esrosedotblog

MIT TWICE

This is new.

M.I.T. Expands Its Free Online Courses

This is a big deal.

The Institute has been offering on line course materials for quite awhile.

OpenCourseWare.

Over 100,000,000 people (astounding) have used it. Free.

Now they are adding or adopting a new platform which will provide for lab work, sharing with others and a certificate at the end. Not a degree.

There are two parallel developments. The courses and the platform are both in development and will grow along with the "student body".

No one else, as far as I know, is doing this. The closest thing is the Stamford High School program which is a closed system and offers a degree. It is also paid for. I have interviewed two kids who are graduating from the program. The key thing in MIT and the high school program is the interaction between students face to face on line and, in the Stamford case, even field trip options to promote student interaction.

MIT released the status of "early admits" today. There are three possible outcomes to the early admit program: admission, not admitted, and deferral or back into the pool.

In my area there were no "admits". There were some "not admits", none of mine who were interviewed were in that category. All of the kids I interviewed, were deferred

Deferral is weird. They go into the pool of applicants who will apply before the end of 2011. A week and a half. It is said that they have the same odds as those kids.

The thing is that they have already not been admitted. They point out that it is a more discriminatory decision and only the best of the best are admitted as early admits. But something doesn't ring true about the odds here. I didn't do that well with statistics when I was there but I think that deferral mostly means the deferral of the "not admitted" decision. If anyone can explain all this early admit thing to me I would be happy to listen. But I wouldn't try to do it.

I think that a deferral IS with prejudice even if it is only statistical. I would cut and run to my second choice of school. Most of the kids I have talked to applied for early action at all the schools they applied to.

Labels: MIT