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"Any new institution, regardless of merit, would face the same challenge" This! It's proving to be a LOT harder to build reputation in this world than it is fo
by DesaiAshu 7y ago
"Any new institution, regardless of merit, would face the same challenge"
This! It's proving to be a LOT harder to build reputation in this world than it is for most startups. Higher Ed brands are societally entrenched in a way that some people define their entire social hierarchy around it (which we don't feel is particularly progressive of a worldview). This is partly why there's been limited pressure to innovate in higher ed, in order to build a new school you first need a lot of capital, then work to get accredited, then build a strong reputation. Some of the strongest barriers to entry of any industry.
- dbcurtis 7y agoI think if you ask: “How much money does it take to go from zero to high repute in 5 years?”. There is one data point: Olin College of Engineering, half a billion dollars. I’d be interested in hearing if you looked at the Olin model and what you learned from that.
- DesaiAshu 7y agoWe definitely look to them as inspiration! We've read a decent amount of how they were started. It's more or less the only new prestigious institution founded in the last 50 years. A lot of their classroom pedagogy also aligns with the direction we've been going, more project based and applied. And they've done a great job of sharing learnings back out to other institutions. They sit more squarely in the research university category, whereas we're closer to a teaching college (where faculty are dedicated to students rather than publishing research). And it's been a capital intensive way to build a college, since they build out a big campus, research facilities, etc. We've been meaning to build a closer relationship with them to share learnings on the education side, good reminder to reconnect with the folks we know there :)