<h2>And the fact is, if you look at the top partners of the top VC's and PE firms, you're going to find a lot of grads from places like HYPSM. Private equity, in particular, is dominated by Harvard grads.</h2>
<p>If you really looked at the backgrounds of the HYPSM's who are top partnets of VC firms like Blackstone and others, you will notice something interesting --- UNDERGRADUATE TAKEN ARE FROM DIVERSE COLLEGES, including LAC's many people tend to overlook and state universities as well. Of course if it's GRADUATE school you're talking about, then a lot of them go to get their MBA's at Harvard, Wharton and the rest.</p>
<p>I for instance know several partners in Austin Ventures ( based in Texas and one of the top VC firms in the country ) who graduated from UT Austin, Texas A & M and Baylor. Where did they get their MBA ? Well, one went to Harvard, the other went to Vanderbilt and the other went to Northwestern. But notice that their UNDERGRAD were in different schools ( 2 of them public and one a Baptist affiliated school ).</p>
<p>In fact, one lesson that can be learned is this -- if you don't get sufficient aid and you're a good student, don't get into too much debt trying to pay Ivy League money in your UNDERGRAD when you can get just as good an education in cheaper schools. AFTER you graduate and you have the means to make money, THEN consider going to the Ivy grad schools.</p>
<p>"The truth is, many elite graduates don't really want to be CEO's, preferring instead to be venture capitalists, private equity partners, hedge fund managers, and so forth. As one Harvard Business School professor once said, why be the CEO when you can be the guy telling the CEO what to do?"</p>
<p>Some would say that is one of the biggest problems with US companies today--being forced into a very short term focus by people who have no long term thinking or knowledge. Bu this too shall pass as financing gets harder to find and the low hanging fruit has been picked. Wait until the Democrats get done with them.</p>
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I for instance know several partners in Austin Ventures ( based in Texas and one of the top VC firms in the country ) who graduated from UT Austin, Texas A & M and Baylor. Where did they get their MBA ? Well, one went to Harvard, the other went to Vanderbilt and the other went to Northwestern. But notice that their UNDERGRAD were in different schools ( 2 of them public and one a Baptist affiliated school ).
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<p>Austin Ventures has 7 General Partners (the highest non-founder role).</p>
<p>Of them, 2 went to Harvard for undergrad: Joe Aragona
& Ken DeAngelis. One went to Johns Hopkins. One went to a school in India. One went to UChicago. One went to Trinity University. And one went to the University of Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Hence of the 7 General Partners at a Texas-based venture capital firm, Harvard is the most represented undergrad program. Think about that. This isn't a firm that is situated in Boston or New York, where one might expect that Harvard would be predominant. This is Texas. Yet even there, Harvard is more represented than any of the much larger Southern public schools. </p>
<p>
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Some would say that is one of the biggest problems with US companies today--being forced into a very short term focus by people who have no long term thinking or knowledge.
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</p>
<p>Oh, I don't know about that. Specifically, I don't really know that private equity, hedge funds, or venture capital really foster a short-term focus. Seems to me that CEO's do plenty of short-term thinking all by themselves. </p>
<p>In fact, I think a case could be made that VC/PE specifically could be said to actually encourage long-term (or at least longer term) thinking. One of the purported advantages of private equity is the shield from the scrutiny of the public markets, meaning that you no longer have to worry about obsessively hitting quarterly numbers lest your stock price take a tumble.</p>
<p>Rochester Institute of Technology has outstanding placement rate at 95%. This might be because it is an institute of technology, it has the coops program, and their amazing career services center ranked 7th in the nation.</p>