The Harvard Education

File under Get a Smaller Plate

I really can’t believe it is mid-August already. This year, and especially this summer have flown by. The days are getting shorter and Labor Day fast approaches, bringing with it the start, and the pressures of the new school year. The other day I was talking to a co-worker who has a son about to enter 8th grade. He was frustrated about the fact that this summer his son was already participating in college preparatory activities. He was taking standardized tests, writing essays, and studying, all on his own time but at the direction of the schools.


He’s 12.

Now I’m not sure how or when the pressures of college entry migrated into Junior High but I can assure you that at 12 I was busy hanging out at the pool or collecting baseball cards. I understand that admissions are more competitive now and there is increased focus and pressure on students to fight for admission to ‘quality’ schools. But I have always felt the perceived ‘quality’ of the college is much less important than many other factors in a person’s future success.

One fact that reinforces this comes from the Bloomberg Business Report. In 2010 they listed the top ten CEO alma maters according to the schools with the most current CEOs as graduates. Here’s the list:

10. Purdue University
9. Indiana University
8. Princeton
7. Dartmouth College
6. University of Wisconsin
5. University of Texas
4. University of Missouri
3. Harvard College
2. School of Hard Knocks
1. University of California

Do you see it? There are two things that jump out to me. First, only 3 out of 10 are Ivy League, and second, 50% are state schools! (Not to mention that a full 10% never graduated college.)

Now clearly not everyone is striving to be a CEO, but this list shows that success is not necessarily strongly linked to the school you may go to. Which in itself is not shocking, yet we now have students worrying as early as 12 years old whether they will get into a good school. This survey shows that a quality, in-state education is just as likely to produce success than an Ivy League or more competitive school. Yet the effort to achieve entry to the respective schools is wildly disparate.

To all the Junior and High Schoolers out there, I offer…

The Daily Antidote
Focus on long-term self-education instead of short-term college preparatory goals. Success will follow.


The Song of the Day
In honor of a great band, the song of the day is Airborne Toxic Event's "All I ever wanted".