Comments on: It may not matter all that much where you go to college http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/09/05/it-may-not-matter-all-that-much-where-you-go-to-college/ Daniel Lemire's blog is about life in academia, research in Computer Science, wondering how we can reconcile fast databases and algorithms with the informal and asemantic nature of the world around us. It is broadcasted from Montreal (Canada). Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:36:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Michael Stiber http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/09/05/it-may-not-matter-all-that-much-where-you-go-to-college/#comment-49478 Michael Stiber Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:04:43 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/09/05/it-may-not-matter-all-that-much-where-you-go-to-college/#comment-49478 I guess it depends on the definition of "elite," but neglecting that for the moment, I think quality of educational opportunity is a pretty flat curve in the physical sciences and engineering at the undergraduate level for something like the top 100 schools. And it may be the case that students at the elite schools aren't as hungry as those "a step down" and so they don't make as much use of these opportunities as they might. There's also something to be said about what one might call "added value": "non-elite" schools quite possibly are making a greater impact in their students' lives -- there's a greater increment of learning taking place. One shouldn't discount the positive impact on someone's life of that sort of experience. Or the negative impact of having good grades always come easy (or getting a free pass due to family connections, for the Harvard and Yale crowd). Paul has already written that the difference between success and failure in startups is essentially not giving up in the face of adversity. We should also keep in mind that the numbers of people he's writing about isn't that great, and that they are self-selected (how many mediocre students try to get money from him?). I guess it depends on the definition of “elite,” but neglecting that for the moment, I think quality of educational opportunity is a pretty flat curve in the physical sciences and engineering at the undergraduate level for something like the top 100 schools. And it may be the case that students at the elite schools aren’t as hungry as those “a step down” and so they don’t make as much use of these opportunities as they might.

There’s also something to be said about what one might call “added value”: “non-elite” schools quite possibly are making a greater impact in their students’ lives — there’s a greater increment of learning taking place. One shouldn’t discount the positive impact on someone’s life of that sort of experience. Or the negative impact of having good grades always come easy (or getting a free pass due to family connections, for the Harvard and Yale crowd). Paul has already written that the difference between success and failure in startups is essentially not giving up in the face of adversity.

We should also keep in mind that the numbers of people he’s writing about isn’t that great, and that they are self-selected (how many mediocre students try to get money from him?).

]]> By: Uccai Siravas http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/09/05/it-may-not-matter-all-that-much-where-you-go-to-college/#comment-49476 Uccai Siravas Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:20:41 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/09/05/it-may-not-matter-all-that-much-where-you-go-to-college/#comment-49476 My experience is that for regular beaurocratic jobs anyone is fine. For innovative work, you really have to go the top 10 of the top universities. My experience is that for regular beaurocratic jobs anyone is fine. For innovative work, you really have to go the top 10 of the top universities.

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