What is the social life like at HBS?

June 29, 2008 – 5:41 am

“I’m thinking of applying to an MBA program at an American University, most notably at Harvard.

I am keen to get a rounded experience of university in the US. What I want to know is what is the social life like at Harvard in particular?

Ancilliary question: Do you know if postgraduate students can join the so called “final clubs” such as Porcellian or AD at Harvard. Or can postgrad students even join fraternities?

A million thanks in advance!”

The Harvard MBA Says:

Now here’s a question after my own heart.  After all, if networking is one of the most important aspects of business school, the social life of the school is probably more important than the number of Nobel prizewinners on the faculty (though those help too!).

HBS offers a very rich social life, but it is very different from the experience of being an undergrad at an American university.  A quick look at demographics helps illustrate this:

  • The average age of first-year HBS students is somewhere around 27, versus 18 for college freshmen.
  • Women make up a little over 1/3 of the student body, which is very different from the typical college, where women make up the majority of students.
  • 1/3 of the students are from countries other than the United States, a figure that is far higher than the typical college.

Rather than young adults trying to find their identities and figure out what they want to do with their lives, MBA programs features cosmopolitan men and women who are focused on accelerating their careers.

Both millieus feature plenty of partying, but that’s where the resemblance ends.  You’re not going to be spending late nights debating the meaning of life or trudging your way to the local frat party to score some illegal booze.  Instead, you’ll be hitting bars and clubs with your friends during schools, and planning posh treks to Bali and other global hot spots for your vacations.

Of course, not every HBS student opts for the party circuit.  There are plenty of married students who (like me) prefer a quiet dinner with other couples.  Though even us old married types try to make time to attend a few functions like Vegas road trips to act as steady wingmen for our single brethren.

Social activities tend to center around four different groups: Section, Study Group, Clubs, and Friends.

HBS’s 900 person class is divided into 11 sections, each designated with a number.  In HBS terms, I was in Section D, Class of 2000.  Because you spend your entire first year taking all your classes with the same 80 people, you tend to develop very strong bonds.  Your section is the equivalent of your freshman dorm…if your freshman dorm consisted of nothing but overachievers who were bent on global domination.

Study Groups are another tradition, though less formal.  Students self-organize into groups of 4-8 students that help each other prepare for classes.  Since HBS classes are graded primarily on class participation, being prepared is critical, especially if you receive the dreaded “cold call” from the professor to “open” the class by presenting your analysis of the case study.  It gets pretty quiet pretty quickly when the professor cold calls an unprepared, possibly hung-over student.  With an average of 13 cases per week, no one has time to prepare a full analysis of each (a full analysis including a recommended course of action with financial model as supporting evidence), hence the rise of the study groups.

Study groups meet every day, generally before the first morning class.  Again, because the group members see each other every day for an entire year, strong bonds develop.  I’ve heard of study groups who still do yearly reunions.

HBS is also full of clubs and activities, including the annual HBS musical.  While at HBS, I was the Co-President of the High Tech club, and one of the writers for the musical.  Unlike sections or study groups, clubs and activities generally bring together people with similar interests.  I’m still in close touch today with my fellow High Tech club officers, as well as my fellow writers.

Beyond these three structured social activities, HBS students also simply make friends.  There are folks like my friend Tony whom I simply enjoy spending time with, even though we never took a class together, studied together, or were in a club together.  Even at HBS, friendship without ulterior motive flourishes.

One thing that HBS does have in common with college is the fierce search for romantic companionship.

Thanks to the 2:1 gender ratio, female MBA students (the heterosexual ones at least) find themselves in a near-ideal dating environment, surrounded by accomplished, socially successful, high-earning-potential men.  A large number of my female classmates, far larger in proportion than my college contemporaries, end up marrying classmates.

