Author:
An Observer
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Date Posted: 19:28:03 04/10/24 Wed
Two professors at, I think, Princeton did a famous study in which they tracked the career outcomes of applicants who decades earlier had been accepted to a variety of highly selective and less selective colleges. Their conclusion was that GETTING INTO a highly selective college was more predictive of later success than actually attending that college.
I once had a professor tell my entire classroom at the beginning of an academic year that our school could send half the class to a Caribbean island for an extended vacation while the other half stayed on campus and worked very hard. His assertion was that, over the course of our lives, both halves of the class would be equally successful because actually attending our elite university was, well, worthless.
In his view, ALL the work was done by the admissions office when the selected who would be let in. Specifically, he said, "If you have the drive and ambition to be successful, spending time here is irrelevant." Our success as a class was due entirely to the admissions office picking the right kids.
Decades later, I invited him to one of our reunions where the still working professor surveyed our class, some of us thriving and some of us not, while I reminded him of his words those decades ago. He said that he did not remember saying that, but he stood by the sentiment.
I've said on many occasions that I would like to compare the career success of those high school applicants who got into Harvard and matriculated with those who got in and opted to go elsewhere.
For many decades, before admit rates plunged to their current ridiculously low levels, there were a lot of cross-admits between elite universities. It takes more courage or independence to turn down Harvard than it does to turn down Swarthmore or Carnegie Mellon. I want to see if the 25% of kids who got into Harvard but went elsewhere actually OUTPERFORM the 75% of lemmings who showed up in Harvard Yard for freshman orientation. The kids who turn down Harvard feature the normal attributes which please admissions office, but they also have the special personality element of not feeling compelled to follow the crowd.
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