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> [A high school student] says she's still nervous and anxious for the test, because she feels a lot of pressure to do well. "It's a very important test," she s

> [A high school student] says she's still nervous and anxious for the test, because she feels a lot of pressure to do well. "It's a very important test," she says. "It dictates what's going to happen for your college life. Man oh man, do I wish I could convince my high school self: the particular college you go to matters much less than you think. The SAT matters much less than you think. Grades matter less than you think. Pursue friendship and genuine interests, not standardized tests! But friendship and genuine interests don’t have a billion dollar organization behind them, alas. (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/210634479 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/210...)

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TillE 3y ago
Yeah like, Satya Nadella got his master's at UW Milwaukee. I went to a big state university and got a great education. If you're smart and you're not desperate to get into one of the "elite" schools, it's gonna be fine.
- nextworddev 3y ago
  He also had the fortune of joining Microsoft early in its hyper growth stage?
ryandrake 3y ago
I think I would have told my high school self the exact opposite: Go for a better GPA. Go for a better SAT. Get into MIT or some other "elite" instead of the state school that I had to fall back to. Between companies that recruit at top schools, starting salary, salary progression, and compounding interest on savings, I'd probably be retired by now if I spent a just a tiny little extra effort in high school. You can get friends and hobbies anywhere and any time, but you can't re-do what undergrad you went to and what your first job was, which both have an outsized influence on your entire life's financial trajectory.
- knightoffaith 3y ago
  If it's just about salary, at least for software engineers, you don't need to get into MIT or anything on par with it. Not nowadays. At universities far below MIT, plenty earn six-figure starting salaries, and a few people earn upwards of 300k starting (yes, only a few, but only a few from places like MIT as well, because this is a difficult thing to do whether you're at MIT or not. Perhaps the proportion of people who get such jobs is higher at MIT, but I would wager that this is because MIT tends to attract highly talented students moreso than other universities, not because of the MIT name). Not to say MIT isn't a good goal to shoot for, of course. But doing so primarily out of financial interest isn't just heavily discouraged (I'm sure any MIT recruiter would tell you this) but also probably not worth it (particularly if you have to pay!). At least, not for software engineers, though I wouldn't be surprised if the same applied to other fields.

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TillE 3y ago

Yeah like, Satya Nadella got his master's at UW Milwaukee. I went to a big state university and got a great education. If you're smart and you're not desperate to get into one of the "elite" schools, it's gonna be fine.

nextworddev 3y ago
He also had the fortune of joining Microsoft early in its hyper growth stage?

ryandrake 3y ago

I think I would have told my high school self the exact opposite: Go for a better GPA. Go for a better SAT. Get into MIT or some other "elite" instead of the state school that I had to fall back to. Between companies that recruit at top schools, starting salary, salary progression, and compounding interest on savings, I'd probably be retired by now if I spent a just a tiny little extra effort in high school. You can get friends and hobbies anywhere and any time, but you can't re-do what undergrad you went to and what your first job was, which both have an outsized influence on your entire life's financial trajectory.

knightoffaith 3y ago
If it's just about salary, at least for software engineers, you don't need to get into MIT or anything on par with it. Not nowadays. At universities far below MIT, plenty earn six-figure starting salaries, and a few people earn upwards of 300k starting (yes, only a few, but only a few from places like MIT as well, because this is a difficult thing to do whether you're at MIT or not. Perhaps the proportion of people who get such jobs is higher at MIT, but I would wager that this is because MIT tends to attract highly talented students moreso than other universities, not because of the MIT name). Not to say MIT isn't a good goal to shoot for, of course. But doing so primarily out of financial interest isn't just heavily discouraged (I'm sure any MIT recruiter would tell you this) but also probably not worth it (particularly if you have to pay!). At least, not for software engineers, though I wouldn't be surprised if the same applied to other fields.