3 ms·

No offense to you, but I'm a little tired of people belittling higher education. Colleges -- especially Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. -- offer a wonderful education

No offense to you, but I'm a little tired of people belittling higher education. Colleges -- especially Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. -- offer a wonderful education and opportunity to their students. The professors are the best in their field and you can learn a lot; and can grow both intellectually and as a human being. What you take out of college is what you put into it. College isn't for everyone, so don't attend if you’re not willing to put in the time and effort, but you can learn so much if you do the work, pay attention, and get involved. This meme that education is a waste of time needs to be put to rest.

thinkcomp 18y ago
No offense taken--I think getting a liberal arts education is crucial. As an alum, however, I think I'm entitled to be critical about specific qualities I found to be problematic at Harvard.
- mwerty 18y ago
  > I think getting a liberal arts education is crucial. Why do you say that?
  - spencerfry 18y ago
    It’s 4 AM, but I can chime in on that quickly before I go to sleep. I think that without much hesitation people would agree that a liberal arts education by definition is well rounded. You take English classes, science classes, math classes, foreign language classes, history classes, etc. Through your liberal arts education you learn a large breadth of material that when taken together helps to make you a very well rounded person intellectually. There's something to be said for specialization, but you can specialize on your own time. I’d argue that being well rounded, social, and able to converse on many different subjects will serve you a million times over in your startup. There's far more to building a successful startup than a good idea, design, and code. That’s the easy part and it’ll certainly get you off the ground. But to truly run a successful startup, every aspect of your life and your personality will be tapped. Business by its very nature is a social thing between people and a liberal arts education, and the “college experience,” will serve you well in getting past that first stage and on your way to a legitimate business. If you want to be running things rather than working for someone, you need these qualities. Disclaimer: I graduated from Yale in 2006 with a Psychology degree after being Computer Science for the first two years. Programming just wasn’t for me. Psychology wasn’t exactly my major of choice (although, lots of it is very thought provoking), but it allowed me the most freedom to choose the courses I wanted.
  - thinkcomp 18y ago
    It depends on your metric. If your goal is to be a good technology entrepreneur, it's probably worth noting that of all of today's technology leaders with entrepreneurial backgrounds, either zero or very few of them actually studied entrepreneurship or business in school (as a major). If your goal is to be a well-rounded individual, then learning a bit about a plethora of different fields certainly doesn't hurt. If your goal is to make a lot of money, then a traditional liberal arts education can be your ticket (historically speaking, anyway) to a well-paying, and hopefully otherwise rewarding, career. If your goal is to learn as much as possible about everything, then you'll definitely feel at home in a liberal arts environment. It's a very flexible tool for life, and in a very quickly-moving economic climate such as this, flexibility is key, as any recently laid-off Class of 2005-2008 investment banker will tell you.
jacoblyles 18y ago
Most people don't go to a good college and most people don't take it seriously. More than half of college students drop out without attaining a degree. The excess demand created by these non-serious people going to college has a lot to do with cost inflation.
- curiousgeorge 18y ago
  Price curves generally run the other way. More demand means lower price.
  - jacoblyles 18y ago
    In the short run, supply is inelastic; the supply curve is vertical.

thinkcomp 18y ago

No offense taken--I think getting a liberal arts education is crucial. As an alum, however, I think I'm entitled to be critical about specific qualities I found to be problematic at Harvard.

mwerty 18y ago
> I think getting a liberal arts education is crucial. Why do you say that?
- spencerfry 18y ago
  It’s 4 AM, but I can chime in on that quickly before I go to sleep. I think that without much hesitation people would agree that a liberal arts education by definition is well rounded. You take English classes, science classes, math classes, foreign language classes, history classes, etc. Through your liberal arts education you learn a large breadth of material that when taken together helps to make you a very well rounded person intellectually. There's something to be said for specialization, but you can specialize on your own time. I’d argue that being well rounded, social, and able to converse on many different subjects will serve you a million times over in your startup. There's far more to building a successful startup than a good idea, design, and code. That’s the easy part and it’ll certainly get you off the ground. But to truly run a successful startup, every aspect of your life and your personality will be tapped. Business by its very nature is a social thing between people and a liberal arts education, and the “college experience,” will serve you well in getting past that first stage and on your way to a legitimate business. If you want to be running things rather than working for someone, you need these qualities. Disclaimer: I graduated from Yale in 2006 with a Psychology degree after being Computer Science for the first two years. Programming just wasn’t for me. Psychology wasn’t exactly my major of choice (although, lots of it is very thought provoking), but it allowed me the most freedom to choose the courses I wanted.
- thinkcomp 18y ago
  It depends on your metric. If your goal is to be a good technology entrepreneur, it's probably worth noting that of all of today's technology leaders with entrepreneurial backgrounds, either zero or very few of them actually studied entrepreneurship or business in school (as a major). If your goal is to be a well-rounded individual, then learning a bit about a plethora of different fields certainly doesn't hurt. If your goal is to make a lot of money, then a traditional liberal arts education can be your ticket (historically speaking, anyway) to a well-paying, and hopefully otherwise rewarding, career. If your goal is to learn as much as possible about everything, then you'll definitely feel at home in a liberal arts environment. It's a very flexible tool for life, and in a very quickly-moving economic climate such as this, flexibility is key, as any recently laid-off Class of 2005-2008 investment banker will tell you.

jacoblyles 18y ago

Most people don't go to a good college and most people don't take it seriously. More than half of college students drop out without attaining a degree. The excess demand created by these non-serious people going to college has a lot to do with cost inflation.

curiousgeorge 18y ago
Price curves generally run the other way. More demand means lower price.
- jacoblyles 18y ago
  In the short run, supply is inelastic; the supply curve is vertical.