<p>Don't</a> go to your top college, says Malcolm Glad... - Between Letters - Quora</p>
<p>I found this video to be very interesting. Malcolm Gladwell sums up the success of those at the bottom of their class at top tier institutions relative to those at the top of their class at less prestigious schools. The camera annoyed me sometimes and there was not as much data as I'd like but the sentiment and data shown definitely makes the video worth watching.</p>
<p>I liked this video. At the very least, this guy is a convincing speaker.</p>
<p>My teacher said pretty much the same thing to us the other day. She probably watched this video, and stole the speech.</p>
<p>This concept is dumb…high schoolers need to be ambitious and driven enough to suceed despite high competition, not try to avoid it. Why not try to be the best of the best? Have some self confidence and strive to be the big fish in the big pond. So much coddling these days.</p>
<p>Gladwell is a very interesting and entertaining writer and speaker. But this should not be taken as any kind of gospel or new science. He is just making some observations that are thought provoking and may stimulate discussion. I don’t think anyone should be making any individual decisions based on just this book and the lectures that he gives to promote it. But it does encourage not giving such short shrift to some of the very good alternatives out there.</p>
<p>If his theory is correct then everyone should go to the easiest community college then transfer to the easiest 4 year college.</p>
<p>^ I don’t think that’s quite the argument… I think it’s more that you should go to a university that fits with your level and interests, not just go to the highest ranking school you can manage. I don’t think he’s saying to go to the lowest rank school possible, just that you should go somewhere where you can succeed. In that sense, it’s not a very novel idea, but I don’t think it’s well enough acknowledged.</p>
<p>Even assuming Malcolm Gladwell is correctly characterizing the findings he cites, it’s a leap to apply them to the college-picking process.</p>
<p>His evidence is based on publications by recent graduates of PhD programs. The finding is that usually only the top students from each cohort, apparently regardless of school prestige, get published soon after graduation. So it’s better to be a top student in an average PhD program than an average student in a top PhD program - with respect to getting published in an academic journal.</p>
<p>Getting published in a peer-reviewed journal is a specialized outcome with relatively few opportunities for success. College graduates have many opportunities for success in all sorts of fields. How many famous, accomplished people were mediocre students at “top” colleges? What outcome(s) is Gladwell tracking to verify that the findings about PhD students apply equally well to college graduates?</p>