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globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

..which is as it should be. They just caught two more Egyptian students in Florida transporting bombs across state lines...which, of course, makes it unambiguously a federal case. The idiots were stopped because they were speeding. Young Arab guys just can't help their driving customs.

omanized · Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 152

We'll just have to ignore the sweeping generalization about Arab men and terrorism for the moment.....

In fact it is not " darn near impossible" for a student aged Middle Eastern man to get a visa these days - the Embassies in this region are working diligently to encourage US study and can process visas in 24 hours with the proper paperwork in hand. They have been doing this since 911 to try to recover the loss of student applications / interest .

The state dept. is not run by Fox news !

omzd

django · Joined: 31 May 2004 Posts: 37

Anyway...back to NYIT. A friend of mine did one lot of paid invigilation for them last year. She told me that at the time the exam was supposed to start there were no students because they were all taken away for some last minute coaching with the professor. Also the professor insisted on coming in and sitting in there the whole time but after a 'discussion' that was reduced to five minutes for the students to ask him any questions...for a 90 minute open book exam. Hopefully this is not the norm. BTW the sheikhas on the course got to do the exam at home.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Who is NYIT?

The university in the original posting hasn't opened yet... how could they be doing exams?

VS

TABING · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 123 Location: right behind you

NYiT is New York Institute of Technology which operates on the ADM Cert campus.

NOT to be confused with New York University (NYU).

trapezius · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:43 pm Post subject:

NYIT is a 3rd rate university even in the US. Actually, more like 5th rate.

Not to be confused with

MIT
Caltech
Georgia Tech

which are world class institutions. The first two are basically the best in the world in the fields they are known for.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I'm confused and I'm from here... I'd hate to be a foreign student trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

VS

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

VS: That's why international prospective students need to consult with an old foreign-student adviser like me Smile

Well, I would call NYIT "third tier" rather than third-rate (to be picky about semantics). Third-rate implies very low quality. I would informally rank the tiers of tech universities something like this (based on Barron's admissions difficulty index, which, of course, is no guarantee of quality; nonetheless, the admissions rankings do tend to correspond to the institutions' prestige rankings and also US News quality rankings).

First tier: MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Cooper Union
(although Stanford is a comprehensive university, I included it here because it's so crucial for feeding techies to Silicon Valley)

Second tier: Illinois Inst. of Tech., Rensselaer Polytechnic U, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Colorado School of Mines, Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech, University of Tulsa

Third tier: Calif. Polytechnic U-San Luis Obispo, Florida Tech; Lawrence Technological U, New Jersey Tech, New York Tech (NYIT), Rochester Tech, Texas Tech Univ, Worcester Polytechnic Inst., and the unfortunate Virginia Tech. BTW, GMU is in this third tier among all universities/colleges, and their average SAT scores are similar to NYIT's.

Fourth tier: Calif State Polytechnic U--Pomona, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ., Florida A&M, Indiana Tech, Oregon Tech, South Dakota Schol of Mines & Tech, State U of NY/Coll of A&M-Cobbleskill, Tennessee Tech, Texas A&M at Galveston, Texas A&M at Commerce, Wentworth Inst. of Tech

Fifth tier: Colorado Tech Univ., Cogswell Polytechnic College, DeVry Coll of Tech/New Brunswick, Devry Inst of Tech/NYC, North Carolina Agric & Tech Univ., Texas A&M at Corpus Christi, Texas A&M at Kingsville

Sixth tier (open admissions): West Virginia Univ Inst. of Technology

trapezius · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:45 am Post subject:

You forgot Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, which is definitely first tier along with MIT and Caltech, and even above them in the field of robotics, in which it is the world's top institution. Famous for its Robotics Institute. Ranked in top 3 for comp sci, along with MIT and Stanford. Those 3 keep changing places every year but stay within top 3.

Also forgot Harvey Mudd College in California, a hardcore science college, which is even more selective than MIT as regards to percent acceptance rate. Also first tier. It is not very known though, as it is very small and exists in a world of its own, and is undergrad only.

I am a US higher ed "advisor" also, albeit, a self-styled one Very Happy

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

Thanks. I knew I'd miss some while skimming through 1500 colleges in Barron's. It's amazing how Tulsa has come up in the world in terms of selectivity. Not long ago they were "competitive" in Barron's (Fourth Tier) and now they're in the big league. They're in the top 3 in petroleum engineering.

I haven't been a full-time FSA since 1984, but with the first M.S.Ed. in Higher Education, I love higher-ed trivia.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Of course, then you have the detail that if what you want is a degree in education, it doesn't make any difference where you go. You will get the same lousy salary whether you got that piece of paper from a tiny state college in the prairie or Harvard.

The only difference is in the number of years required to repay those education loans. (a year or two for the college... the rest of your life for Harvard) Shocked

So, a major factor is a common sense matching of educational needs with those theoretical tiers and what institution fits where.

VS

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

Yes--we were just talking about technical/engineering schools. Certainly in ESL/EFL and education in general, it doesn't matter much where you get your degrees. In most other fields, a degree with a high name recognition does confer both hiring and remunerative advantages.

We should acknowledge that the Ivies such as Harvard and especially Princeton basically foot the bill for undergraduate students who aren't rich enough to pay their own tuition. Princeton pretty much offers a free ride to everyone except the really wealthy nowadays, and the other Ivies are slowly phasing in similar offers.

A small international caveat: you might have elite degrees from Bennington College and Swarthmore College, etc., but outside North America, most people don't know what a college is in the U.S. They mostly haven't heard of Bennington or Swarthmore and furthermore they tend to think a college is inferior to a university.The terms "college" and "university" are interchangeable in the U.S., of course; after all, Boston College is actually a Ph.D.-granting comprehensive university, as is Dartmouth College. On the other hand, some institutions with "university" in the name are just small, undergraduate-only colleges. Post University in Connecticut is an example.