<p>There is a wonderful article that appears in today’s Wall Street Journal (3/23/10). While it focuses on college rejections, its lessons fit here as well. Did you know that Dr. Harold Varmus was rejected two separate times by Harvard Medical School, only to go on and win a Nobel Prize in Medicine? Harvard also rejected Warren Buffet (bet they’d like to take that back). Top tier schools have rejected future billionaire philanthropists, titans of industry, respected newsmakers and politicians, and on and on. Lee Bollinger (currently President of Columbia University, and another Harvard reject) offers the following: “Don’t let rejections control your life. To allow other people’s assessment of you to determine your own self assessment is a very big mistake.” There are also words of wisdom from Mr. Buffet in the article: “The truth is that everything that has happened in my life…that I thought was a crushing defeat at the time, has turned out for the better. A temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end it can be an opportunity.”</p>
<p>To all of you who did not gain acceptance to the school of your dreams, I am sorry. However, I have never failed to be impressed by the intelligence of the young men and women on this site. You all have great things to look forward to and achieve.</p>
<p>Lee Bollinger is a scoundrel and a walking joke.</p>
<p>Gratz v. Bollinger. Grutter v. Bollinger. Introduction of Ahmadinejad.</p>
<p>And, this article is quite cruel, since all of these incredible people ultimately went on to elite institutions regardless–Columbia, WUSTL, Chicago, Stanford, Tufts, Carleton, and Brown, etc.</p>
<p>Cruel? Is it cruel that my neighbor has a bigger house or a better car? Is it cruel that my son didn’t get into his top school choice? Life is filled with people who have more opportunities, but it’s what you do with your own that matters. I know plenty of people who have gone to elite institutions and done little or nothing with their educations. Conversely, there are lots of successful people out there without the benefit of an elite education who have gone on to do tremendous things. Ted Turner, who was profiled in the article, is one of them. If we teach our kids that it’s cruel when they don’t get what they want, we raise children who have envy and anger in abundance, but little else to fall back on.</p>
<p>“If we teach our kids that it’s cruel when they don’t get what they want, we raise children who have envy and anger in abundance, but little else to fall back on.”
Well said paobs12!</p>
<p>Did you read my post, or did you just look at one word and decide to go on a little rant about it?</p>
<p>This article is cruel, because not everyone who is rejected from his or her top choice school has the privilege of falling back on Columbia, WUSTL, ND, Chicago, Stanford, Tufts, Carleton, Brown, etc.</p>
<p>It’s as snarky as those kids who claim: “Oh, I was crushed by my Harvard rejection, but now that I’m at Yale/Princeton, I realize it isn’t so bad.” </p>
<p>“I was rejected from my top choice school, but I managed to succeed at life despite attending Yale! Ho ho ho!”</p>
<p>It’s cruel to all those hard-working and ambitious students who are rejected by Harvard and have to attend Podunk U. or Second Tier U. instead.</p>
<p>Again, cruelty is not the case here. Of course, getting rejected is crushing, and it hurts. You have hopes and dreams that seem to be dashed because a faceless admissions committee doesn’t think you meet all of their checklist standards. My point is that there is far more value to Podunk U. and Second Tier U. than you might see right now. In fact, the world is made up of people who would give their teeth for the opportunities that Podunk U. has to offer. Unfortunately, higher education is not a right in this country. It’s a privilege, and it’s up to you to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves. “Making do” at a second tier university is more than most people get to dream of. Maybe I am picking on one word; it’s just that I so thoroughly disagree with its usage here.</p>
<p>Applying to Harvard or any other school was Buffee’s biggest mistake. Going to one was his first bad investment. Do you think Columbia taught him how to become a billionaire? Bill Gates realized it soon enough to quite in the middle.</p>
<p>@paobs12 - I agree with you. Many “second-tier” institutions have some world-renowned faculty. Students from all over the world seek to attend such institutions as Illinois State…a school that this board would sneer at.
Even though my school is a top 20 public, it is still “second-tier”. But I think it’s possible to succeed there. There are really a ton of great opportunities for less than half the price of a private school!</p>
<p>Buffett was at Wharton before he transferred to the University of Nebraska. Why did he transfer? Clearly he was extremely smart; he could have done all the things he did whether he graduated from Wharton or the state school that he did graduate from. Some people on this thread would sneer at Buffett’s decision to do what he did, but he knew that fit, above all, was what mattered to him. He wanted to be closer to home and that was that. He knew that whether he was at Penn or the University of Nebraska, he was still Warren Buffett, a genius. Where he ultimately got his degree did not change that fact. The degree does not make the man. Steve jobs went to Reed (a great school, but one that people on this board would sneer at) and look at what he achieved. </p>
<p>Heraclitus put it better than I ever could: </p>
<p>A man’s character is his fate. </p>
<p>Simply, this means: wherever you go to school, it is your character and not the school you attend that shall make the difference between whether you succeed or not.</p>
<p>I do not mean to say that you should not strive for all you can be, but simply that if you have a setback in your life, you can still overcome it to achieve great things. Boarding school is not the be all end all.</p>
<p>I guess Einstein’s case is different. Nowadays people do realize how important higher education is and most companies do look at the name of the college you graduated from. (well at least sort of)
And unless you’re a super genius(like Warren Buffet), you need a college diploma. </p>
<p>Sorry for this shallow comment…but that’s what I think.</p>
<p>This is also a valid argument to try and press your high school student into deciding what he/she wants to study in college, contrary to the values of the AYSO generation parents. I would argue it does give them a leg up, even if once there they choose to pursue another course, I know it did me.</p>
<p>Rejection at a young age is tough and cruel, but if you have some idea what you want to study, and who with, there are a ton of alternatives to peruse.</p>
<p>I kind of agree with kwu, because many people treat equally good, elite, private institutions as some kind of punishment for not getting into Harvard etc. There are many more who don’t even end up at college because the Harvards of the world rejected them, which is sadder. Honestly, in very few cases does where you went impede your chances at success so much in life that you have to say that Harvard would have changed your life. Unless, you possess some measure of personal qualities that drive you towards success, whether you go to Harvard or Podunk. Also, I think the article perpetuates the myth that most people seek a college degree for everything it has attached to it (prestige etc.), but not the actual quality of education, which I think is a disturbing trend because most colleges might as well turn into degree generating factories if they have nothing special to offer in terms of academic quality.</p>
<p>I have been really impressed by the responses of new member ExieMITAlum, and so I’m going to pull two of his quotes from a recent post to elucidate my earlier points:</p>
<p>“It’s not the school, people — it’s the student and what he or she does with the education they get at BS.”</p>
<p>“I do think “reputation” both helps and hurts. Helps it attract the most competitive student but some of those students are amazing on paper and amazingly uncreative or uninspiring in real life. Sometimes the “best students” can’t be quantified and are sitting in Joe Schmoe school waiting for the right climate to spread their wings and soar.”</p>
<p>and finally:
“The school and the child will both select each other. Let’s see what happens next.”
That’s again, ExieMITAlum.</p>
<p>I agree completly that Harvard is not everything and that there are lots more fine eduactions that are just as good, for example my uncle quite a while a go got accepted to Harvard and he ended up matriculating there but after 2 years he decided to transfer to Columbia and now he is a Professor at Oxford University, so really the school does not make you, you make the school !:)</p>
If only!</p>