there is totally a basis for what you are describing in modern-day USA. I think it's a great way to train scientists and engineers!
Ah, I had no idea! That's really awesome! I went to a very traditional liberal arts school for undergrad, so I have been shooting in the dark on this. I started with the question 'why does Beetee seem to know everything?' (other than the plot needs him to), and kind of went from there.
I did see you post about the house thing at Caltech, I think in the comments to one of lorataprose's january meme, and wanted to talk with you about the color teams, but I think I was on my phone at the time, and when I was at home and looking for it, I couldn't find it (I went through at least ten of the days before I threw my hands up), so I'm glad we're finally getting to squee about that.
a) every freshman and sophomore is taking a lot of the same classes (because core) and b) the problem sets are REALLY FREAKING HARD so for those of us who are not actual geniuses collaboration is the only way to get everything done and also occasionally sleep.
Some of my choices about this were a little bit influenced by my experience in law school. The first year of law school is core. Most schools divide first year students up randomly into 'section'; each section takes the same 5-6 core classes together, so inevitably you get to know those students better. Typically, students break up in to smaller study groups within the section, to do similar collaborative work to tackle the material. But it's nothing like that level of collaboration. I didn't know that existed in the real world. ;)
Oh, BTW, I think I've only talked about this in chat with lorataprose, but there's also a long tradition of pranking at the academy, usually teams trying to show off their superior skills. This is tolerated so long as the pranks don't permanently harm anything, cost money, or could be perceived to be statements of rebellion (eg, a team might reprogram the big quad message board to roll "Red Team Rules" all day or, as happened one year during Eib's time, dye all the mashed potatoes blue). (I lifted this directly from MIT; their students' pranks occasionally make the news on the east coast. Maybe Caltech has something similar?)
I think it's possible that a few exceptional students from other districts would get sent to Three to study and settle there--it'd be a shame to lose a potential genius just because she happens to live in D11--of course there's the control/efficiency thing there too but if they get pulled from their home district early and stay in Three afterwards I think it'd make sense.
I hadn't considered this as a possibility. This would definitely be a better use of human capital (though :O for the kids being ripped from their families never to return). I think I had assumed that the Capitol would be prejudiced (what's the chance of finding a genius in the coal mine?) or would think the risk involved in moving people was too great. OTOH, I think they do have to tolerate at least some movement (e.g., train crews from Six, Peacekeepers) or a lot of Capitol citizens are going to be assigned very unpleasant duties. For example, I also think that many members of the beta strata of Three are trained to for a 'medical corp' that does rotations in One, Two, Four and possibly Five, Six or Seven (else there has to be some kind of medical training school in the inner districts, and I'm not sure the Capital would find that a good use of resources for those districts... or maybe it is worth not allowing Threes to travel so much. IDK).
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Ah, I had no idea! That's really awesome! I went to a very traditional liberal arts school for undergrad, so I have been shooting in the dark on this. I started with the question 'why does Beetee seem to know everything?' (other than the plot needs him to), and kind of went from there.
I did see you post about the house thing at Caltech, I think in the comments to one of
a) every freshman and sophomore is taking a lot of the same classes (because core) and b) the problem sets are REALLY FREAKING HARD so for those of us who are not actual geniuses collaboration is the only way to get everything done and also occasionally sleep.
Some of my choices about this were a little bit influenced by my experience in law school. The first year of law school is core. Most schools divide first year students up randomly into 'section'; each section takes the same 5-6 core classes together, so inevitably you get to know those students better. Typically, students break up in to smaller study groups within the section, to do similar collaborative work to tackle the material. But it's nothing like that level of collaboration. I didn't know that existed in the real world. ;)
Oh, BTW, I think I've only talked about this in chat with
but there's also a long tradition of pranking at the academy, usually teams trying to show off their superior skills. This is tolerated so long as the pranks don't permanently harm anything, cost money, or could be perceived to be statements of rebellion (eg, a team might reprogram the big quad message board to roll "Red Team Rules" all day or, as happened one year during Eib's time, dye all the mashed potatoes blue). (I lifted this directly from MIT; their students' pranks occasionally make the news on the east coast. Maybe Caltech has something similar?)
I think it's possible that a few exceptional students from other districts would get sent to Three to study and settle there--it'd be a shame to lose a potential genius just because she happens to live in D11--of course there's the control/efficiency thing there too but if they get pulled from their home district early and stay in Three afterwards I think it'd make sense.
I hadn't considered this as a possibility. This would definitely be a better use of human capital (though :O for the kids being ripped from their families never to return). I think I had assumed that the Capitol would be prejudiced (what's the chance of finding a genius in the coal mine?) or would think the risk involved in moving people was too great. OTOH, I think they do have to tolerate at least some movement (e.g., train crews from Six, Peacekeepers) or a lot of Capitol citizens are going to be assigned very unpleasant duties. For example, I also think that many members of the beta strata of Three are trained to for a 'medical corp' that does rotations in One, Two, Four and possibly Five, Six or Seven (else there has to be some kind of medical training school in the inner districts, and I'm not sure the Capital would find that a good use of resources for those districts... or maybe it is worth not allowing Threes to travel so much. IDK).