D in the ix magazine about "programming today"

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Don" <nospam at nospam.com> wrote in message 
news:hhgho0$2e8o$1 at digitalmars.com...
>
> It is different elsewhere.
> In Australia, all universities are public, except one private university 
> which is named after Australia's most notorious corporate criminal. Really 
> bizarre - it's kind of like getting an Aviation degree from Bin Laden 
> Flying School.

Heh, crazy :)

> I'm not sure that I would have gone to university if I'd lived in the US, 
> and I'm certain my wife could not have -- it seems like you need rich 
> parents. Our tertiary education was virtually free.

In the US you can go afford college easily if you're either really rich *or* 
if you're in poverty (or if you're a non-caucasian woman). If you're in 
poverty you get everything paid for via all the scholarships and grants that 
are out there (which is great). You also get pretty much a free ride on 
grants and sholarships if you're a woman or a non-caucasian and doubly-so if 
you pursue math or CS (not so great if you beleive in the "equality" that 
most US citizens *claim* to value, even though most don't *truly* value it 
as they wouldn't know true equality if it, ahem...well, you probably know 
where I'm going with that). But if you're white or male (especially a white 
male) and you're middle-class (especially lower-middle class), then you're 
pretty much screwed. I made the mistake of going and it left me US$100,000 
in debt. Stupidest thing I ever did by far.

>
> Australian universities get their money by having astronomical fees for 
> overseas (Asian) students. There's a lot of pressure on academic staff to 
> get them to graduate, no matter how poorly they perform.

Yea, see, doesn't matter where you go, schooling is an absolute joke.