<story><title>Selection bias is the most powerful force in education</title><url>https://fredrikdeboer.com/2017/03/29/why-selection-bias-is-the-most-powerful-force-in-education/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fragsworth</author><text>I think the network is overrated. Everyone I&amp;#x27;ve known has had the same experience - immediately after graduating, everyone gets a job, moves far away from one another, and slowly drifts apart from the friends they met in college.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;ll get a similar network working at your first job. And then your second job. The group you met in college is of little consequence in the end.</text></item><item><author>calebl</author><text>Loved this article.  It presents a compelling case that most colleges are providing near-equivalent &lt;i&gt;education&lt;/i&gt;, and that the variance is mostly in selection bias.  My only objection: at the end, the author takes issue with the fact that it&amp;#x27;s nearly impossible to get people to take selection bias into account when choosing where to send their kids.  However, there&amp;#x27;s another possible factor that I think parents might be considering: the network of connections that I build when I go to school X.  Even if Harvard gives my daughter the same educational quality that, say, Florida State gives her... if she&amp;#x27;s likely to form a network of friends that are all approximately 100x higher in net worth, then if I care about her long-term economic outcomes, I&amp;#x27;d still try hard to send her to Harvard, no?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying that&amp;#x27;s ideal, and it&amp;#x27;s most certainly an outcome of the exact selection bias you&amp;#x27;re talking about... just that it&amp;#x27;s a semi-rational choice for the parents, because school choices can often be about non-educational effects.&lt;p&gt;Just my two cents, though... I could be way off.  And regardless, thanks for the article.. definitely made me think about the topic more than I had.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zeta0134</author><text>Speak for yourself. My current career in systems administration, a pleasant improvement over my retail start during college, was gained through my network of college friends. I don&amp;#x27;t keep in touch with them often, but we went to the same programming classes, and know each other&amp;#x27;s relative strengths. One of my buddies took me to lunch with his friends that work here, and one thing led to another. I still had to apply and go through the technical screening just like anyone else, but just like that I had an &amp;quot;in&amp;quot; and was able to perform a class jump.&lt;p&gt;Is my experience anecdotal? Absolutely! I didn&amp;#x27;t even finish my degree, which makes this a weird exception story. On paper, college got me nothing, but in reality, the network of contacts and the life experiences I earned were far more useful to me than the degree I never obtained.</text></comment>
<story><title>Selection bias is the most powerful force in education</title><url>https://fredrikdeboer.com/2017/03/29/why-selection-bias-is-the-most-powerful-force-in-education/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fragsworth</author><text>I think the network is overrated. Everyone I&amp;#x27;ve known has had the same experience - immediately after graduating, everyone gets a job, moves far away from one another, and slowly drifts apart from the friends they met in college.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;ll get a similar network working at your first job. And then your second job. The group you met in college is of little consequence in the end.</text></item><item><author>calebl</author><text>Loved this article.  It presents a compelling case that most colleges are providing near-equivalent &lt;i&gt;education&lt;/i&gt;, and that the variance is mostly in selection bias.  My only objection: at the end, the author takes issue with the fact that it&amp;#x27;s nearly impossible to get people to take selection bias into account when choosing where to send their kids.  However, there&amp;#x27;s another possible factor that I think parents might be considering: the network of connections that I build when I go to school X.  Even if Harvard gives my daughter the same educational quality that, say, Florida State gives her... if she&amp;#x27;s likely to form a network of friends that are all approximately 100x higher in net worth, then if I care about her long-term economic outcomes, I&amp;#x27;d still try hard to send her to Harvard, no?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying that&amp;#x27;s ideal, and it&amp;#x27;s most certainly an outcome of the exact selection bias you&amp;#x27;re talking about... just that it&amp;#x27;s a semi-rational choice for the parents, because school choices can often be about non-educational effects.&lt;p&gt;Just my two cents, though... I could be way off.  And regardless, thanks for the article.. definitely made me think about the topic more than I had.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>taneq</author><text>To give an opposing anecdote, I&amp;#x27;ve landed more than half of my full time permanent positions through personal recommendations or references from people I know from university. And these jobs have by far been more interesting and&amp;#x2F;or better for my career than ones I found through recruiters or vacancy ads.</text></comment>