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Ask HN: The best university degree(s) for a budding entrepreneur/engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: The best university degree(s) for a budding entrepreneur/engineer?

#11

Post by tae »

LeBlanc wrote: post #10

Focus more on the resources at your school than on the degree. You want to attend a school that has good entrepreneurial resources, such as student start-up incubators, business plan competitions, mentoring, etc. Regardless of what degree you have, these are resources that you can use to learn about entrepreneurship and build a company while still in school. Stanford, Duke, and University of Texas (Austin) are school…

I have been seriously considering Stanford, as it seems to be right at the centre of the technology entrepreneur's Mecca of Silicon Valley.

I have yet to find people like myself in my area and I've heard that SA is choc full of ambitious/intelligent/successful people who are ready to start new ventures, in addition to all the VCs being located there.

Re: Ask HN: The best university degree(s) for a budding entrepreneur/engineer?

#12

Post by tae »

corruption wrote: post #2

I would do electronics, computer science & mathematical statistics, but then get some deep subject knowledge in a soft domain that really interests you (e.g. med, biochem, genetics, pharmacology, neuroscience etc). There are soooo many problems out there just waiting to be solved by skilled engineers/mathematicians/statisticians, but the sad thing is that most of these people have no subject matter knowledge, and the…

I totally agree with your statement that "There's gold in the intersections of disciplines.", and I've put it down on my list of things to become (a polymath).

I've quite seriously looked at the medical sector as one that lacks technological innovation, and both this answer, in addition to makerman's answer seem to validate that opinion.

Look where things lack innovation seems to be the best way to go.

Re: Ask HN: The best university degree(s) for a budding entrepreneur/engineer?

#14

Post by tae »

jaspertheghost wrote: post #8

Who you are is a more accurate predictor of entrepreneurship and success. That being said the two schools that have the best track records are Stanford and UIUC. Stanford (Google, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems) and UIUC (Netscape, Paypal, YouTube, Oracle, Yelp, Farmville) http://www.quora.com/What-startups-have-come-out-of-Stanford... http://www.quora.com/What-startups-have-come-out-of-Universi...

"Who you are is a more accurate predictor of entrepreneurship and success." is a wonderfully succinct way to put it, and I hope to become more and more like those who have succeeded in the future (e.g. solid work ethic/reading about a variety of subject/talking to more people).

I guess I'll just have to improve myself, and chase the smart people, who seem to swarm to these universities.

Re: Ask HN: The best university degree(s) for a budding entrepreneur/engineer?

#15

Post by samratjp »

Don't worry about the specific degree so much - you will realize someday that there are more important things like how talking to people and actually share their viewpoint can help you figure out what people want. Translation: get a feel for the school by visiting the campus. It's great you are a good student, but there's much more to entrepreneurship than sheer smarts - it helps if you go to a school where you can meet a lot of non-engineer/management type folks. In the real world, these are the people who will most likely be using the product and it helps to hear what they have to say.

That said, just pick a degree you like and take loads of math classes (if you don't, at least take stats), some C.S classes (take ones with C, scheme). Actually, read Cal Newport's blog - http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/11/20/a-study-hacks-primer/

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