Scott:
Saw the film "Admission" (about the Princeton University's Admissions' department and process) today in the SF East Bay hills at this theater ... It's an intelligent, well done film ... and a very helpful blueprint for the Admissions' department WUAS would like to materialize in the next, few months for overachieving, high school, student applicants to free WUaS ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Admissions_at_World_University_and_School ...
Matthew (who is a graduate student at MIT):
Why should an overachieving high school student apply to WuaS, rather than Princeton?
Matthew,
WUaS is planning to offer free, university degrees accrediting on MIT OCW in video and audio to start (e.g. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/ - for planning purposes), so the courses, the STEM focus and the MIT faculty in these videos are different from Princeton's. And WUaS, like MIT OCW, is Creative Commons' licensed, as well as wiki, so WUaS is very open, in comparison with Princeton, as well, - with much creative potential for students in the WUaS wiki (we're planning to move to Wikidata). WUaS will also engage the Conference Method online (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_Teaching_and_Learning) with these MIT OCW courses (in Google + Hangouts, for example) - like Reed College's undergraduate approach - so the approach to learning will be different from Princeton's. And WUaS would like to hire MIT graduate students, and grad students from other great universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cambridge, etc., to facilitate the conference method online, with the above MIT faculty in video, which is different from Princeton, and WUaS will also build on MIT's engineering prowess and creativity, as well as aspiring-professor grad student creativity.
And of course, WUaS is MIT OCW and Wiki INTERNET-centric, where students will be able to be anywhere around the world with broadband studying, whereas Princeton isn't, and this shift of focus, of academic conversation and of resources is potentially profound (in addition to begin C.C. free).
(See, too, this blog entry to share with overachieving high school students who might be applying to college this autumn, as well as the blog itself:
http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2013/04/world-university-and-school-in-english.html).
Thanks for the good question.
Scott
Deirdre:
Scott, I don't think you really answered the question. You say it will be "open" and "different". So? Are these automatically preferable? Will they overcome the disadvantage conferred by the lack of recognition of the value of the degree, compared with one from Princeton?
Scott: Good point, Deirdre ... But I think "free" and "MIT" are great answers to the Matthew's question 'why" ... And of course, WUaS is MIT OCW and Wiki INTERNET-centric, where students will be able to be anywhere around the world with broadband studying, whereas Princeton isn't, and this shift of focus, of academic conversation and of resources is potentially profound (in addition to being C.C. free), - which adds great convenience. Proof of value of the degree due to recognition will be something WUaS will seek to grow with time. And WUaS plans to be in all countries and languages, under one university umbrella, which will also grow the academic (degree) conversation in far-reaching ways.
...