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Jeopardy discrimination?

 
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 751551
United States
08/21/2009 06:29 PM
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Jeopardy discrimination?
This past two weeks has been the College Tournament on Jeopardy. I have watched Jeopardy for many years on and off and have always dreamed of being on the show being a trivia freak like I am.

But in recent years when I've tuned in for the College Tournaments, I've discovered that the contestants are generally from Ivy League universities and top ranked schools. You might say that they're on because they're more intelligent and I'm sure in pure smarts academically they are in most cases. However, on the shows I have seen featuring college students, the questions generally aren't very difficult at all and should be easy enough for a student with a fundamental knowledge of news, politics, literature, history, and so forth to win a prize of several thousand given that the buzzer works in his favor. So it could be an issue of top-ranked students being more knowledgeable and maybe even lucking out and getting subjects that they know well. But I tend to think that is not the case because you definitely don't need to be a Harvard student to answer some of these questions.

With that being said, here are some universities that these students in this season are attending:

Harvard, Princeton, Rice University, Notre Dame, University of Virginia, Vassar, Tufts, Michigan State University, University of Missouri, Johns Hopkins, OSU, and 4 others.

I am attending a junior college right now that is an open admissions school meaning it is non-competitive and applicants will be accepted, size allowing. However this does not make me less intelligent than the Harvard contestants, it makes me lazier and less caring or impoverished as to not be able to afford 30 grand tuition even with sizable financial aid offerings and scholarships. Perhaps in pure sciences, language, etc., I may be a poor student. More intelligent than the average nobody, but not doctor/attorney/dentist material.
But in trivia I am a master. In fact as a child of no more than 14, had I been on Jeopardy this one day, I would have beat the attorney and doctor who appeared on the show. In malpractice cases, divorce settlements, personal injury they would destroy and I would be laughed at as an attorney. But on Jeopardy, I will give Ken Jennings a run for his money.

Now, I am taking the online test next week and I have to get a passing grade on 50 questions. Maybe I'll do well, or maybe I'll do poorly. If they ask Shakespeare like they do every other show for the last ten years it will be a fair guess to say I won't do well since I hate fiction and especially Shakespeare. However the Olivia Hussey tit slip I enjoyed in the 1960's production of Romeo and Juliet. Sadly though our English teacher fast-forwarded that part.

Do you think this is a discriminatory practice used by Jeopardy staff to promote the Ivy Leagues and reputable big name schools and shut out the community colleges and lesser-known schools like University of Hawaii and St. Louis University?

Could I in fact be a spectacular applicant, do exceptionally well on the test and when they see my school actually laugh and trash my application? Could they really be that materialistic and think that only Ivy League students are good material to be on Jeopardy?
Anonymous Coward (OP)
User ID: 751551
United States
08/21/2009 06:31 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
that actually raises a good point. why i should have been born in the 50s...

[link to en.wikipedia.org]
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 746758
United States
08/21/2009 06:36 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
I noticed the same thing about the schools represented. ???? And I have no answer.

All I know is that I'm a 31 year old stay at home mom who never even finished community college before I got married at 20 and I have been blowing these kids away! :) Haha! I suppose being around longer helps. I don't know.

I, personally, don't think a diploma means anything other than you made it through the classes. I know some insanely unintelligent college graduates. I don't the ivy league schools are an exception.
Anonymous Coward (OP)
User ID: 751551
United States
08/21/2009 07:08 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
I noticed the same thing about the schools represented. ???? And I have no answer.

All I know is that I'm a 31 year old stay at home mom who never even finished community college before I got married at 20 and I have been blowing these kids away! :) Haha! I suppose being around longer helps. I don't know.

I, personally, don't think a diploma means anything other than you made it through the classes. I know some insanely unintelligent college graduates. I don't the ivy league schools are an exception.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 746758


Yeah, for anyone with a basic knowledge of American geography who watched Thursday's show could have got a few right out of that alone. Where is such-and-such city located in New York? The answer was Long Island. Now I have never been to New York but I could have guessed at that and got it right. Then one was Chesapeake Bay and if you're familiar with Virginia once again it would have been a simple click away and 500 bucks.

Another one was "TV is changing from analog to _____"? (digital) which a 5 year old could tell you.

About Ivy Leagues, there's a common misconception that there're more difficult curricula in these schools. For the graduate students and students pursuing highly specialized fields this is true.

The truth is the Ivy Leagues' most difficult part about graduating is acceptance as an applicant. Once you are accepted you are nearly guaranteed a degree.

How it works is the top schools have to maintain an image that their students are the cream of the crop... the very best and so thus inflate scores to make the students look exceptionally gifted while also riding on the fact most think the curriculum is difficult.

Lower-tiered schools however are expected by the public to be less challenging more easy-going schools and so they have assignments graded very strictly to artificially make the results of the students look worse than they really are, giving the impression that the school is academically rigorous.

This also has a second benefit in that lower-tier graduate schools of these 4-yr colleges have lower bar admission/passage rates for law and medicine typically because the education is substandard compared to Ivy-League (or not as good as Ivy League schools) so by grading more strictly they are indirectly encouraging volumes more studying time per student and thus bring up their bar admission/passage rates.

Many don't know this.
Anonymous Coward (OP)
User ID: 751551
United States
08/21/2009 07:09 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
oh and little harvard boy didn't even make it past the first round on the college tournament.
Enaid

User ID: 515273
United States
08/21/2009 07:20 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
I met Alex. In my opinion --- he is a condescending little creep. pffft.
Personal responsibility - try it sometime. Quit blaming others for your bad choices. Consequences happen.

:enaid11:
Anonymous Coward (OP)
User ID: 751551
United States
08/21/2009 08:03 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
I met Alex. In my opinion --- he is a condescending little creep. pffft.
 Quoting: Enaid


You mean like this?



Or like this?



Or like this?



Or like this?

Anonymous Coward (OP)
User ID: 751551
United States
08/23/2009 03:17 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?
bump for discrimination on Jeopardy
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 1978
Canada
08/23/2009 03:22 PM
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Re: Jeopardy discrimination?

whatever





GLP