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> The point of Harvard is that you can become pals with a senator’s son That's half the point. The other half is to say that you went to Harvard.

by vosper 3y ago

koheripbal 3y ago
.... Which is important because it flags you as someone connected to rich people
alephnerd 3y ago
You can do this at relatively less selective Public Schools as well. One of my friends who attended UIUC was roommates with the son of the CEO of a Fortune 100 Tech Company, and close friends with the son of the CTO of another unrelated Tech Fortune 100. Another one of my buddies at UCSF ended up rooming with the daughter of owner of one of the major DNC SuperPACs. Public schools absolutely have strong alumni networks as well despite not necessarily having legacy admissions.
- lapcat 3y ago
  What are the odds of this, though? I went to a state university, and I didn't meet anyone rich or famous. My roommate peed on our carpet.
  - didgeoridoo 3y ago
    I went to Yale. My roommates were rich and famous. They still peed on the carpet.
    - lapcat 3y ago
      But that was the most notable thing about my roommate.
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    Pretty high if you went to a flagship or top tier public university (eg. UCLA, Cal, Big 10, UDub, etc). This dataset from the economic mobility lab at UCR is great to find which schools have an elite student body - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit... Also, I went to an Ivy-or-Ivy Adjacent program and my roommate also vomited on my bed after getting plastered during rush week (I accidently returned the favor a weeks after during my rush).
    - lapcat 3y ago
      > Pretty high if you went to a flagship or top tier public university (eg. UCLA, Cal, Big 10, UDub, etc). I went to a Big 10 university. "Some 843 UW–Madison alumni serve as CEOs, and nearly 16,000 hold an executive management position. Additionally, as of November 2018, the current CEOs of 14 Fortune 500 companies have attended UW–Madison, the most of any university in the United States." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison?#Alumni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%... That sounds like a lot, but in any given semester, UW enrollment is 40-50K, and it awards 10K degrees every year.
      - alephnerd 3y ago
        You might have attended in a different era as well. I attended a very affluent Bay Area HS (there kind where the VPs and C-Suites of tech and biotech companies sent their kids) and they overwhelmingly sent their kids to top public schools (they were targeting top STEM programs, which by default skewed public excluding Stanford/MIT/CMU/Cornell). A couple of their kids attended CS@UW Madison and most of us applied there as a backup in case we didn't get into one of the T10 CS programs. This was the early-mid 2010s. The key thing is going to an elite program. Doing CS at a school like UDub or UIUC means you open the door to VCs, IBs, and Founders who all also attended that elite program (as well as their equally elite parents). You might not get that network majoring in English or Horticulture at either college, but you definetly will if you're in a top program. In addition, Asian (India, China, SK) Elites target colleges based on how the specific major they are targeting ranks. As this overwhelmingly skews STEM and Business, you end up getting a massive cohort of foreign elites at Public schools. A lot of this is also because of targeted branding by public unis and regional private schools to undercut the more established private unis like Harvard. For example, within India Harvard has a weaker pop culture branding and alumni network than a top CS program like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UIUC, or UC Berkeley.

> The point of Harvard is that you can become pals with a senator’s son That's half the point. The other half is to say that you went to Harvard.

by vosper 3y ago

> The point of Harvard is that you can become pals with a senator’s son That's half the point. The other half is to say that you went to Harvard.

koheripbal 3y ago

.... Which is important because it flags you as someone connected to rich people

alephnerd 3y ago

You can do this at relatively less selective Public Schools as well. One of my friends who attended UIUC was roommates with the son of the CEO of a Fortune 100 Tech Company, and close friends with the son of the CTO of another unrelated Tech Fortune 100. Another one of my buddies at UCSF ended up rooming with the daughter of owner of one of the major DNC SuperPACs. Public schools absolutely have strong alumni networks as well despite not necessarily having legacy admissions.

lapcat 3y ago
What are the odds of this, though? I went to a state university, and I didn't meet anyone rich or famous. My roommate peed on our carpet.
- didgeoridoo 3y ago
  I went to Yale. My roommates were rich and famous. They still peed on the carpet.
  - lapcat 3y ago
    But that was the most notable thing about my roommate.
- alephnerd 3y ago
  Pretty high if you went to a flagship or top tier public university (eg. UCLA, Cal, Big 10, UDub, etc). This dataset from the economic mobility lab at UCR is great to find which schools have an elite student body - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit... Also, I went to an Ivy-or-Ivy Adjacent program and my roommate also vomited on my bed after getting plastered during rush week (I accidently returned the favor a weeks after during my rush).
  - lapcat 3y ago
    > Pretty high if you went to a flagship or top tier public university (eg. UCLA, Cal, Big 10, UDub, etc). I went to a Big 10 university. "Some 843 UW–Madison alumni serve as CEOs, and nearly 16,000 hold an executive management position. Additionally, as of November 2018, the current CEOs of 14 Fortune 500 companies have attended UW–Madison, the most of any university in the United States." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison?#Alumni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%... That sounds like a lot, but in any given semester, UW enrollment is 40-50K, and it awards 10K degrees every year.
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      You might have attended in a different era as well. I attended a very affluent Bay Area HS (there kind where the VPs and C-Suites of tech and biotech companies sent their kids) and they overwhelmingly sent their kids to top public schools (they were targeting top STEM programs, which by default skewed public excluding Stanford/MIT/CMU/Cornell). A couple of their kids attended CS@UW Madison and most of us applied there as a backup in case we didn't get into one of the T10 CS programs. This was the early-mid 2010s. The key thing is going to an elite program. Doing CS at a school like UDub or UIUC means you open the door to VCs, IBs, and Founders who all also attended that elite program (as well as their equally elite parents). You might not get that network majoring in English or Horticulture at either college, but you definetly will if you're in a top program. In addition, Asian (India, China, SK) Elites target colleges based on how the specific major they are targeting ranks. As this overwhelmingly skews STEM and Business, you end up getting a massive cohort of foreign elites at Public schools. A lot of this is also because of targeted branding by public unis and regional private schools to undercut the more established private unis like Harvard. For example, within India Harvard has a weaker pop culture branding and alumni network than a top CS program like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UIUC, or UC Berkeley.