Why do so many people from low tier colleges get into masters from Stanford, Columbia, CMU etc.?
I see a lot of low tier people from completely unknown schools get into Ivy, CMU professional degrees, Stanford Master’s programs. And then they leverage this to get good jobs in the US. Like CMU INI and Columbia MS has a ton of these people. Any reason why colleges would admit these type of people? TC: 300K
Those are cash cow programs for the university, they exist for pure profit making - speaking as a CMU grad myself (not INI but yeah, a professional Masters)
This makes sense, isn’t INI a cash cow? Interviewed someone from there and they didn’t know much tbf.
They still have very low acceptance rates. My program was a professional masters and I found out the acceptance rate was 10% years after I graduated. Blew my mind because when I was there I thought it was a breeze to get in. There are LOTS of international applicants to these programs.
Touch grass, focus on yourself
“Low tier” people. You must be a foreigner (lowest tier of people in the US).
Expat but went to undergrad in the US
I would take a migrant farm worker who worked his/her ass off to get a cal state undergrad degree over this entitled, prestige drive AH any day of the week
Legacy admissions
Your undergrad school isn’t a reflection of your “tier.” It’s a reflection of how prepared your parents were for your education
This. I know my parents didn't have a clue. I mostly followed my peers and the internet to figure things out. As a result I guess I was always a few steps behind my peer group by the time I caught up with what to do. I've met a guy later in life whose parents were grooming him for an excellent undergrad school right from his junior years in school (as narrated to me by his dad himself). The US offered me a 2nd chance to prove myself.
Absolutely true. Back in 90s, our school principal told us in “12th grade”, there is something called IIT.
If you’re talking about a CS masters degree, it’s because who the fuck is applying for a CS masters degree? It’s a useless degree only used to get a student visa, of course there’s minimal competition
True and yeah I’m am talking about CS masters degrees
What’s the problem with CS Master degrees?
CMU INI is a backdoor prestige hack for Desis. For the school, it is a cash cow yes. That said, I have worked with both super smart and mediocre engineers coming out of there. So I wouldn't bucket them all as low tier.
You pay the money, you get the degree
US admissions are random
Perhaps you’re not as special as you think you are?
That doesn’t make any sense lol, I’m not saying I am special. But the fact is that they are admitting weird students. Like I was at CMU SCS for undergrad and now look at people’s resume from Master’s when interviewing and they aren’t great, makes things look bad lol
Again, you’re not special. Masters is UNDERGRAD based OR related experience. Any person who survived Amazon for 3 years is a better candidate than an Ivy Undergrad that lived a Disney life on campus. That is, if you believe in Meritocracy. Which is ironic given the context.