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[first_seventhe]

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[first_seventhe]

I don't understand why people think academic research is SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than industrial research. Sure, you can say that industry is just in it to turn a profit, and that academia is in it "for the love of learning/for the love of science". But you know what? That's bullshit.

Academics are in it for the money JUST AS MUCH as industry is, because their department thrives on the grant money they can bring in for doing certain projects. So they have to pose questions that OUTSIDE COMPANIES are willing to pay to get the answers for. They can't just do something for the "love of science", because it doesn't bring in any grant money. Trust me, world, I know this, I didn't get paid for my senior year undergrad research because the prof I was working for forgot this simple fact and bankrupt basically his whole team.

There's nothing lofty in it. Industry's just more honest about it. And frankly, Industry answers to "the consumer", and that's almost more fair.

Can you tell that research and education are two of my major hot buttons? XDD

[venefica_aura]

Well, they should be hot buttons. Considering what we majored in, we see lots of epic fail.

Funny you should mention grants. That's what a lot of the "side projects" that my company does is funded by. The game I'm working on actually beat out several academic groups for the grant because we had an actual business plan. Not only that, we have a couple products that we work on to keep us from going bankrupt.

So yeah, I see where you're coming from. XD

~Cendri

[first_seventhe]

This is why I like talking/ranting to you. Fellow engineers unite (and try not to blow up the world). :D

I just feel like the entire world of academia is totally changing, because colleges/universities are becoming a BUSINESS (not that they weren't always so, but it's much more significant now) and because everybody and their mom nowadays needs a college degree to "get a good job". And yet universities are holding onto all of this "lofty science" rhetoric to make themselves look better than industry when in all honesty they are just as bad. They're their OWN industry.

And I hate that research has become the #1 center of any college (in technical fields, sciences and engineerings, anyway). COLLEGE IS ABOUT LEARNING, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS.

I'm glad you guys are taking grants away; it seems like you have your heads on straight, anyway.

[venefica_aura]

because colleges/universities are becoming a BUSINESS

Funny you should mention that.

Now, I rather like how my Real University handles things like that. We have companies pay us to do stuff for them all the time. So it's like industry, but with the resources of the university and the possibility of being all "this sucks, you fail". I understand that.

The pure sciences, sometimes, I do not.

Let's take a trip back to when I was in high school. See, I almost (but thankfully not) became a particle physicist. I mean, I still keep up with the discoveries and what's the current theories because it's fascinating, but overall ya. Anyway, I liked the group I worked with then (we were making particle ray detectors) because they had an educational goal as well as some For Science.

Let's fast forward to now. This University (also the one I worked with in high school) now wants to make a Corporate Park... using state money.

Hold the motherfucking phone?

Now, my Real University just lets other companies pay for that. This hippie college is following the stupid rhetoric of the government having to pay for everything.

How about we just, I don't know, focus on the actual education part? You want to become a corporation, sign the fucking paperwork.

I think the main problem with the "college not being about learning" thing is that the reasons people go to college have shifted. Originally it was for rich people to read poetry and philosophy and sit around and think because they had a shit ton of money what else would they do? Now it's become the working man's out into white collar work.

And guess who's picking up the slack there? The Ivy Techs of the world. They get you that associates degree or an in to one of the bigger universities, and bam, you're on the track to a job outside of fast food.

So what we have is a rift between the hardcore academics and those that realize "shit, you gotta get a job some day". It's chaos.

I'm pretty sure I meandered around to my point, too. XD

~Cendri

[first_seventhe]

I think the main problem with the "college not being about learning" thing is that the reasons people go to college have shifted.

Yes. YES. Exactly. So you've got the old professors who were basically like I never want to work a day in my life, I want to stay at university versus a bunch of young folks who want to go out into industry, sometimes even with a PhD (SHOCK! GASP!).

And there's a conflict between people who go to college to get a degree in something they LIKE (aka, if I had actually majored in music, or in photography) versus people who are getting a degree to get a job (aka, what I actually did).

Higher education is so confused right now. And alumni just keep pumping in money, so there's no reason to be concerned.

I just wonder... I mean, EVERYONE gets a degree nowadays to get a job. What happens when we all have degrees? Will we have garbagemen with BSs? Will we have McDonalds workers with MSes? There's something wrong with the system, in that case, if you base jobs on degrees.

And I could probably, honestly, count the things I learned in college that apply to my job on both hands.

Yeah, I said it. How many times have I used thermodynamic equations? Not many. (The "life lessons" I use every day. The "lofty knowledge" -- not so much.)

We ramble because we care!