But don’t feel bad for the poor male MBA students.  In the Boston area, Harvard MBAs are considered the best possible catch for young women, and the so-called Harvard effect holds sway over the rest of the world as well.  Trading on the HBS aura is known as “dropping the H-bomb,” and the HBSer on the prowl will find it an effective weapon on anyone from cocktail waitresses to Wellesley students to MBAs of lesser schools.

For example, early in the school year, the Wellesley girls actually put invitations to parties in the mailboxes of EVERY male HBS first-year.  The invitations include complimentary limo service to bring you to the campus in case you don’t have a car.  I kid you not.

I could also tell you stories about certain classmates of mine cutting a Kevin Rose-esque swath through the ranks of Columbia MBA students, but that I’ll save for another time.

The one drawback of the social whirl at HBS is the fact that the good life does end up being pretty expensive (Wellesley women nonwithstanding).  Someone has to pony up the bucks to pay for airfare and 4-star resorts, and that someone is generally Citibank’s loan department, which will be happy to loan you practically unlimited funds (they know you’ll be good for it someday).

As for your ancillary question, I’m pretty sure that Finals Clubs like the Porc are limited solely to undergrads.  I can tell you any HBS student who took it upon himself to do the equivalent of rushing an undergrad frat would be in for some serious abuse from the rest of us.  Not to worry.  While these secret societies encourage conspiracy theorists to prove that they rule the world through covert connections, HBSers are content to wield their power out in the open.

By admin | Posted in answer, mba, social skills | Comments (0)

How Do You Speed-read Effectively?

June 27, 2008 – 5:23 am

“In one of your previous posts, you mentioned speed reading. How do you speed read effectively? How much content do you give up per second gained (maybe not exact numbers, but a ballpark estimate)? And how well does speed reading transfer to the internet? Keep up the good work.”

The Harvard MBA says:

I’m definitely a speed reader, but I’ve never taken any classes or underwent formal training.  The Chris Yeh speed reading course is essentially this:

  • Starting at the age of 7 or 8, read as quickly as you can for 4-5 hours per day.
  • Continue with the regimen until the age of 21.
  • Occasionally measure your progress by participating in the March of Dimes reading competition (I think my record was 150 books in 30 days).

My speed varies depending on the reading material, but reaches a top speed of about 160 pages per hour for popular fiction.

My big tricks are:

  1. Mentally highlight the important words and concepts
  2. When it comes to fiction, focus on the dialogue–all that description just slows you down
  3. When reading on the Internet, try to get into a rhythm.  When I’m blasting through feeds, I maintain a steady beat on the “Page Down” key

I don’t believe that I give up more than 5% in terms of comprehension; if I read slower, all that happens is that I have less time for other things.

The one drawback of speed-reading?  I have to take a lot of books with me when I fly.

By admin | Posted in answer | Comments (3)

Would you rather invest in Berkshire Hathaway or an index fund for the next five years?

June 27, 2008 – 5:02 am

“Stock market investing, like basketball, is a zero-sum game.

If you had a choice between a fantasy basketball team for the next 5 years consisting of an index of the average NBA player, OR a team consisting of Kobe Bryant, which would you choose?

Similarly, given the choice between a stock market index fund, and having Warren Buffett invest on your behalf (by buying Berkshire Hathaway stock), which would you choose and why?”

The Harvard MBA says:

Nice try, but in fact basketball is not a zero-sum game.

Sure, the aggregate record of all NBA teams is always 1230-1230 (30 teams x 41-41), but you’re referring to stats, not wins.

The NBA’s lowest scoring game of all time ended up 19-18.  The highest-scoring game finished 184-182 in triple-OT.  Big difference.

At any rate, the two situations are not analogous.  In basketball, past performance is a great predictor of future results.  I can pick 5 all-stars and 5 scrubs, and I can guarantee with 100% certainty that Group A will outscore Group B over the subsequent 5 years.

In investing, I can pick the top 5 funds, based on performance, and pretty much guarantee that they won’t repeat their past glories.

