4 ms·

Yeah this is an interesting question. A fair few universities were founded during the previous gilded age by guys like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Stanford. If y

Yeah this is an interesting question. A fair few universities were founded during the previous gilded age by guys like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Stanford. If you had $10B+ wouldn't it be somewhat tempting to instead of donating to an existing university, just make your own? Buy some site, hire some profs, make it clear you are after the top kids, give a free ride to all of them, you're guaranteed to get plenty of applicants. You'll have your own Stanford in a few years. I went to school with a guy who had all the top credentials (absolute top math guy), got into the top schools, ended up taking a free ride scholarship instead. You're simply bound to win some of those if you pay for it.

blitzar 3y ago
> If you had $10B+ wouldn't it be somewhat tempting to instead of donating to an existing university, just make your own? Like Trump University?
- slt2021 3y ago
  YCombinator might be closer to our modern age Harvard. Admits on merit, provides brand name & money & networking. Produces great results overall
- lordnacho 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_University Not an accredited university. Also named after perhaps the least intellectual person possible, I think it might be hard to establish an elite academic reputation.
onetimeusename 3y ago
I think this is a good idea but for an odd reason. Like a subtext of this battle over Harvard specifically is not that people are in need of education but that they are in need of prestigious credentials. This is really what this is about. In some sense, having more schools to compete against Harvard might reduce the prestige Harvard has but that may not be what people actually want. They may actually want a system where two or three schools have an admissions rate of 1% because the people who get in will want to entrench their power. I don't know if it's actually good for the US to have a secondary education system that is so cutthroat. It's just very polarizing and gives too much power to a handful of schools.
- lordnacho 3y ago
  Yeah this is why it might work for a wealthy benefactor. People can get a fine education online already, what they can't get is the top 1% stamp. With a 100% scholarship the new university would be sure to get a lot of interest.

blitzar 3y ago

> If you had $10B+ wouldn't it be somewhat tempting to instead of donating to an existing university, just make your own? Like Trump University?

slt2021 3y ago
YCombinator might be closer to our modern age Harvard. Admits on merit, provides brand name & money & networking. Produces great results overall
lordnacho 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_University Not an accredited university. Also named after perhaps the least intellectual person possible, I think it might be hard to establish an elite academic reputation.

onetimeusename 3y ago

I think this is a good idea but for an odd reason. Like a subtext of this battle over Harvard specifically is not that people are in need of education but that they are in need of prestigious credentials. This is really what this is about. In some sense, having more schools to compete against Harvard might reduce the prestige Harvard has but that may not be what people actually want. They may actually want a system where two or three schools have an admissions rate of 1% because the people who get in will want to entrench their power. I don't know if it's actually good for the US to have a secondary education system that is so cutthroat. It's just very polarizing and gives too much power to a handful of schools.

lordnacho 3y ago
Yeah this is why it might work for a wealthy benefactor. People can get a fine education online already, what they can't get is the top 1% stamp. With a 100% scholarship the new university would be sure to get a lot of interest.