed with "leadership" was that they were usually people who desperately wanted to be led.

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TuesdaysChild
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07 Feb 2017, 1:42 pm

Darmok wrote:

Similarly, "group work" is an obsession with many educationists (not educators). They themselves don't like outliers and are threatened by individual thinkers, so they set up a system that suppresses them.

There's also the fact that higher education is turning more towards being job preparation factories. They focus on what future employers want rather than expanding knowledge of the individual.

I do find that most students like the group activities because they can help each other. But I do think smaller class alternatives should be offered for those who want to learn in a more independent environment. That's why I took my classes online until the labs got to the point where I don't have the equipment I need at home and have to come on campus now. *sigh*

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BTDT
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07 Feb 2017, 1:49 pm

TuesdaysChild wrote:

Darmok wrote:

There's also the fact that higher education is turning more towards being job preparation factories. They focus on what future employers want rather than expanding knowledge of the individual.

It was like this when I went to school in the 1980s. You could go to a really good school and they would give you a solid academic foundation to learn new things in the future. Other schools didn't have time for that, they would teach you what was popular now in the workplace. But, if students had to know two variable calculus and classical physics before they could graduate, colleges would go out of business. :roll:

pineapplehead
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16 Feb 2017, 3:44 am

School is all about control, and sadly it doesn't change when you graduate high school.

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