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The fact that not all students will make it is not the point of the article. It's designed to address the underlying sense of entitlement students at the World

The fact that not all students will make it is not the point of the article. It's designed to address the underlying sense of entitlement students at the World's best universities can have. As these places can be so hard to get into, successful applicants can adopt a defensive "I'm here because I'm the cleverest and deserve it" mentality. For somewhere like Stanford, having a lot of (daddy's) money is, for most students, also a pre-requisite to attending. The Author is exactly right, being born into a family with money does not mean you deserve to be there, even if you did work really hard during grade school and college. The Freshman's are enormously lucky to have been given the chance to study at Stanford and it is up to them to earn their place, retrospectively. Society will be the judge based on their future work. The message is not so much "don't get comfortable because 50% will be gone by the end of the year" but rather more of "Welcome to Stanford. Understand that you are here though very little of your own merit. You have the opportunity to change that if you work hard and focus on the bigger picture of society and not just furthering your own wealth".

uhno 13y ago
Boy. This is not at all the truth. Anecdotally, what I've discovered from a year at MIT is that the norm is feeling like you don't belong (e.g. here is some previous discussion about it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4890267 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4890267). Saying "understand that you are here through very little of your own merit" is a recipe for causing already overly stressed students to do something rash, like jumping out of a building: http://web.mit.edu/~sdavies/www/mit-suicides/ http://web.mit.edu/~sdavies/www/mit-suicides/ (this list isn't even up to date). Motivating people to work hard to feel like they've earned their place is a completely different thing than reinforcing the doubts and insecurities almost all of them have anyway. The pressure at this place (and it's the same at any top-tier place) has been almost too much for me to handle sometimes, and that's without foolish words from foolish people designed to increase it.
- rattray 13y ago
  MIT is different. That said, I agree "through very little of your own merit" isn't fair at all; "through means other than your merit" seems a little more plausible.
- pcl 13y ago
  The pressure at this place (and it's the same at any top-tier place) has been almost too much for me to handle sometimes, and that's without foolish words from foolish people designed to increase it. MIT alum here. I know what you mean; the pressure can be tough. But also, they've got a lot of resources on campus to help. I'm going to be on campus tomorrow and Thursday if you're interested in meeting up and talking about the stress. My email address is in my profile.
- kaitai 13y ago
  Alum of the other T. Tech schools are different than Stanford/Harvard?etc. Maybe a more useful rephrasing is that your presence at the institution is a blessing, a gift, given whether you currently deserve it or not. Enjoy the gift and grow into it.
- _mulder_ 13y ago
  Yes I agree going to MIT may feel like more pressure but perhaps (forgive me if I'm wrong, I obviously don't know your personal background) you, and your like minded friends, were from more modest means (i.e; not millionaires) and attending MIT was a real sense of achievement. However, for some students attending Harvard, Stanford, Oxford or Cambridge can be an expectation and a realistic one at that if they have been given every opportunity to increase their chances of entry thanks to their parents influence and wealth. I understood the Author to be addressing these students. Perhaps they're a minority, but looking at the ranks of politicians and World leaders (from wealthy families I might add) coming from these institutions, it looks like more than just coincidence to me.
forgottenpass 13y ago
It's designed to address the underlying sense of entitlement students But who is going to address the underlying sense of entitlement of the guy delivering the "go fuck yourself" speech? Spiteful turtles all the way down?

uhno 13y ago

Boy. This is not at all the truth. Anecdotally, what I've discovered from a year at MIT is that the norm is feeling like you don't belong (e.g. here is some previous discussion about it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4890267 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4890267). Saying "understand that you are here through very little of your own merit" is a recipe for causing already overly stressed students to do something rash, like jumping out of a building: http://web.mit.edu/~sdavies/www/mit-suicides/ http://web.mit.edu/~sdavies/www/mit-suicides/ (this list isn't even up to date). Motivating people to work hard to feel like they've earned their place is a completely different thing than reinforcing the doubts and insecurities almost all of them have anyway. The pressure at this place (and it's the same at any top-tier place) has been almost too much for me to handle sometimes, and that's without foolish words from foolish people designed to increase it.

rattray 13y ago
MIT is different. That said, I agree "through very little of your own merit" isn't fair at all; "through means other than your merit" seems a little more plausible.
pcl 13y ago
The pressure at this place (and it's the same at any top-tier place) has been almost too much for me to handle sometimes, and that's without foolish words from foolish people designed to increase it. MIT alum here. I know what you mean; the pressure can be tough. But also, they've got a lot of resources on campus to help. I'm going to be on campus tomorrow and Thursday if you're interested in meeting up and talking about the stress. My email address is in my profile.
kaitai 13y ago
Alum of the other T. Tech schools are different than Stanford/Harvard?etc. Maybe a more useful rephrasing is that your presence at the institution is a blessing, a gift, given whether you currently deserve it or not. Enjoy the gift and grow into it.
_mulder_ 13y ago
Yes I agree going to MIT may feel like more pressure but perhaps (forgive me if I'm wrong, I obviously don't know your personal background) you, and your like minded friends, were from more modest means (i.e; not millionaires) and attending MIT was a real sense of achievement. However, for some students attending Harvard, Stanford, Oxford or Cambridge can be an expectation and a realistic one at that if they have been given every opportunity to increase their chances of entry thanks to their parents influence and wealth. I understood the Author to be addressing these students. Perhaps they're a minority, but looking at the ranks of politicians and World leaders (from wealthy families I might add) coming from these institutions, it looks like more than just coincidence to me.

forgottenpass 13y ago

It's designed to address the underlying sense of entitlement students But who is going to address the underlying sense of entitlement of the guy delivering the "go fuck yourself" speech? Spiteful turtles all the way down?