Now, on to the specific question.  I would rather invest in an index fund than Berkshire Hathaway, at least for the next five years.  Why?  77 and 84.

Warren Buffett is 77 years old.  Partner Charlie Munger is 84.  Realistically, the chances that one of the other will die in the next 5 years is pretty good.  I love Warren and Charlie, but if one of them goes (especially Warren), Berkshire stock will take a major nosedive.

By admin | Posted in answer, investing | Comments (0)

I’m a lawyer applying to MBA programs. Will my background turn off potential employers?

June 19, 2008 – 4:59 pm

“I am an Argentine lawyer with a LL&M degree in Law & Economics from a top school in Argentina. I am now considering applying to an MBA at a top business school in the USA.

However, I’m not sure whether a lawyer background is going to interest a potential employer. In addition, it may be difficult to obtain a summer employment due to a lack of substantive business experience. Any advice?”

The Harvard MBA says:

Actually, having doubts about your ability to convince employers to let you transition to a different role or industry is one of the best reasons to go for a top-tier MBA.

Getting your Harvard MBA is like going to confession: All previous sins are absolved. 

Plenty of my friends at HBS had ZERO previous business experience.  Many came from the U.S. military (the last bastion of socialism in the U.S.).  Others came from a non-profit background.  Some were physicians.

The point is, none of them would ever have been hired by General Electric, McKinsey & Co., Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and so on.  But with their Harvard MBA, they were able to do precisely that.

My friend Eron had no previous work experience, and came out of the Air Force.  Now he’s a very successful manager at Microsoft.  Same for my friend George, who was a Navy pilot, and is now a top performer at Goldman Sachs.

You’re paying a lot for your MBA–the least your school can do is put you on a fast track to get a job at a top employer, regardless of your previous lack of work experience.

By admin | Posted in answer, career, mba | Comments (2)

I’m a 34-year-old single woman. Where do I find a decent guy?

June 7, 2008 – 3:33 pm

I’m 34, a single woman and looking for a partner. I don’t know where to start.  I have been so busy finding a career and getting hooked up too an ex-boyfriend that I have missed the best years of my youth.  Now I am ready to settle down and get married. I want children.  Right now the pickings are slim.  Heck, where do all the single guys out there hang out?  Plenty of men are available but most are married or have girlfriends–they just want a fling. Where do I search for a decent guy?

The Harvard MBA says:

I’m actually working on a dating book, but because it hasn’t been released yet, I’ll try to provide the summary version and some key recommendations.

First of all, recognize that you’re not alone.  With the declining marriage rate and the tendency for people to postpone starting a family, you’re in good company.

In the 80s, there was a widely quoted article that said that a 40-year-old woman had a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than getting married (urban legend, of course; the writer of the article was clearly speaking tongue-in-cheek).  Back then, 40 seemed very late in life to get married.  Today, it happens all the time.

The Bible on getting married is John Molloy’s “Why Men Marry Some Women And Not Others“.  Do read my outline of the book–it’ll only take a few minutes, and it may end up being the most important thing you ever read.

But for the lazy, it says that there are six basic guidelines for women who want to marry:

1. Insist on it.
2. If you find yourself in a dead-end relationship, move on.
3. Love yourself first.
4. Commit yourself to the idea of getting married
5. Keep in shape, watch your weight, and take care of your appearance
6. Time is running out–use time wisely in your search for the marrying man

It sounds like you’re on the right track, now that you’ve dumped your loser of a boyfriend.  And if men are offering to have flings with you, you are probably reasonably attractive, which is very important. (By the way, don’t pay attention to the negative Amazon reviews of Molloy’s book; a cursory glance shows that they are all written by overweight women who are outraged that men would be such pigs as to prefer the svelte, sexy, and attractive.  Next they’ll be complaining that men should stop wasting time watching sports on TV.)

