Why are people in universities taller?

[G36E]

Edit: Age group 20-39

Eh, that one's bunk then.

I'll ask a doctor, but since height is genetically determined I'm not sure what'll turn up. If you could do me a favour and find a few more universities where the average height is greater than state height, I'll be able to ask the doctor a better question.

Maybe it has something to do with the correlation between physical intelligence and mental intelligence.

Never heard those terms before. What do you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence
Might account for an inch or two at most.

 

[Tibertus]

For some reason there has been extensive research about this in Sweden. The conclusion over here was that shorter people usually have lower self esteem then taller people, and thus do not seek higher education due to the lack of self esteem.

That really seems like a possible factor. Thanks for the input. Of course you always got the guys with the Napoleon complex going on. Haha.

Edit: Age group 20-39

Eh, that one's bunk then.

I'll ask a doctor, but since height is genetically determined I'm not sure what'll turn up. If you could do me a favour and find a few more universities where the average height is greater than state height, I'll be able to ask the doctor a better question.

Maybe it has something to do with the correlation between physical intelligence and mental intelligence.

Never heard those terms before. What do you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence
Might account for an inch or two at most.

I'd look into other universities, but honestly I only looked into this because I was researching diversity at my own university, I'd rather not spend hours digging up info on other schools.

Also, I've read about that correlation before, and the correlation is so slight that it in itself wouldn't make such a difference. It is an interesting concept though.

 

[Night Ninja]

This is the US, we don't really have a malnourishment problem.

Junk food does tend to form a large proportion of the diet in lower-income families, so I wouldn't rule that out just yet.

 

[Tibertus]

You'll find wealthier families rely just as much on junk food for expediency. Due to both parents usually having jobs and the kids having a million and one after school activities they need to be rushed too. Also, coming from a lower income family early in my youth, we actually didn't eat junk food nearly at all. We had to rely on cheaper fresh foods, which turn out to be healthier, gasp!

 

[G36E]

I'd look into other universities, but honestly I only looked into this because I was researching diversity at my own university, I'd rather not spend hours digging up info on other schools.

Oh well, what about ethnic makeup? A mostly Caucasian uni is going to have a few centimeters on the state if there's a lot of Asians in your state.

Junk food does tend to form a large proportion of the diet in lower-income families, so I wouldn't rule that out just yet.

Go to sleep already, it's 3:45am.

 

[Ambalon]

What Bulle said makes a lot of sense. Though I think we shouldn't discard a relation between height and income - and higher income should usually also mean a higher pursue of superior education. I may be talking gibberish, though.

 

[Tibertus]

My state is about 40% Mexican, but we have awards at this university for being extremely diverse. Turns out the ethnic makeup at this school is about as close to the same as it doesn't matter. It does remind me though, there's a disproportionately large amount of black people here, maybe around 1% of student population, but NM isn't known for having a large black population in the first place. They're mostly out of staters.

 

[Ambalon]

Wait, 1% of the students being black is a large amount? 

 

[Tibertus]

In a state of 2.5 million people with only about 40,000 being black, yes. Maybe I exagerated at 1%, but it isn't more than 3%.

 

[Austupaio]

Junk food does tend to form a large proportion of the diet in lower-income families, so I wouldn't rule that out just yet.

Yeah, that's not really true. Lower classes have to rely on cheap food, in the states that's big bags of rice, bread, Ramen. Cheap pot-roast and so on.

Middle classes can afford to get the 'cool' food which is largely junk, go to fast food places all the time and generally just pig out. Meals will often consist of frozen food that's been popped in the microwave.

Oh and McDonalds.

 

[CJ1145]

In a state of 2.5 million people with only about 40,000 being black, yes. Maybe I exagerated at 1%, but it isn't more than 3%.

That number's pretty shocking to me. Over in Ohio here, my school has something like a 50% black population. I tend to forget that in other areas minorities are actually, well, minorities.

 

[Tibertus]

They've been displaced by the Mexicans.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

The high school students I had the pleasure of going to high school with were comprised of 80% Asians: Russians, Indians, Persians, Pakistanis, and a whole host of Asia pacific peoples.

 

[Archonsod]

I'm not saying all people in universities are taller, I'm saying that the average is taller than the average found in the society that encompasses the university.

Well yeah. Average human height increases over time, and most of the people at university are considerably younger than the average age of their society.

 

[Tibertus]

You didn't look at the entire discussion, it was stated the sample taken outside of the university were between the ages of 20 and 39.

Edit: It's also not too hard to see just by simply observation, at least at my school. Taller people are all around, while most of the young adults working around town are around 5'5". I really think there's a lot of merit to what Bulle said, because you also tend to see really short people join gangs around here, and it seems like that would be someone with low self esteem would do in order to improve their image among their peers.

 

[Tibertus]

That's not proof that your mom didn't sleep with the milk man.

I gotta finish an essay, I'll be back later.

 

[Ambalon]

My high school has no black students.

I made a quick calculation and I think 0.6% of my school's students are black, though I'm not sure how many students my school has so the percentage might be even a bit lower than that.

 

[Archonsod]

You didn't look at the entire discussion, it was stated the sample taken outside of the university were between the ages of 20 and 39.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most people graduate at age 21 ...

 

[Tibertus]

Yet shrinking from age doesn't happen until you're in your fifties.

 

[Ilex]

Every single tall person (as tall as I or taller) I know is pretty smart. I know this is very anecdotal but anyways.