
Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League - ahmadss
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118747/
======
api
"... great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it."

From what I've seen this is absolutely dead on. Obviously I've met exceptions,
but I have seen a pattern of people out of places like Harvard and MIT that
are excellent at what they do but have a strange lack of intellectual
curiosity.

I get the sense that many of these folks have gone through the programs
they've done to satisfy others' expectations, not out of a personal drive to
create or learn something. You can't force or fake genuine curiosity.

But the tough thing and the counter-argument is this: going to places like
Harvard and Stanford gives you access to an unbelievable network. If you go to
the University of Somewhere Not On the Coast, or don't go to college at all,
you're going to have to work twice as hard at least to do something like raise
money or land a really high-end job. Many doors are just going to be closed to
you. The trend seems to be toward increasing concentration of wealth and
therefore of network connections with access to it.

~~~
seanflyon
I graduated from Cornell in 2008 and while I met people who where there for
other people's expectations in was a small minority and people who were "...
great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it" were even
more rare. There could be a self selection bias at work here, but I still
think that my experiences are not so unusual.

~~~
api
It's a really subjective thing, sure. I spent a lot of time in Boston in the
Harvard/MIT orbit and I remember getting exactly the impression this article
is talking about in many cases.

------
avmich
> Everyone dressed as if they were ready to be interviewed at a moment’s
> notice.

This is said with a sort of tone of accusation, but I can remember a lot of
cases where being always reasonably well dressed was considered a good thing.

May be here "ready to be interviewed" means "exceptionally polished extra-
fresh look"? Then I understand - but it would be really interesting to see
such people on every occasion in a college.

------
b2themax
TLDR?

~~~
jgamman
the web is slowly but surely reducing the young's attention span - disastrous
results are predicted. some reference to ivy league colleges.