Your big issue seems to be that you’re unable to find the “decent” guys.  Here is where market segmentation and targeting comes into play.  According to Molloy’s research, the peak marrying years for college-educated men are 28-33 (30-36 for men who go to graduate school), and that the chances that a man will get married plummet after the age of 38.  Therefore, you need to target men between 28 and 38–right in your current age range, another plus for your chances.

Within that age range, there are certain types of men who are more likely to marry:

  • Men whose friends and siblings are married; 60% of newly married men reported that they had a friend who had married within the last year, and men who didn’t have any married male friends were 2-3 times as likely to say that they weren’t ready to marry.
  • Consider unpolished jewels, men who are just as nice, intelligent, hard-working, and successful, but lack looks, height, or social skills; 88% of men over 50 who were marrying for the first time were marrying divorced women. The women told the researchers that they had already tried the tall, suave, type, and he didn’t make a very good husband.

In other words, find good-hearted men who may not look like Brad Pitt, but might clean up well after getting the “Queer Eye” treatment.  The best bet is a guy who has a lot of married friends.

Now for the $64,000 question–where can you find these men?

Here’s the (very) relevant advice from Molloy:

1) The best places to meet eligible men are clubs and groups based on common interests. Join organization that have single men as members.

  • 21% of engaged women over 40 said that they had met their fiancée at an athletic club
  • Sports clubs that focus on activities that attract singles (trips, bicycling) are best
  • Next best are tennis, and golf.
  • Third come professional or social organizations that are overwhelmingly male, like engineering associations or collectors of sports memorabilia.
  • Fourth come organizations that have a singles scene, or sponsor events that give singles a chance to socialize with other club members.
  • Dances, picnics, and charity golf or tennis tournaments are also a good place to meet men.

2. Have an active social life

  • Women who go out twice a week, even just to dine with other women or do volunteer work, are 3x as likely to marry than those who don’t go out.
  • Going out three times a week boosts your chances even further.
  • However, going out more than 5 nights a week decreases your chances. (I call this the Lohan Law)

3. Men who attend religious services are more likely to marry.

A few final thoughts for you:

Only 7 out of 2,000 men interviewed said that their fiancée was dressed in a very sexy outfit when they met–dress attractively, but not provocatively.

Most men propose after going out with a woman for 18 months.  If at the end of 22 months, a man has not proposed, the chances that he will start to diminish.  For 3.5 years, the chances diminish gradually. After that, it plunges. After 7 years, your chances are virtually zero.

Give men a second chance–20% of brides to be said that they didn’t like their husband when they first met him.

Women with a large number of female friends are more likely to marry than women with a large number of male friends; men don’t go out of their way to introduce their female friends to other men.

Men are attracted by the physical, but marry character; newly engaged men said that what attracted them to their fiancées was how classy, positive, energetic, enthusiastic, and upbeat their future wives were.  While 68% gave a physical description of their fiancée, only 20% said that what attracted them was how gorgeous and sexy their fiancée was. Over 60% described their personalities, even if the women in question were very beautiful.

Don’t forget to take geography into account.  What is the gender balance of your location on the Singles Map?

Good luck.  It sounds like you’re already on the right track.

By admin | Posted in answer, relationships | Comments (8)

How do you know when you’re at the cusp of success in your life and career?

June 7, 2008 – 2:49 pm

How do you know when you’re at the cusp of success in your life and career?

The Harvard MBA Says:

I’m tempted to quote Potter Stewart on hard-core pornography: “I know it when I see it.”  The problem is, most people don’t know success when they see it.  Thanks to the hedonic treadmill, even those who achieve unquestioned success often feel that it isn’t enough.  The NBA Finals currently feature Kobe Bryant, a star basketball player who has won three championships, is acknowledged by his peers to be the best player in the world, and recently received his first MVP award.  Yet I doubt he’ll consider himself a success unless he exceeds Michael Jordan’s six championship rings.

