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ArsDigita U. Cuts On-Campus Admissions

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hope-springs-eternal dept.

Cambridge writes: "ArsDigita University, which has been previously featured here, has lost its funding for the 2001-2002 year, and so won't be accepting applications. While it is all perfectly reasonable to expect that the good and great causes rising out of the Internet Boom will suffer the same fate as the many bad causes in the Internet Bust, I find it rather sad nonetheless." Note that the course materials will remain online, though -- so while it's still a sad turn that they can't accept applicants for the on-campus program for now, there is a silver lining.

3 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. The Mills Post-Bac CS Program by Ellen+Spertus · · Score: 4

    Mills College, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a longstanding program targetting the same demographic: bright people interested in computer science with a bachelor's degree in another field. After completing their studies, graduates go on to computer science graduate school, industry, or teaching. Like ADU, there is a strong MIT influence. (Half of the CS professors at Mills are MIT graduates.) Visit the web site or contact me for more information. While the official deadline has passed for Fall admission, I may be able to get strong applications considered.

  2. the aim was NOT to be "MIT without overhead" by pgreenspun · · Score: 4

    Our aim was NOT to be "MIT without overhead". ADU is/was a post-baccalaureate program. Only college graduates could apply. Whereas for MIT undergrad CS, people who already have bachelor's degrees are excluded from even applying. The idea was to give people with bachelor's in other fields as much of the CS undergrad education as practical within 9 or 10 months.

    MIT remains great for what it is (undergrad education for people done with high school; grad education for people done with college) and we never claimed that we would be able to do better than MIT at MIT's chosen mission.

    See http://philip.greenspun.com/teaching/teaching-soft ware-engineering for some analysis of what worked well so far at ADU.

  3. get a fucking life by actual+student · · Score: 4
    Now I remember why I never read the comments on Slashdot.
    • this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
    • ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
    • suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
    • ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
    • obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
    • We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
    • yes, we run Linux.
    I suggest taking a look at the following links. -ahb