"Smartest" Undergrads

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FrankArabia

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don't put too much weight on those IQ test. anybody who has studied them knows that they cannot test for intrinsic intelligence.
 
from a previous post:
>>
>>Abacus is right, top Indian candidates aim for IIT (there are several campuses in different c>>ities) and IIM (indian institute of management). Pakistanis aim for LUMS, IBA, GIKI.
>>

I think IQ is probably distributed reasonably uniformly over the geographical regions of the Earth, as is the level of motivation of students. But the the quality of instruction and instructors certainly is not. The first year undergrads may be gifted about equally in prestigious institutions major countries (USA/Russia/India/Canada/France/Germany/...), but PhDs from the US universities will probably be better educated, on average. Simply because of the quality of the faculty.

Exceptions, of course, exist, such as Ramanujan. And, of course, Oxford/Cambridge/LSE have excellent staff, as well. Not sure about IIT/IIM/etc, to be honest. I have not seen any good papers published from there.
 
FourCastles Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Exceptions, of course, exist, such as Ramanujan.

FC: To say Ramanugan was an exception is an understatement. I bet 99.99% of the top undergrads won't even come close to this genius. Quoting from Wiki,"With almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions in the areas of mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions." We are talking original work here, not perfect SAT scores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

> And, of course, Oxford/Cambridge/LSE have
> excellent staff, as well. Not sure about
> IIT/IIM/etc, to be honest. I have not seen any
> good papers published from there.

Since the focus is on undergrads, I won't focus on the issue of publications here. But you know there must be something to those institutions, if McKinsey & Co. is paying IIM grads closer to what they would pay to their US recruits.
 
>> But you know there must be something to those institutions, if McKinsey & Co. is paying >> IIM grads closer to what they would pay to their US recruits.

Well, if the McKinsey payscales are to be an indicator of value-add, then all is lost!

I do not know about IIM but I did have a chance to work with both MIT grads and IIT grads (we were creating some software and needed original algorithms to do what we wanted to do). I do not know what it was but the MIT guys were be capable of original thinking and looking up things in the literature. Not all of them, of course but on average, they were very good.
 
abacus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FourCastles Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > Exceptions, of course, exist, such as
> Ramanujan.
>
> FC: To say Ramanugan was an exception is an
> understatement. I bet 99.99% of the top undergrads
> won't even come close to this genius. Quoting from
> Wiki,"With almost no formal training in pure
> mathematics, he made substantial contributions in
> the areas of mathematical analysis, number theory,
> infinite series and continued fractions." We are
> talking original work here, not perfect SAT
> scores.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
>
> > And, of course, Oxford/Cambridge/LSE have
> > excellent staff, as well. Not sure about
> > IIT/IIM/etc, to be honest. I have not seen any
> > good papers published from there.
>
> Since the focus is on undergrads, I won't focus on
> the issue of publications here. But you know there
> must be something to those institutions, if
> McKinsey & Co. is paying IIM grads closer to what
> they would pay to their US recruits.


Better check those numbers. 99.99% would say that Ramanujan was 1/10,000 undergrads at a top school. Ramanujan is the best story of the mathematical gift ever (even if his mathematics is sort-of nutty).
 
I got tested for IQ as a kid and got a 80. My parents gave up on me since then but I keep on giving them one surprise after another. Life kicks even if your brain doesn't...
 
JoeyDVivre Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> abacus Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > FourCastles Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> >
> > >
> > > Exceptions, of course, exist, such as
> > Ramanujan.
> >
> > FC: To say Ramanugan was an exception is an
> > understatement. I bet 99.99% of the top
> undergrads
> > won't even come close to this genius. Quoting
> from
> > Wiki,"With almost no formal training in pure
> > mathematics, he made substantial contributions
> in
> > the areas of mathematical analysis, number
> theory,
> > infinite series and continued fractions." We
> are
> > talking original work here, not perfect SAT
> > scores.
> >
> >
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

>
>
> Better check those numbers. 99.99% would say that
> Ramanujan was 1/10,000 undergrads at a top school.
> Ramanujan is the best story of the mathematical
> gift ever (even if his mathematics is sort-of
> nutty).

JD: I stand corrected. Thanks.
 
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