44 ms·

What if Minerva filters just as hard, on admission and retention, as the Ivies... but then also improves the 'delta' on graduates' abilities? There's even some

by gojomo 12y ago

What if Minerva filters just as hard, on admission and retention, as the Ivies... but then also improves the 'delta' on graduates' abilities? There's even some evidence that the filtering/signalling value of prestigious universities isn't even dependent on them actually offering you admission or you attending. Huh, you might ask? The mere fact that a student applied to get into a top university (but then went elsewhere) has almost as much predictive value as actually being admitted and attending. See: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-... To wit (and quoting from the article): "A student with a 1,400 SAT score who went to Penn State but applied to Penn earned as much, on average, as a student with a 1,400 who went to Penn." Now, the income effects measured there aren't quite the same as the "prestige and influence" to which you refer. But it's a hint that the signalling-powers of the Ivies might be open to unbundling, by infotech innovators like Minerva.

mbesto 12y ago
> What if Minerva filters just as hard, on admission and retention, as the Ivies... but then also improves the 'delta' on graduates' abilities? Fair enough, but that's a big IF. Higher education worth is predicated by a series of inputs, outputs and filters. Filtering is only good if the quality of character coming in is already high. In other words, how are you going to convince Billy and Sally who live in Greenwich, CT that telling their friends that little Jimmy applied and got into Minerva sounds any better than going to Harvard? You can't have high quality output if you don't have high quality input, and you can't attract high input without have high output. Simply filtering is largely a non-issue. (EDIT: Should clarify - simply filtering within the pool of applications you have is a non-issue, filtering in a wider macro context is the secret sauce of Ivies) > But it's a hint that the signalling-powers of the Ivies might be open to unbundling, by infotech innovators like Minerva. For nearly 100 years, Ivies have been susceptible to unbundling, yet haven't budged. What's different this time?
- gojomo 12y ago
  What's different this time? The same things that knocked newspapers off their comfortable centuries-long perch: * costless digital networked replication and communication; * replacement of traditional processes with software; and… * much faster improvement-iterations, driven by data and math. The formula is a little harder to apply to education, which is why education, from the Ivies on down, has had a decade or two reprieve.

by gojomo 12y ago

mbesto 12y ago

> What if Minerva filters just as hard, on admission and retention, as the Ivies... but then also improves the 'delta' on graduates' abilities? Fair enough, but that's a big IF. Higher education worth is predicated by a series of inputs, outputs and filters. Filtering is only good if the quality of character coming in is already high. In other words, how are you going to convince Billy and Sally who live in Greenwich, CT that telling their friends that little Jimmy applied and got into Minerva sounds any better than going to Harvard? You can't have high quality output if you don't have high quality input, and you can't attract high input without have high output. Simply filtering is largely a non-issue. (EDIT: Should clarify - simply filtering within the pool of applications you have is a non-issue, filtering in a wider macro context is the secret sauce of Ivies) > But it's a hint that the signalling-powers of the Ivies might be open to unbundling, by infotech innovators like Minerva. For nearly 100 years, Ivies have been susceptible to unbundling, yet haven't budged. What's different this time?

gojomo 12y ago
What's different this time? The same things that knocked newspapers off their comfortable centuries-long perch: * costless digital networked replication and communication; * replacement of traditional processes with software; and… * much faster improvement-iterations, driven by data and math. The formula is a little harder to apply to education, which is why education, from the Ivies on down, has had a decade or two reprieve.