Difference between revisions of "Graduate student"
Kevin Wang (talk | contribs) (Created page with "<onlyinclude>A '''graduate student''' is a college student who is pursuing a higher academic degree like a master's or Ph.D, or a professional degree like a MD, MBA, or JD. A...") |
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===Skill=== | ===Skill=== | ||
| + | The most common complaint issued against grad students is that they are too good. As previously stated, it is untrue to say that ''all'' grad students are too good - even if many are, there are plenty that are not. However, it ''is'' true that many of the best players in quiz bowl have been grad students. Indeed, several nationals winning teams have been led by top players who returned to grad school after a multiple year hiatus. | ||
| − | + | There are two key assumptions to this argument: | |
| + | #the existence (either because winning nationals needs to be a realistic goal or ) | ||
| + | The argument is thus that the presence of very good grad students | ||
| + | would effectively | ||
| + | even among advocates of limiting grad student eligibilty, | ||
| + | the goal is almost never to explicitly remove good players (something often derided as "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_cup mickey mouse]" | ||
===Age=== | ===Age=== | ||
| − | One of people's main issues age of grad students is | + | One of people's main issues with the age of grad students is the belief that they've had more time to get good at quiz bowl. In some sense this is another |
the general trends discussed in the "[[back to the classroom]]" article | the general trends discussed in the "[[back to the classroom]]" article | ||
Revision as of 02:15, 11 April 2026
A graduate student is a college student who is pursuing a higher academic degree like a master's or Ph.D, or a professional degree like a MD, MBA, or JD.
All graduate students are not "undergraduate eligible" - however, not every student without undergrad eligibility is a graduate student. This is because all rulesets set a limit on the amount of time a student can be an undergraduate, excluding non-traditional students who spend more than roughly four years to graduate.
Controversy
The eligibility of graduate students in quiz bowl is a perennial source for argument. Defenders of the status quo hold that quiz bowl is a game for all college students, including grad students, and that the game benefits from having a wider range of players. Opponents argue that the presence of grad students stifles the ambitions of the undergraduate portion of the community through their control over the game and its discourse.
An important aspect to remember when participating in such discussions is that there is nothing intrinsically exceptional or unfair about being a graduate student. Grad students are not a monolith. Though their detractors typically focus on specific players that are considered too old or too good or to have played too long, there are plenty of other grad students who don't meet any of these criteria.
Thus, it is most relevant to focus on the two components that lie at the heart of all of these discussions:
- how to handle players who are too good
- how to handle players who are too old.
Because neither of these things are actually related to being enrolled in graduate school these topics also appear when discussing other kinds of demarcation problem, like "who gets to be an undergraduate".