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

By: admin

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:21:22 +0000

Jeez TK, I tried not to blow your cover! I thought you weren’t supposed to talk about Libya.

By: TK

TK — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:43:13 +0000

Thanks for the mention, Chris.

Just to be clear, I actually didn’t drop out of West Point as that I more selectively chose to leave to serve the government in a different capacity that offered me more flexibility in my entrepreneurial yearnings.

And Chris is right, formal education means little to me.

By: a

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:20:22 +0000

go cardinal!

By: betterworld

betterworld — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:11:28 +0000

*sigh* another one of them elitist ABCs.

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:21:36 +0000

It’s all about who you know, and going to an Ivy League school will give you an opportunity to meet some very influential people. As far as the quality of education, I think it’s negligible. The real question is the quality of the person’s work ethic.

By: commoner

commoner — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:56:45 +0000

I don’t think that dropping out of West Point is a negative thing on someones record; a huge amount of people drop out (I believe that its something like 25% of the class).
Just getting in to West Point is a huge achievement, I just met a guy who did. He told me that every year ~30,000 people apply, with ~2000 matriculating.

By: Ben Casnocha

Ben Casnocha — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:59:35 +0000

I left out a sentence that makes my comment above confusing — about the Nobel laureate case, my point is I actually think the more expert you become, the harder it is to teach intro or mid-level classes.

And the second point is about grad students teaching undergrads.

By: Ben Casnocha

Ben Casnocha — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:58:15 +0000

I agree with points #2, 3, and 4, but not #1.

It’s not clear that an 18 or 19 year old being taught by a Nobel laureate is in fact a better education method than somebody who’s still top of their game in the field but a more focused teacher. I have two friends who are PhDs at Stanford and Harvard and in the fall they will begin to teach undergrads. They’re smart and great people, but I shudder to think about studying Intro to Econ or Intro to Philosophy with them, their complete lack of teaching experience and all.

One book in particular, Privilege by Ross Douthout, a recent Harvard undergrad alum, notes how disastrous undergrad education can actually be at the school. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go there as an undergrad - indeed, the other points still hold true - but you shouldn’t go if you are mainly focused on “getting an education.”

Also, it’s worth nothing that the vast majority of Fortune 500 CEOs today went to a school nobody has heard of.