DISQUS

Prakash S · 5 months ago

Seriously? You didn't get a after school? Is it because you didn't send your resume to any company? :-)

Gabriel Weinberg · 5 months ago

I did not :)

Noah · 5 months ago

I think that far fewer than 15% of school goers go to a top-10 school. For one, that would imply that there are only 60ish other schools of the same size in the country -- there are probably that many state schools (counting different campuses of course) alone.

Moreover, the Census says there are about 18 million people enrolled in a college or university, whereas there are only 137,685 people in the top 10 schools (by my count). That is about 0.76%, I think.

Interesting post, though. I would have guessed more than 27% of people had a bachelor's.

Gabriel Weinberg · 5 months ago

Here's how I arrived at the 15%. Sum up the enrollments #s at http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/c... and you get 138K, i.e your number. But then you have to say anyone who has ever gone to those schools, so I multiplied it by 50 for 50 years. I did 50 instead of say 60 because over the overlap of people who to undergrad and grad both at top schools, like me. That gives you 7M. 27% of US population > 25 who wen to college is 195M*.27 =~ 53M. 7/53 =~ 13%. And then I rounded up to 15% for good measure.

Noah · 5 months ago

Hm, interesting point, as probably historically top-10 schools accounted for a higher percentage of students than they do now. I think that more than 1/6 of grad students at top-10 schools were undergrads at top-10 schools -- I'd guess more than half, intuitively. There is a larger concern, though. That 138k is the number of students enrolled in any year at a top-10 school. Most students spend 4+ years (particularly if they are undergrads who go on to grad school at a top-10 school), so you are at least 4x high, I think.

Gabriel Weinberg · 5 months ago

Oh wow, I just *assumed* that the enrollment # meant for the incoming classes. I should have known better :). So yeah, it should be 1/4 of that, which I just made it.

It's unclear to me what the overlap should be. I agree probably half of the top-10 undergrads go onto grad, but I'm not sure what % they account for grad school enrollments. At MIT, most of the grad students I met came from other places. Nevertheless, I'll reduce it a bit more. Now it is at 3%.

Noah · 5 months ago

Haha, sounds good. What a nice Monday diversion...

Jonathan Tran · 5 months ago

How do you discover what makes you weird? Or rather, how could I?

Seralathan · 5 months ago

I remember seeing some where that you are an INFJ. In most of the things I am too close to weirdness ( not a dad yet)

Gabriel Weinberg · 5 months ago

INTJ. Close though :). I was INTP in high school and then changed somewhere in there.