I don’t say that Harvard, or Yale, or MIT, or Stanford, or Princeton, or CMU, or Chicago, or any number of top private schools don’t influence my life in some i

I don’t say that Harvard, or Yale, or MIT, or Stanford, or Princeton, or CMU, or Chicago, or any number of top private schools don’t influence my life in some indirect way. What I said was it hasn’t directly impacted me, and I have never felt any angst about their existence. I think legacy admissions is unfair and should end, and I think they should be extraordinarily selective and not be swayed by birth or wealth. But I don’t get upset over it, life is too short, too rich, and too little of it has to do with the school you went to, the grades you got, or any of that past your first job. I would say I’d suggest if you plan to be a Supreme Court judge your chances are better if you went to the top law school in the land, just as going to one of the top engineering schools in the world (public!) helped my career for sure. Getting highest honors at a top engineering school that rarely gives summa cum laude helped too. But it only helped at the beginning and on the margin. What I learned at that school is what made the difference when things got real. And I learned more than the kids who got gentleman C’s at a top private school, because at a top engineering public school they hand out gentleman F’s like candy. I eat the Harvard kids for lunch in my career because I do know more, do better work, earn more revenue, and change my organizations for the better. At a certain point in your career that matters a ton more than what school you went to. To me that’s a better way to focus your life than the advantages someone else has, because that is surmountable and has nothing to do with what you need to do next in your life.