Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

agenda.weforum.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 136 posts

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#41

Post by stephencanon »

metaphorm wrote: post #38
stephencanon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. The thing is, they get so many applicants that they have no reason to care if they miss some good ones. The ones they end up taking are just as good. Any of the elite schools could throw out their entire admitted class, admit their next 2k choices, and no one would be able to tell the difference. The schools have a huge incentive to admit students who will succeed. They have no incentive to admit all such studen…

> The ones they end up taking are just as good I disagree with this sentiment. humans are individuals and unique. none is "just as good" as another. each is different. the college admissions process treats human beings as fungible commodities. like ears of corn at the grain silo. > The schools have a huge incentive to admit students who will succeed. They have no incentive to admit all such students. what does succee…

"Just as good" in the sense of "equally viable on the scale used by admissions", not in the capital-G sense of Good or in a hypothetical "equally valuable as human beings" sense. Yes, they are different, but those differences are often not relevant to the task set before the admissions committee.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#42

Post by aianus »

arihant wrote: post #28
doczoidberg wrote: post #3

In my opinion elite universities are more for traditional career paths. They are nothing for entrepeneurs. You waste too much time with exams. There should be an opportunity to get credits for entrepeneurial work at university. Edit: I am engineering alumnus of a so called elite university in germany and struggled much with exams because I just wanted to do more practical work which one can sell.

> They are nothing for entrepeneurs. This is absolutely false. Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out. To me, CMU taught invaluable lessons in hard work, getting kicked in the teeth over and over, surviving mostly on coffee and alcohol, and persisting till success comes along. All these lessons help while starting a startup. A great college progr…

> Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out.

This is a lie when it comes to non-technical degrees at elite colleges like Harvard. Most people get A's. It's a joke.

Edit: source: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/3/grade-inflation-...

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#43

Post by drpgq »

scott_s wrote: post #33
ilamont wrote: post #13

Colleges such as Harvard that base admissions decisions on grades, standardized test scores, traditional social/leadership signals (club x, sports team y), alumni connections, geographic/ethnic background, and writing/storytelling skills (i.e., the “personal essay”) are going to miss a lot of brilliant, innovative people and future leaders. The 17-year-old Steve Jobs (free spirit), Barack Obama (slacker), and Jack Ma…

Barack Obama went to Columbia, which is literally in the same league as Harvard. He also went to Harvard Law after undergrad, so I don't think he fits your narrative. We don't need to include how an elite university selects their students to claim that they are going to miss a lot of brilliant and innovative people. The mere fact that they admit only thousands of people a year make this necessarily so.

Didn't he start at Occidental and transfer to Columbia?

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#45

Post by pavornyoh »

metaphorm wrote: post #38
stephencanon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. The thing is, they get so many applicants that they have no reason to care if they miss some good ones. The ones they end up taking are just as good. Any of the elite schools could throw out their entire admitted class, admit their next 2k choices, and no one would be able to tell the difference. The schools have a huge incentive to admit students who will succeed. They have no incentive to admit all such studen…

> The ones they end up taking are just as good I disagree with this sentiment. humans are individuals and unique. none is "just as good" as another. each is different. the college admissions process treats human beings as fungible commodities. like ears of corn at the grain silo. > The schools have a huge incentive to admit students who will succeed. They have no incentive to admit all such students. what does succee…

@Metaphorm, Good post. A good example of damaging criminals from an Ivy League School is Marc Dreier (Yale for undergraduate studies and then Harvard Law). In the 45 minutes interview "Unraveled", he said there is so much pressure to succeed when you graduate from such top schools that you do all sort of things just to prove you have made it. But then again, you wonder how true that comment is.. :)

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#46

Post by astazangasta »

arihant wrote: post #28
doczoidberg wrote: post #3

In my opinion elite universities are more for traditional career paths. They are nothing for entrepeneurs. You waste too much time with exams. There should be an opportunity to get credits for entrepeneurial work at university. Edit: I am engineering alumnus of a so called elite university in germany and struggled much with exams because I just wanted to do more practical work which one can sell.

> They are nothing for entrepeneurs. This is absolutely false. Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out. To me, CMU taught invaluable lessons in hard work, getting kicked in the teeth over and over, surviving mostly on coffee and alcohol, and persisting till success comes along. All these lessons help while starting a startup. A great college progr…

Since 'entrepreneur' literally means someone who starts a business, yes, Sundar Pichai is less entrepreneurial.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#47

Post by doczoidberg »

arihant wrote: post #28
doczoidberg wrote: post #3

In my opinion elite universities are more for traditional career paths. They are nothing for entrepeneurs. You waste too much time with exams. There should be an opportunity to get credits for entrepeneurial work at university. Edit: I am engineering alumnus of a so called elite university in germany and struggled much with exams because I just wanted to do more practical work which one can sell.

> They are nothing for entrepeneurs. This is absolutely false. Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out. To me, CMU taught invaluable lessons in hard work, getting kicked in the teeth over and over, surviving mostly on coffee and alcohol, and persisting till success comes along. All these lessons help while starting a startup. A great college progr…

As you mentioned those universities are extremeley hard what means time consuming. Starting a company is time consuming too. Doing both at the same time is nearly impossible.

But when you are studying it is the best time to start a company. It would be better if colleges would honor this instead of just ignoring.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#48

Post by arihant »

aianus wrote: post #42
arihant wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are nothing for entrepeneurs. This is absolutely false. Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out. To me, CMU taught invaluable lessons in hard work, getting kicked in the teeth over and over, surviving mostly on coffee and alcohol, and persisting till success comes along. All these lessons help while starting a startup. A great college progr…

> Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out. This is a lie when it comes to non-technical degrees at elite colleges like Harvard. Most people get A's. It's a joke. Edit: source: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/3/grade-inflation-...

There are classes where a lot of people get A's. But I have a first hand experience to tell you that it's not easy. Just because majority got an A in a very small number of classes, does not disregard equal number of classes where majority fights for a C. It also does not say that people getting A's did not work their asses off.

Grade inflation does happen in some courses. But it's not easy and is far from a joke.

In the article you mentioned, the average is A-. Which means half of the smartest people recruited off from high school struggled to make it to 90 average, even after worrisome inflation. At worst, that's a 5-7% grade inflation.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#49

Post by akhilcacharya »

drpgq wrote: post #43
scott_s wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barack Obama went to Columbia, which is literally in the same league as Harvard. He also went to Harvard Law after undergrad, so I don't think he fits your narrative. We don't need to include how an elite university selects their students to claim that they are going to miss a lot of brilliant and innovative people. The mere fact that they admit only thousands of people a year make this necessarily so.

Didn't he start at Occidental and transfer to Columbia?

Correct, but Occidental is still considered today to be a fairly selective liberal arts school.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#50

Post by yuncun »

I grew up in a Chinese household, and I swear, Chinese people are way too obsessed with university branding. It's not even about quality of education, it's a cultural status phenomenon. If you take 10 mothers, the dick size of each one is directly proportional to the US News (yes, specifically US News) ranking of the university of her child. And if Timmy, some random kid in school, had a 2380 SAT, then as a fellow Chinese kid, you'd hear about it somehow.

Thankfully my parents weren't this crazy, but I've seen Chinese families spend thousands on SAT preps, or parents discouraging their kids from playing sports to chase a 4.4 GPA. I hear it's even worse in areas like Cupertino.

I mean, I respect the pusuit of education, but this obsession with college is a poisonous byproduct. Those kids aren't even better off after college anyways. It's all pride. Look at Jack Ma. 22.5 Billion dollars, and Harvard is still like Gatsby's Daisy to him.

Post reply on HN