Article in Fortune that features a quote from Lloyd Blankfein (former CEO of Goldman Sachs) comparing top grads of University of Minnesota with grads from “elite” colleges.
Not that I like to put much weight into the words of CEOs…
Saw that article yesterday, but it’s paywalled. Can you provide a gift link?
Can you provide the full article or a synopsis beyond the title. It’s paywalled. Don’t have a subscription.
Edit - here’s an open link.
Frankly it’s not surprising. Great kids are great kids. They sometimes choose other schools. It wouldn’t just belong to UMN. Companies are often buying ‘name’ to impress clients, not necessarily any greater abilities. In fact, going to an Ivy doesn’t necessarily equate to rigor or better learning. We all know Ivy caliber students attend college - frankly everywhere. These kids also get into top graduate schools of various specialties.
He also kind of put many CC favorite LAC Hamilton in a lesser place too, along with American.
One interesting tidbit - The academic rigor of higher education is also in doubt, with Harvard admitting that rampant grade inflation has resulted in about 60% of the marks that are handed out being A’s, up from 40% a decade ago and less than a quarter 20 years ago.
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Thx for finding the open link. For whatever reason that link originally worked fine for me, but now it’s paywalled. But your Yahoo link works well.
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This reminds me of the WSJ article that was reposted in the Job Prospects for ‘24, ‘25 Grads thread. The WSJ article had the following quote:
So this aligns with the rest of the Fortune article in terms of the top students amongst a much bigger pool of students being pretty awesome candidates. But the swimming upstream analogy also rings true, as those top candidates are needing to catch the attention of the McKinsey and other highly-desired orgs in different ways, as those organizations are not visiting the college campuses anymore (whereas they are visiting the “elite” schools…which makes it swimming with the current for those students, vs. students at non-elite schools swimming against the current).
And @BKSquared (who originally shared the WSJ article) indicated that the swimming upstream or “hungriness” factor often then relates to the performance after the hire, and not just getting hired.
I’m not aware of many people in recruiting/hiring/admissions positions who would think otherwise, particularly if this is a comparison between a “top” Minnesota grad and a “not-top” Harvard grad.
Of course then the practical question is how that categorization works. Like what it does it take to be a competitive applicant from Minnesota for a certain next step? From Harvard? Assuming the same individual, is it easier to go through one path or the other? Does it depend on the individual?
That’s my guess, incidentally. I think at least in the vast majority of cases, some kids might find it easier to get the qualifications they need to get the next step they eventually want at Minnesota, and other kids at Harvard. And others at some other third model (can I interest you in an LAC perhaps?).
So personally, I put a lot of weight on kids doing the investigation and reflection necessary to pick a school where they think they are most likely to thrive. And even then they might be wrong, but life is all about making informed decisions in the face of fundamental uncertainties, then showing resiliency and flexibility as warranted when things don’t go the way we expected.
If you do that, and get reasonably good luck on basic things like health and such, you will likely end up following a good path overall. Maybe not the one you originally expected, but that is part of what is fun about all this.
I think part of the issue is:
- He said UMN grads (and I’m sure it’s the case for most anywhere) are at least as good - but how would he know? According to many, they wouldn’t touch them…or is he talking about non-requires “elite” school roles? And how would he know who the top Harvard grads are given they hand out As like Santa Claus hands out gifts…to most.
- The schools - rightfully don’t help the situation - they run with the - they provide this aura thing whether jobs or grad schools, whether it’s true or not.
- Goldman is but one firm. It’s why I hate when people say, I work in the industry, you must go to this place. You work at one firm…in an industry.
No matter what any CEO says, the top 10 (as we see in a post today) or top 20 or HYPSM will always reign supreme in many minds 
It’s great that Blankfein brings this up though.
A couple random thoughts:
I don’t know anyone who thinks the tippy top students from Minnesota (or almost any other state flagship) are anything other than smart, capable, and well prepared for most roles.
Most of the tippy top students at HYPSM that I know had better options than Goldman and didn’t interview there.
All of Lloyd Blankfein’s kids attended Harvard.
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I actually think people are missing the bigger point. His opinion on an average student at the University of Minnesota: “The average is going to be higher at these great schools, which are very, very hard to get into and have very high thresholds,” he said. “And the average person may be higher, and certainly the bottom quartile is going to be a lot higher”
So for all those 49,900 going to the school who aren’t the tippy top - his opinion is take the kid from the elite school.
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This really isn’t news. There are absolutely brilliant students at state schools that couldn’t burn 400K for a highly selective private university. We likely all know a few. Articles like this are just part of the popular anti-Harvard (and anti-elite) feeding frenzy.
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Frankly, I’m not aware of many, if any, next-step gatekeepers who would disagree with those quotes either.
But this is still leaving some unanswered questions. Like he apparently stated an opinion on the “tippy, tippy top” and on the “average”, but what about in between? What about top 10% at Minnesota versus middling at Harvard? Bottom quarter at Harvard?
These are not idle questions. You can have something like a 3.95/1500 and still be right around the 25th of an entering Harvard class. That’s probably going to put you top 10th-ish for Minnesota, though. Obviously these numbers are not your destiny, but still–where does the balance of risks and opportunities most favor a student with such numbers?
Not a question with an obvious answer.
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