<p>I've been following this thread for a while now, and so far I've refrained from posting--in the beginning because I saw the initial premise of this thread as a worthless troll. Now, though, I find the discussion of 'polish' interesting. I'd like to speak to this discussion, and offer an example of polish at Caltech.</p>
<p>Geomom, I think you're right that the average Techer doesn't get as much polish from his education as the average Harvard student. However, I think that there's an interesting sort of polish that you can acquire at Caltech that almost noone from Harvard will ever experience from their education (mind you, though, that my opinions of Harvard are almost entirely speculatory).</p>
<p>Caltech has a great advantage over every other school because of the combination of the very small student body, small student to faculty ratio, and the very high respect that students are afforded by both faculty and the administration. This presents a unique opportunity for Techers (especially those in student government) to gain a 'polish' not through classes, but through their interactions with the faculty and administration. This has been my experience.</p>
<p>I've been involved in student government at Caltech since my sophomore year. Now, I'm a graduating senior, and I'll be replaced in all of my positions through the elections in the coming months. As the elected chairman of the IHC (Interhouse Committee - the most active student government organization at Caltech) this past year, and as the IHC Secretary (effectively a vice-chair of sorts) the year before that, I've put in 20-30 hour work weeks, on average, solely for the student government, before counting time spent even touching upon problem sets. I've had the chance to negotiate housing and alcohol policies with Caltech's Vice President for Student Affairs (in fact, over my four years, I've interacted with three different such Vice Presidents), I've successfully defended controversial actions and decisions made by the IHC under my watch from opposed students and Faculty Board Committees alike, and I've had the opportunity to interact on a regular basis with school officials, from the President of the Institute, Jean-Lou Chameau, and trustees like Gordon Moore (founder of Intel) to faculty members and the head of campus maintenance.</p>
<p>I think that developing and upkeeping the sort of rapport with Caltech's administration and faculty that has allowed me to run what I believe has been a successful student government is an experience that has provided me with the sort of 'polish' you refer to. I'd place a bet that because of Caltech's very small size and the respect awarded to its students by the faculty and administration, that in my position in the student government at Caltech, I've had more experience dealing with the administration at a high level than my counterparts at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Through these connections, and those of Caltech's trustees, I've even dealt and worked with numerous CEOs.</p>
<p>But that's all a result of my experience as a student leader. I learned leadership skills as a student volunteer, in charge of orchestrating campus parties. One thing you have to understand about Caltech is that our parties are not like the parties you'll find anywhere else. We spend a month planning, and three months building, painting, and laying preparations for four hours of song, food, drink, and dance. I've been in charge of two parties (and held other leadership positions for two others) at Caltech, and it was those experiences that taught me what it means to lead by example, to mediate disagreements, to manage people in order to head off personality conflicts before they happen, and to lay plans, contingency plans, and further contingency plans for those contingencies in order to pull off a successful event. I've learned how to set out and follow a schedule and a budget, how to raise funds and how to spend them in the most efficient manner (the second party I was in charge of was arguably one of the biggest and most ambitious in the school's history, and had a running budget in excess of $10,000, with money raised beyond the school's donations by our own fundraising work). I've learned how to motivate people to swing a hammer and drill screws through twelve hour work days during winter break, and I've learned how vital proper communication and oversight is when you have 100 people working on a massive project, all at the same time.</p>
<p>I never learned any of the above from classes, and I certainly wasn't assigned any reading or problem sets in order to cement my understanding. For me, it was all a 'trial by fire' of sorts, with lots of learning, and adapting, on the spot. I don't know what Harvard and Yale are like--I've never been there, but I'd be surprised if they have any more opportunities to gain 'polish' than I've had.</p>
<p>So, yes, students at Caltech can gain all the polish they want, they just have to want it, to look for it, and to go after it.</p>