Thread by @avichal

1/ Who you know matters as much as what you know!

The meme that college is "only insurance" is true if your family is wealthy/well-connected.

College should be valued as a network and doing so leads to counter-intuitive results👇

2/ It's not a surprise that many people who push the university as insurance meme are well-connected. Most students do not come from wealthy or well-connected families.

For normal students, the value of @Harvard or @Stanford is access (in addition to a world class education)

3/ What is it worth to be friends w/ future CEOs, Congresspeople, Senators, etc.? What is it worth to have those friends' parents help you?

How do you value access/network? And what are the implications?

4/ The value of a network is exponentially related to the number of nodes in the network (Metcalfe's Law).

Since the nodes you are buying access to via a @Harvard degree are extremely well-connected, it is an exponentially more valuable network than a no name school.

5/ A @Harvard or @Stanford degree is also worth exponentially more than a school that also has a great education but no network.

Implication A: Wealth and power concentration changes in society means a degree from a top school is worth MORE, not less, than it was in the past.

6/ Implication B: Most mid-tier universities are dramatically over priced for what they offer and these universities will fail in the next 20 years.

Mid tier universities are pricing based on insurance and education quality but have no network, and most will be gutted.

7/ Implication C: There are many universities that have amazing and differentiated networks that are actually undervalued! @UWaterloo or @OlinCollege are great examples of less well-known universities that offer AMAZING education and world class networks

8/ Implication D: If you can get access to a world class network without taking on massive debt, you are better off.

@ycombinator, @LambdaSchool, and @InsightFellows are great examples of how to get access to a network more valuable than most universities or grad schools.

9/ Implication E: There will be more vertical networks like @ycombinator that emerge over the next decade. If you can build a network and give people who do not have access to that network, you can build a $1B business and you are actually competing against universities.

10/ Implication F: Top universities should grow their student bodies by 2-5x. If they can maintain the talent bar (which I believe they can), the network effects of having the most successful students in your network will be a long term moat.

11/ I make no claims about the myriad other values of a university (personal growth, hands on learning, etc.)

What is clear is the best universities offer a network for the majority of students who do not come from privileged backgrounds. This is a critical and under-valued good

12/ P.S. I just use @Harvard and @Stanford as canonical examples of amazing universities with world class networks. There are many other great ones. More than people might guess. But far fewer than the total number of universities in existence today.