Question This...
Is Harvard overrated? Should we tell our kids to go to college right after high school? And what better routes may be available?
Hello Bar-Setters! Last week I came across a fantastic post from Historian H.W. Brands, whose Substack is fun, quick, and full of insights for understanding the world better:
Brands shows how, despite its lofty reputation, Harvard’s graduates (as well as those from other Ivy League schools) often don’t measure up to those of less prestigious institutions.
This is another case where we have to go beyond the metric. Life is complex, so we rely on shorthand thinking to simplify. We equate Harvard graduate with “the best.” But this shorthand thinking leads us to faulty judgments and an inaccurate picture of reality.
You might say, “I don’t hire Harvard graduates, so this doesn’t apply to me.” But it does.
Intentionally or not, we are constantly encouraging our children to go down paths. Often those paths are the product of shorthand thinking. By focusing on old metrics we fail to recognize how much the world is changing and fail to see other better routes that are right in front of us.
College is a great example of this. The means of learning are now infinite, but the college degree is more expensive than ever and it means less to potential employers. This is even more the case in fields like education where everyone knows that educational masters and doctoral degrees are a joke (money to pay and hoops to jump through) and yet the industry persists in requiring these degrees to move up.
This isn’t to say college isn’t worth it, but society would do well to re-think its norms surrounding this enormous investment.
Employers would do well to adjust their approach to hiring as well. Many are. As serial entrepreneur and author of The Network State Balaji Srinivasan explains:
I think that college credentials were more of a signal twenty-something years ago. Nowadays, I don’t hire from Harvard or Stanford. I hire from Twitter. I hire from Github. Literally, you’re looking for someone’s portfolio. Either their content as a writer… or their code on Github, or their designs on Dribbble. Your portfolio is your resume. And that allows people from around the world—the middle east or the midwest…—inside the US or outside the US. You may not have a name brand but you’ve got a really legit portfolio and you’re smart on social media. That’s absolutely someone who you’d interview and hire…
In fact, being at an expensive college, it’s sort of going back to what it used to be, which is like a gentlemen’s finishing school… It’s not something that’s pushing people in technical education. It’s like the most privileged people who are having this useless thing… time wasting.
Srinivasan and Brands both refer to prestigious colleges as “finishing school.” In his post, Brands writes:
For much of its history—it was founded in 1636—Harvard was better known as a finishing school for Northeastern elites than as a nourisher of the best intellects in the country. The practice of legacy admissions suggests it still serves that traditional function, at least to some extent.
The question becomes: What matters more education and personal development, or social signaling?
Unfortunately, we all must do some social signaling. Otherwise we’d never attract a partner, much less, get a job. But I wonder if it isn’t becoming more impressive to get an actual education—to cultivate real skills through apprenticeship and raw experience—to write books, create businesses, and build a portfolio.
College still has a place, of course, but parents, students, and prospective employers are hurting themselves by pursuing shorthand metrics. As Brands writes:
So if you’re content as IBM (current market cap $120 billon), hire Harvard. If you’re hoping to be the next Apple ($3 trillion), you’ll have to look harder. Maybe you can find another Reed College dropout like Steve Jobs.
Life is short. Don’t waste it on a broken path. Remember why the metrics were created in the first place. Pursue what is real and valuable.
Thank you for reading and sharing!
If you found this post interesting, you’ll enjoy chapter 17 of my book and this post:
Carry the fire!
Shane