Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 January 2

= January 2 =

Stealing a college/university education
Are there any good first-hand accounts or perhaps news articles about people who have "stolen" an entire education simply by showing up to classes they never enrolled in and never paid tuition for?

With a very small class this would prove difficult, but for medium and large-size lectures, it seems from my personal experience that there are sometimes very few checks in place to ensure that the students who attend class actually enrolled.

Now if you want to receive a grade and a degree, obviously, "stealing" the education wouldn't work, but if you just wanted to achieve the level of knowledge corresponding to that of a graduate of a specific field, it seems like it would be rather easy to get it without paying for it.

Of course, there is the larger question of whether students pay for college so that they will improve their credentials with a degree, or whether they are in school primarily to learn, degree aside. For the purposes of this question, let's assume that such education thieves are interested in the latter.--24.228.94.244 (talk) 19:33, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Health worry for fake student.- gadfium 20:41, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * An update published this morning: .- gadfium 18:45, 5 January 2014 (UTC)
 * If you wanted a free education, you'd simply go to the library and read a book. You can even email professors with questions - many will entertain questions even from people who are not their students (I personally have about a 50/50 success rate with that). The real value of a (paid) college education really is the diploma, along with possibly networking and experience from internships under a professor. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:36, 2 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I have simply informally audited many classes by asking a professor if they mind if I sit in on the class. Once this led to a problem when the instructor asked her advisor if he could get me access to their on-line material.  The question went all the way up to the dean, and came back down that I wasn't insured if not enrolled and would be subject to arrest for trespassing as a mater of policy, although there was no ill will.  We can't give you advice on how to break the law.  So I would make sure to ask the professor. μηδείς (talk) 22:53, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * This discussion triggered a memory of an old TV commercial for CLEP, which kind of fits this scenario. Bonus points if you can think of the name of the narrator. He did lots of voice-overs through the years, but I can't think of his name just now. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:39, 3 January 2014 (UTC)


 * In my country Denmark, university lectures are generally open to the public and not just to enrolled students. But university is free in Denmark and students even get paid. I imagine it would often be different in universities where you have to pay tuition. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:47, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Today you can attend many Harvard classes (I mean several whole courses composed of ~50 lessons, not just a few classes) on ITunesU for completely free. I am following one of these and they are very good quality teachers (of course, it is Harvard) and the videos are very good too, so you don't miss out on anything being said or shown. You get all the material in pdf as well, and you don't just attend the big classes, the side classes (where specific solutions for the exercises are described) are also filmed. If you don't want the degree, and just want the knowledge, you don't need to pay for classes any more. You don't even need to be in the same country as the best teachers in the world.--Lgriot (talk) 09:45, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Maybe you could provide a link? μηδείς (talk) 17:14, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * It's not just from iTunes; it's via a program called "edX" and it's a collaboration between a large number of universities around the world, including Harvard, CalTech, University of Toronto, and MIT. There's a course list available here. If you click on the courses listed, you'll see that most of them run for several weeks. Matt Deres (talk) 21:26, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, I guess iTunesU is just reusing this material. --Lgriot (talk) 10:38, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

A pen and ink drawing of a 2-8-8-0 steam locomotive dated 1917 - real or imaginary?
I came into possession of a pen and ink (water colored) drawing of a 2-8-8-0 steam locomotive. I am not aware of a steam locomotive with that configuration and certainly not at that time. Did such an engine exist?? Wayne Burkhardt [redacted]. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.35.252.108 (talk) 20:06, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * A Google search found the Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-8-0 "Consolidation Mallet" Type Locomotives, there first of which seems to have been built in 1916. More information and photographs can be found on this page, this page and this page. Alansplodge (talk) 20:33, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * We do have an article 2-8-8-0, but without much in it at the moment - some expansion based on those links seems to be in order. :) Tevildo (talk) 23:37, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I had a quick stab at it, during which I found the image which I have attached here, showing a Great Northern Railway example dated 1912. Alansplodge (talk) 17:47, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Editing an article Title
Hi,

There currently exists an article entitled "Allama Khalid Mahmood" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allama_Khalid_Mahmood. The term "Allama" is an honorific term and is not the name of the subject. I wanted to remove "Allama" from the title which would leave the title as "Khalid Mahmood". However, there already exists another article on a different "Khalid Mehmood" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Mahmood. How then do I change the title and make sure it doesn't clash with the other article.

Thanks RookTaker (talk) 23:38, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Go to WP:RM and follow the instructions there. You need to create a discussion on the talk pages of both articles using the appropriate templates - the actual move will be performed by the closing admin when a consensus is reached. Tevildo (talk) 23:43, 2 January 2014 (UTC)


 * That isn't the right solution here. The correct solution is to rename the article to Khalid Mahmood (scholar).  A dab-note can then be added to the article on Khalid Mahmood, a British politician who is clearly more notable.  It would be nice to discuss these changes on the talk page of the article before taking action, though. Looie496 (talk) 17:12, 3 January 2014 (UTC)