Why would he want to go to Harvard specifically? For a research career, he should be choosing specific programs and labs — not choosing on the basis of the broad general reputation of a university. For undergraduate, though, an institution with a culture friendly to weird people (and anyone doing that level of research at age 15 is gonna be pretty weird) might be more rewarding than a hothouse of Future World Leaders.
“Should go to” and “will get admitted to” are different things. I think it likely that Andraka will go to Johns Hopkins, for obvious reasons.
My point is more that positive selection mechanisms do exist- they’re just a small part of the general pipe, and people are trained away from hunting for them instead of just putting up with the trouble of negative selection.
Now, tommccabe’s point still stands if the word “one” is the most significant word in that sentence. There are a host of ways to raise yourself to Harvard’s attention and clear aside the barriers put up to keep the riff raff out- but they are non-obvious and (deliberate) chinks in the general system, rather than the primary way the system operates.
Why would he want to go to Harvard specifically? For a research career, he should be choosing specific programs and labs — not choosing on the basis of the broad general reputation of a university. For undergraduate, though, an institution with a culture friendly to weird people (and anyone doing that level of research at age 15 is gonna be pretty weird) might be more rewarding than a hothouse of Future World Leaders.
“Should go to” and “will get admitted to” are different things. I think it likely that Andraka will go to Johns Hopkins, for obvious reasons.
My point is more that positive selection mechanisms do exist- they’re just a small part of the general pipe, and people are trained away from hunting for them instead of just putting up with the trouble of negative selection.
Now, tommccabe’s point still stands if the word “one” is the most significant word in that sentence. There are a host of ways to raise yourself to Harvard’s attention and clear aside the barriers put up to keep the riff raff out- but they are non-obvious and (deliberate) chinks in the general system, rather than the primary way the system operates.