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Back then, we had a lot of talks about how to build SIAI’s brand. For once, we have thought it’s more democratic to have an open school policy. Accept all incoming students and let them figure out by themselves.
We do not keep that policy anymore.
That open policy has attracted a lot of Tier-2 and Tier-3 students. In the middle of the coursework, as expected, they have gradually left the program one by one, which boosted dropout rate and made the school notorious for high dropout. In the end, we come to understand that avg IQ of the human is 100, and AI/Data Science is for people with IQ 120+.
Indeed we have tried with lower bar in teaching materials, but the way we approached was to lower our target from MSc students to BSc students. Back then, we thought lowering eduational bar meant teaching earlier year materials.
But it turned out that we had to lower IQ bar, if we wanted to accommodate Tier-2 and Tier-3 students. It was a huge mistake. They simply do not have brain capacity to process any materials for IQ 120+. In the following process,
- Example case
- Generalization
- Abstract theory
- Application to one case
- Application to other variants
Most students had a major block in #3, and almost always, could not jump from #4 to #5, meaning that they need full explanations on every transition of #3 to #4. Since all exams are to test their ability in #5, most students could not process at all.
Later, we come to understand that they only have capacity in memorizing #1, and barely very few of them can transit from #1 to #2. But whether it is for MSc or BSc, or even for high school level, we focused on #3 to #4 and #5. It is no surprise that they can’t process the teaching.
We expected them to study harder, if they could not understand. Instead, they got angry on us. They blamed us that we taught PhD stuff. For once, we have even presented simlilar exam questions from another western top university’s 2nd year undergrad program.
One student told me “That’s an Ivy League School.”, so I answered him back “That means you can’t even touch what an Ivy League 2nd year undergrad student can do, yet, you have a PhD from your country’s top university.”
I almost said “your country’s diploma mill”. Almost.
That year’s experience left us deep understanding of the gigantic differences in educational standard.
Before, we thought of typical admission processes like previous academic transcripts, recommendation letters, and personal essays for academic purpose.
We still need academic transcript, but that’s just for regulattory purpose. We no longer respect the grades in the transcript. And we most definitely do not respect recommendation letters at all.
Instead, we have come to understand that it is better to test candidates by our own examination. We cannot control their education, but we can fully control our admission.
With limited opening, it’s not easy to have influential number of students, but after seeing such disqualified students spoiling our brand, the HQ has changed the entire admission policy. We should set a higher bar to keep the acadmic integrity. And, I completely agree with them.
It’s a table for smart people, not for dreamers with ungrounded hype. Let them go to diploma mills.
