EICD and OML

Roughrider

5-Year Member
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Mar 11, 2012
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77
This Google talk -- long, and statistics-laden, but interesting -- by Malcolm Gladwell, about elite institutions and meritocracy, suggests that the military has been doing it right.

"In hiring, you should not care, in fact there should be a 'don't ask don't tell' policy, about where an applicant went to school. You should hire on the basis of performance and class rank only. Wall Street banks that only hire graduates of top schools, are morons.

And if you want to be successful, for your undergraduate degree you should never go to the most competitive school you can get into. Never. Ever. You should go to the best school in which you will be in the top 25-30% of their applicant pool."

(I'd add..."and then you should work your butt off to be in the top ten percent of the class," but that's beside Gladwell's point.)
 
I didn't listen to the link but will comment on what you qouted and wrote...

I would argue that not only do I not care what school you went to but I also don't care too much what your GPA was. Being a LEADER, especially during intense/stressful situations has nothing to do with your GPA or whether you finished in the Top X% of your class.
 
"...Wall Street banks that only hire graduates of top schools, are morons."

The morons are the parents who agree to pay the tuition.

Was having dinner last night with friends whose DS is Senior at UW Madison OOS. Was lamenting that he could have bought DS a house with the difference between UW OOS tuition the local IS Big Ten where he was offered full tuition.

Anything written by Malcolm Gladwell or Michael Lewis is worth the $ to buy and the time to read.
 
I didn't listen to the link but will comment on what you qouted and wrote...

I would argue that not only do I not care what school you went to but I also don't care too much what your GPA was. Being a LEADER, especially during intense/stressful situations has nothing to do with your GPA or whether you finished in the Top X% of your class.

Agreed, but I've also always felt that competition (athletic competition and academic) is a contributing factor to character and to some extent leadership skills. The kid who has the self-discipline, persistence, and motivation to surpass most of his peers is, often, also the one who will carry those qualities into a leadership role.
 
True. Ultimately just need leaders that can be trained to handle their assignments. Yes. No.

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