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rogert2 t1_j4x5kxk wrote

For the record, George Mason University is a fringe, ultra-Libertarian school that served as the embryo for the political schemes of the Koch brothers.

At one point, GMU leadership had to beg the chair of the Economics department to please teach some genuine economics in addition to the ideology, because the students they were graduating at the time were unable to find employment since their basic skills were crap.

Source: Democracy in Chains, which follows the activities of Charles Koch's pet economist, James M. Buchanan, who ended up with near total control of GMU through his own position and through his influence over GMU's largest funders (the Kochs).

Claude might be good NLP + AI, but GMU is a diploma mill for cranks, so I wouldn't put a lot of store in this milestone. GMU's Law and Economics programs will take any body that can fog a mirror while quoting Ayn Rand.

LATE EDIT: my original comment (above, unedited) is sometimes imprecise about the whole university vs the Law & Econ department. My assertion is that GMU's L & E department is a diploma mill for cranks. I don't know anything about the rest of the school.

I stand by all my original statements, with the proviso they are mostly limited to L & E. And, because Claude took the L & E exam, I stand by my conclusion as well.

If you were a student in a different department at GMU, maybe you got a good education. Good for you! Although, it's a real shame you gave your tuition money to an organization that happily hosts a factory for weaponizable misinformation.

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GucciGear t1_j4xvzyt wrote

Also, yeah the graduate degrees in the econ department can be kinda cringe but the undergrad in econ at GMU has robust coursework in applied economics. I wouldn’t call it a diploma mill.

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rogert2 t1_j4x62lf wrote

A person could probably pass that same entrance exam simply by writing "Ayn Rand is right" over and over until the bell.

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Nickbot606 t1_j51an7p wrote

GMU senior here. I am majoring in Computer engineering. You’re getting a lot of back and forth from what I can see in the comments. I haven’t read the book you sourced but I definitely want to check it out.

The main reason why I’m writing this comment is because I wanted to state that one of our course requirements as an engineer was to take an introduction to microeconomics course. I don’t have a problem with this at all, however, this course felt very detached from reality and knowing what I know now about that course and the Professor, I wish I didn’t have to take it or I took it with another professor.

It was highly encouraged that we took it our first semester and many often WORSHIPED this professor claiming the minimum wage should be 0 and that John Rockefeller was not a monopolist. The tests as you kinda state earlier were definitely a “circle this opinion the professor has from the textbook he wrote” kinda questions.

Beyond this single course, as an engineer, I never felt like the information I was receiving was inaccurate or outdated or misleading but I can definitely see from that course alone that there were definitely professors on campus that would have the capability to create these nuts courses with very little repercussions.

Finally, I wanted to say that there are most definitely left leaning professors all over campus and in fact, I’d bet they make up the majority of staff here. In fact, I took an honors course at one point with a professor who was a Marxist scholar and had similar feelings as stated earlier about extreme opinions disrupted the encouragement of debate in a sensible ways. These professors are few and far between and can almost always be avoided. If you have any questions, please DM or reply to me.

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Lab_monster t1_j501n4j wrote

The GMU Jimmy and Roslyn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution begs to differ! The rest of GMU has nothing to do with the law school, but your extreme take on a major well-regarded university gave me a good laugh so thanks for that

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Orbitalbubs t1_j505v13 wrote

cant imagine being this disconnected from reality.

touch grass bro

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funnystone64 t1_j50kaxy wrote

Saying GMU is a “fringe ultra-Libertarian school” that is a “diploma mill from cranks” is actually absurd. Yes the Econ department and Law School have a history of ties to questionable people and organizations but this comment makes it seem the power they have over the entire University is absolute which is not the case. The engineering, science, humanities, and health schools are very left leaning. Its the largest public university in VA with the most diverse student body.

Source: I was a student for 6 years and worked there as an employee for 5 years.

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GucciGear t1_j4xv46r wrote

Say what you want about Buchanan, the guy won a Nobel Prize in Econ.

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kronicfeld t1_j4zuzpb wrote

ASSLAW alum here (before it was ASSLAW). I think “increasingly-“ before fringe and Libertarian would be a more fair characterization. The undergrad program isn’t nearly as far-right-shifting as the law school has been for the past twenty years.

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milkandhoneycomb t1_j50dwff wrote

gmu’s law and econ schools are notoriously conservative, the other schools are less extreme

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