More relevant to most of us, I’ve spoken to many retired HBS alumni who have observed both the course of their own lives, as well as those of classmates.  Most of those who went to Wall Street to make $10 million succeeded; yet when they finally made their number, it didn’t feel like “success.”

I’ll suggest a different measurement for success in your life and career.  If you can design a life for yourself where you are happy, and where your work regularly helps you reach a state of flow, you are successful.

To help determine when you are on the cusp of success, track your happiness.  Ask yourself each week, “Am I happy?  Is my work fulfilling?” (I generally recommend using a 5 point scale).  The process should be a continuous one, and achieving “success” will be a function of gradual and incremental improvement.

By admin | Posted in answer, career, happiness, success | Comments (0)

Should I apply for a fellowship to study in Paris even if I’m not sure I can afford it?

June 7, 2008 – 2:33 pm

I’m a freelance writer specializing in architecture and design. I’m about to apply for a 1-year fellowship that only supplies $23,000 maximum to cover tuition, room & board and airfare. This  isn’t enough for where I want to go: Paris, France. What’s more, I own a condo here in the good ole u.s.a. Do I bite the bullet and apply and see what happens?

The Harvard MBA says:

I’m not a big fan of applying for schools/jobs/etc that you’re not willing to accept.  I remember that when I was applying for business schools, I was thinking about whether or not to apply to the Sloan school at MIT (an excellent school, natch).  My wife simply asked me, “Even if you were rejected by the other schools and you got into Sloan, would you go?”

Since the answer was No, I dumped the application form and saved myself hours of useless work. (To answer the inevitable question, the only two B-schools I applied to were HBS and Stanford.  This echoes my philosophy from my college apps as well, where the only schools I applied to were Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Yale.  I didn’t know as much about colleges then, or I wouldn’t have applied to Yale!)

HOWEVER, the key factor is whether or not you’d be willing to accept.  It sounds like you really want to study in Paris, but you have financial hesitations.  The questions I’d ask you are these:

1) Will there ever be a better time for you to do this (for example, after you have a spouse and kids)?  Will you regret it if you never fulfill your dream of studying in Paris?

2) What is the level of financial hardship you’d have to go through to fulfill your dream?  Let’s say that the fellowship leaves you $10,000 short.  If there were a fellowship available to cover all your costs, would you pay $10,000 to an application coach who guaranteed that you’d win the fellowship?  Sometimes it pays to take a look at the situation from another perspective.

3) Are there any creative ways you can make up the shortfall?  Can you get a freelance assignment to write about your time in Paris?  Or are their financial sacrifices you’d be willing to make to fulfill your dream.

I don’t know you personally, but my guess is that you really want to go to Paris.  Better to do so with $23,000 in aid, rather than completely on your own dime.

By admin | Posted in answer, career | Comments (3)

How can a person strive for success and excellence while simultaneously trying to be content?

May 31, 2008 – 3:27 pm

“How can a person strive for success and excellence while simultaneously trying to be content?  If you’re content, where is the motivation to achieve more?  But if you’re always trying to better your life, then how can you be content?”

The Harvard MBA says:

The question of contentment vs. ambition is one of the fundamental questions that most of us face.

I have friends who are never content and are always paranoid, and whose self-inflicted misery makes them extremely successful and productive workaholics.

I was chatting with one of them yesterday; I asked him what he had planned for the weekend, and he replied that he was probably going to be working.  “I’m doing a consulting job for a friend, and I’m not satisfied with my report, so I’m going to work hard this weekend to bring it up to my standards.”

This is the sort of fellow many have in mind when they wonder if contentment will blunt their edge.  According to this mindset, motivation is like hunger.  The drive to strive for success and excellence results from the gulf between desires and reality.

The logical corollary to this is exactly what you imply with your question–if I’m happy with what I have, and there is no gulf, will I still be motivated to succeed and excel?

