Website Lets You Bet On Your Grades

crimeandpunishment writes "College students who expect to get good grades can get a good payoff, if they're willing to put their money where their mouse is. A website is taking wagers on grades from students at 36 American colleges. Students have to register, upload their schedule, and give the site access to official school records. The site, called Ultrinsic, then calculates odds and the students decide whether to place their bets. Ultrinsic's CEO Steven Woldf insists it's not online gambling, since these wagers involve skill. He says 'The students have 100 percent control over it, over how they do. Other people's stuff you bet on — your own stuff you invest in.'"

Re:Skill?

[twidarkling]

I... I'm gonna call bullshit. Depending on your institution, teacher, and personal disposition, you may or may not learn the curriculum. But that's still different than learning nothing. If nothing else, you need to learn how to give the professor what he or she wants to see. That involves reading people. Some profs like sycophants, some like contrarians, some like big words being used, some value class participation. You need to learn how to give people what they want, how they want it, and in how obvious a manner they want it.

Nonsense

[b4upoo]

Obviously the prejudice of a professor can play heavily upon grades. Most of us have seen it in action. Sometimes it's the old guy who gives great grades to pretty girls and hates anyone on the football team. The next time around may be the opposite. Perhaps only the football team gets a break on grades. The point being that it is flat out bonkers to think that the student is the only one in charge of his grades.

Re:Skill?

[Sarten-X]

I went into college knowing a lot, and also knowing that there was more out there I didn't know. During college, I increased the first quantity.

The most important skills I learned, in order:

1. Proper (or even merely acceptable) use of formal language can impress people.
2. Impressing people is an easy way to cut through bureaucracy and get a face-to-face talk with the people making decisions.
3. Those people are hidden at all levels of the bureaucracy.

I suppose I also learned how to win a programming contest. That accomplishment, more or less by itself, got me my last job interview.