No one gives a fuck where you went to school

All that matters is what you do with your education, not where you got it

billg fucking gets it — I mean about schools, clearly he doesn’t get dabbing

Consider this the official follow up to the equally creatively titled No one gives a fuck about your GPA.

I spend 5 mornings a week teaching at Franklin High School. My AP Computer Science class (undoubtedly one of the hardest courses you can take in High School) is offered 0 period. That means my students wake up an hour earlier than their other classmates to come listen to me talk about Big O notation and recursive algorithms. These kids take 8 periods a day instead of the normal 7, they do more extracurriculars than I ever knew existed and they manage to do it with the best attitude you can possibly imagine. These are the kids who are going to run our country and I am proud I get to be even the smallest part of their inevitably bright futures. Yesterday I was eavesdropping (like ya do) on their conversations before the bell, and it broke my fucking heart.

Let’s back up. If you didn’t know, it’s college admissions season.

Now try not to think about how many of these videos exist where this was not the result

Every morning I am surrounded by kids who are better coders at 16 than I was two years into college, and all they could do was stress about hearing back from Stanford and the University of Washington. They were cross referencing cryptic university tweets and estimated postal delivery times with rumors they had heard about people getting big envelopes. The heart breaking thing was not that they were talking about college- but the way they were talking about it.

• “If I don’t get into UW I don’t even know what I’ll do with my life”
• “If I don’t get into Stanford my mom will never forgive me!”
• “What happens if you don’t get in anywhere?! I don’t have a back up plan!”

REAL QUOTES. And they meant them. Sure they laughed about them as a group, but the stress in the air was suffocating. I piped in and said

“Maybe you’ll be better off if you don’t get into Stanford”

They laughed- what a fucking crazy thing for an adult to say! But the thing is- I meant it.

I am in tech, an industry that prides itself on being a meritocracy (the reality of which we can discuss another day). What is real about the tech industry-

it does not fucking matter where you go to school

When I started at Microsoft (coming from a large public school) I got the same job, and the same salary as a candidate with a masters from MIT, a candidate from Arizona State and a candidate from Central Washington University. Guess what? Once we got to our jobs, where we went to school made no fucking difference.

And it’s not just once you get to your job, getting the job doesn’t really depend on your school either. Don’t believe me? Well the Washington Post agrees:

Forget Harvard and Stanford. It really doesn't matter where you go to college

As does the Atlantic:

Does Going to an Elite College Really Boost Earnings?

So does Frank Bruni from the New York Times, he even wrote a book titled “Where you go is not who you’ll be”

Review: In 'Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be,' Frank Bruni Examines College Admissions Mania

Now I can already hear the “but I went to <fancy school> and it was the best experience of my life!” rebuttals so let’s address that right away:

1. Yes, going to an elite college means you will be surrounded, and thus networked, with on average very high achieving people.
2. Having a brand name on your resume makes it more likely to get pulled out of the stack, and for recruiters to physically show up at your school. It means opportunities are more likely to find you.

Now let me tell you why both of the above actually matter very little.

1. Sorry, but while students coming from elite universities are often the high achieving type, high grades, lots of extracurriculars, leadership, etc… they tend to transition very poorly to the workforce. They also tend to come with that most obnoxious human trait- entitlement. Nothing will kill your career faster than entitlement. Elite colleges take these incredible, hard working students and do one of two things: either they continue to work them SO HARD that we have to have real discussions about “suicide epidemics” (nyt article) or they tell these students that just getting in was all they had to do, and that now they just need to sit back and “become the leaders of tomorrow” (grade inflation). Neither of these approaches produces healthy productive adults.

2. Sure, it’s great when opportunities find you, but that does not mean any doors are shut. I promise you that for every kid who whips out their passion project to show me at a career fair, or emails me politely but consistently about how much they want this opportunity, or otherwise hustles their ass off- there is a fucking place for you anywhere.

Then what does matter? What you major in. What experiences you have. These are the things that dictate what skills you bring with you to the workforce, and the quality of person you’ll be when you’re there.

I have personally visited 15 different computer science departments and have heavily researched at least 30 more- ranging from elite (Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Harvey Mudd) to the less so (community colleges, small state schools) and guess what- IT’S THE SAME EDUCATION! Sure, the quality of research at these institutions varies a lot, but learning the fundamentals of programming is the exact same fucking course at University of Washington (top 10 program) as it is at Bellevue Community College. I am even lucky enough to work in an industry where we don’t require college degrees- however you get your skills is fine by us!

So why on Earth are 18-year-olds counting the days until their acceptance letters arrive as if it will determine the entire outcome of their lives? If you ask me- it’s on the rest of us. It’s on the parents who are convinced that getting into the right school is the only way their kid will be successful. It’s on the school counselors who are evaluated by how many of their students go to elite colleges (fuck you guys). It’s on our social media that makes “getting into Harvard” synonymous with “making it”.

No Rhianna- Harvard made it to you

Bill Gates (my personal hero and Harvard drop out) wrote a great piece about what goddamn bullshit it is that some schools measure their success by how many students they reject. Instead, it’s time we start glorifying the schools that truly help improve student’s futures.

Meeting Students Where They Are

So here is my official advice:

1. High Schoolers cut yourself some slack! The thing most likely to lead to an unhappy life is high levels of stress while your brain is still developing. Cut out this nonsense and go meditate or something.
2. Check out this Georgetown University research paper on how major affects starting salary. Pick something you like.
3. Find a school that is really good at that thing- who gives a fuck if it has a good “brand”. In fact, if there is a good public school in your state- go there! Sincerely, someone who still has massive amounts of student debt.
4. If that doesn’t work out, and frankly even if it does- GO TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE. Save yourself THOUSANDS and go to a school where the classes are small, and the teachers aren’t trying to “weed out” students. Then after a couple years transfer to a four year school, most public universities have to reserve a percentage of their admissions for community college transfers anyway!
5. No matter what, school or not, hustle hard. Pick something you want and go after it, and not just because your parents or your counselor told you to.
6. And remember, unless we are at an actual university related event- sports game, reunion, etc… no one fucking cares where you went to school, so keep it to yourself ivy leagues.

Keep an eye out for more posts from Kasey every other Tuesday as she tells stories from both the classroom and the tech industry. Next post coming 3/28/17