As I mentioned before, there are people for whom this is true.  I spent many long hours trying to convince my friend that being happy wouldn’t destroy his productivity, but I’ve since given up.  Being a pessimist is part of his fundamental character, and if he didn’t feel his constant misery and worry, he’d become disoriented and, ironically enough, unhappy (albeit in a different way).

But for most of us, motivation is intrinisic, rather than extrinsic.  We don’t strive for success and excellence because we’re dissatisfied with what we have; we strive because it is human nature to do so.

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s work on flow shows that one of the most important motivations we have is the desire to experience that mental state.

“Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.”

In many ways, flow is a prerequisite of success; how often have you done great work without the feeling of being “in the zone” or “in the groove”?

More importantly, whether you are content or not is irrelevant to your desire for flow.  Flow can only occur when you act; you must strive in order for it to occur.  Striving is not a negative which we only perform because of discontentment with our lot in life; it is a positive action we seek out in our pursuit of flow and meaning.

In case you’re still not sure, you should check out the work of Edward Deci.  In his book, “Why We Do What We Do“, he cites research into intrinisic and extrinsic aspirations.

The extrinsic aspirations are the ones we classically associate with success and excellence: To be wealthy, famous, and good-looking.

The intrinsic aspirations, in contrast, are less flashy: Having satisfying personal relationships, contributing to your community, growing as an individual.

Extrinsic aspirations look outward; the depend on others, and the self-esteem they produce is contingent.  The instant they go away, so does any self-worth they’ve brought.

In contrast, intrinsic aspirations provide their own reward, and satisfy our deep down needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

Most damning of all, the research showed that those who focused on extrinisic aspirations were less happy, even when they achieved their aspirations.  Any glance at Us Weekly will quickly convince you of the truth of this research.

So if you can, stop using your desire for success as a motivator; focus instead on your intrinsic aspirations and your innate need for flow.

But if you’re like my unhappy friend, don’t despair.  Contentment won’t blunt your edge, because the research shows that even if you achieve success beyond your wildest dreams, you’ll likely never be content!

By admin | Posted in answer, self-awareness | Comments (2)

Do You Need A Killer Instinct To Be Wildly Successful?

May 30, 2008 – 4:56 am

After reading SI’s profile of Kobe Bryant’s incredible drive, Ben asks, “Are the big time CEOs freakishly competitive, mind-blowingly arrogant, and singularly focused on their business goals even at the cost of “balance”?

The Harvard MBA says: 

In a word, yes.  History is pretty clear on the fact that most great men (and women) are bastards.
Even Gandhi was a philandering jerk.

But, and this is an important but, there are exceptions.

Chekhov was a living saint.  Bill George at Medtronic always coached his kids soccer games.  I’ve heard from many that Richard Branson is actually a pretty decent dude.

And certainly, being an asshole doesn’t guarantee sustained success.  Just ask Al Dunlap.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that for most people, being likeable is a better career strategy than being a jerk.  Bob Sutton has all the details in “The No Asshole Rule.”  So if you don’t suffer from the ambition to be king of the hill, you’ll probably do fine.

This issue is this: If you scorn balance, work like a machine, and devote your entire life to excelling in one area, it’s going to be tough for “nice guys” to match your performance.  If the balanced guy works 40 hours per week, and you manage to work 100, and at a monomaniacally greater level of focus, you’ll probably climb that latter that much faster.

Moreover, there’s no insurmountable reason that you can’t be insanely driven and focused (to the exclusion of having any kind of personal life), and still be polite and likeable.  Warren Buffett is just as obsessed as Kobe, but because he comes off as warm and funny, we like him AND worship him.

If, like Warren Buffet (or Chekhov, or Bill George), you can carry off this achievement mania without making everyone around you think you’re a weapons-grade prick, you *can* avoid the asshole penalty.  It’s just rare as heck.

