American universities have never considered academic merit the sole criterion for admittance.
In K-12, almost everybody goes to local schools. Universities are a bit different because kids actually do pick the university. The bizarre thing, though, is that the merit of university is actually how good the students going in are: the SAT scores of the kids going in.
Maryland is one of the greatest schools that we have in this country.
I'm really considering all the schools. It's not fair for me to only look at certain... programs just because they had players that are at my stature.
To be sure, American higher education is a diverse ecosystem, comprising institutions of all sizes, price tags, and mission statements.
Message to all you crazed parents desperately hiring tutors and padding your kid's thin resume: Chillax. Attending an elite college is no guarantee of leadership, life success, or earnings potential.
I don't know how their ranking goes or anything else, and I tell people I don't really care how the rankings go.
When I was in high school, I didn't feel like I had to pile on the APs in order to look good to colleges. High-achieving classmates didn't use private tutors.
It's a hard process to navigate... to figure out where your kid ought to go to college.
I think the American university system still seems to be the best system in the world.
My wife and I often have debates about who studied in a better school and when I list KVM alumni, she kind of loses the argument.
When I was applying to college, my mother told me I could apply to any school within the Boston subway map.
Social networks matter greatly, and our class calibrations are often around what college one attended, leading to gruesome institutional divisions between those who attend, say, community colleges and those who attend top-tier universities.
I don't think I could have thought of any place other than Stanford to leave Harvard for.
I realized that the only way to get into a good college was to be valedictorian or salutatorian. So that was my goal.
I feel it has become increasingly competitive. There are some insane cut-offs to get into a lot of colleges.
Duke and UNC are great schools.
I didn't even know about MIT until two weeks before I applied.
How much does it really matter whether your child will soon be enjoying a first year at Harvard or Yale or will instead end up at her third or fourth or fifth choice? Probably much less than you think.
I never graduated high school; they had to change the Ivy League rules. During my tenure at Brown, I helped them become the number one Ivy League school.
Every year it is more difficult to get into the top four.
College has become a business, and because of that, it can be gamed.
Economists actually disagree about whether there are significant economic returns from attending an elite college versus a less-selective one.
It doesn't matter what college you go to.
Wealthy parents have long relied on a properly timed donation to improve their children's chances at admission to college.