So if you do have that crazed, burning drive to be #1, and you consider that achievement worth any cost, go for it.  Just don’t be a jerk or complain about your lack of family or happiness.

Go Lakers!

(This post originally appeared as a comment on Ben’s blog, and is also cross-posted to AskTheHarvardMBA)

By admin | Posted in answer, career | Comments (2)

Are you a complete loser if you don’t attend an Ivy League school?

May 19, 2008 – 2:33 am

“I am a high school counselor in Singapore where everyone is programmed to apply to Harvard from the womb onwards. Can I ask, Where did you do your undergrad education??? I constantly fight the battle of the perception that one is a complete loser if you don’t do your undergrad education at an Ivy League school…any thoughts?? Don’t worry…my feelings won’t get hurt if you agree with the perception…I was just wondering what your experience has shown you.”

The first part of the question is easy; I’m a proud graduate of Stanford University.

The second part of the question is harder.  There is no clear yes/no answer.  On the one hand, attending an Ivy League school or its equivalent (Stanford, MIT, Caltech) does confer significant professional advantages.  On the other hand, the name on your degree is far less important to success than the person who earns it.

Attending an elite school provides four key advantages:

1) Other factors being equal, it provides a better education.  Yes, it is possible to get an excellent education at a less selective school, but the fact is that elite schools attract top professors and have more money to spend on teaching.  While there are Nobel Prize winners who are horrendous teachers, the fact that I took multiple classes from Nobel laureates while I was at Stanford gives some indication of the quality of the education.

2) It gives you better opportunities to form lasting friendships that can have a positive impact on your career.  While this is less essential than in business school, networking during your undergrad years is a major advantage.  If you want to found a Silicon Valley startup, there is no better college to build friendships with future co-founders, partners, and investors, than Stanford.

3) It gives you access to a powerful alumni network.  For better or worse, Ivy League alumni do favor their fellow alums.  And the graduates of Stanford and Harvard are generally in a better position to help you out than graduates of less well-known institutions.

4) It sends a powerful signal to future employers.  Some cynics argue that elite schools simply hoover in the most talented students, which makes their eventual success practically guaranteed, regardless of the quality of the education provided them.  Whether or not this is true, the fact is that many employers prefer to hire the graduates of elite universities.  At D. E. Shaw & Co., we had a list of the 25 schools we’d recruit from.  If you didn’t attend a school on that list, tough luck.  The same is true today of employers like Google.

But notice that this enumeration of advantages does not include several key factors.  Attending an Ivy League school does not improve your work ethic, create your passion, or determine your level of entrepreneurialism.

Most of America’s greatest entrepreneurs never completed college, let alone attended Harvard University.  Edison, Carnegie, and Ford didn’t seem to suffer too much from their lack of an Ivy League diploma.  Even today, icons like Steve Jobs and Michael Dell succeeded despite dropping out of college (we won’t count Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard, rather than Reed or UT Austin).

Closer to home, I can think of numerous examples.  My good friend and business partner, Tom Kuegler, followed a checkered education path that included dropping out of West Point and working for the CIA before getting his degree from Loyola in Baltimore.  (Tom has often said, when people ask if he wishes he had a fancy degree, “I don’t need to go to HBS.  I know Chris Yeh.”)  Another friend, Ben Casnocha, will probably end up dropping out of Claremont McKenna (a great school, but little known outside of Southern California and certain policy circles)…and I’d bet that Ben’s degree or lack thereof will never ever get in the way of his career or life.

I wouldn’t discourage your students from trying to get into Harvard–it’s definitely a big advantage–but I would counsel them not to focus so singlemindedly on getting that Ivy League diploma that they fail to get an education.  Moreover, tell the folks who don’t get the fat envelopes they’re dreaming of that being denied by the Ivy League is a disappointment, but also an opportunity to focus on building up all the other advantages they have, and that those strengths will matter far more in the long run than the name on their diploma.

By admin | Posted in career, college | Comments (6)