Old School

During a recent Congressional hearing a number of education specialists testified to the general confusion the eight-page Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) spawns each academic year, reported the Des Moines Register in an article this morning, “College Aid a Long Form Away.” Not only this, but the entire federal approval process was designed over 30 years ago and the majority of the information the current form requires could ideally be accessed through various other online government agencies, that is if THEY were all on board with the internet age.

Almost every college-bound kid, along with their parent or guardian, needs to file a FAFSA, that’s if they want any form of government financial aid. Right now the government requires college financial aid offices to audit a certain percentage of the forms, by requesting random applicants attach copies of their tax and income forms. This, experts agree, gobbles up even more chunks of time that could be better spent.

Currently the confusion is so rampant and the document so “intimidating” that most student loan providers and college financial aid offices tutor and advise FAFSA applicants so forms are filled out correctly.

Slowly, but surely, progress is kicking in. According to the recent Summary of FAFSA Statistics posted by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, “[n]inety-four percent (over 8.5 million) of the filers submitted the FAFSA electronically.” This is a nine percent increase from 2005’s stats.

New School

One recommendation, from Laurie Wolf, Executive Dean of Student Services for Des Moines Community College, is to “simplify the process and speed it up by electronically linking FAFSA to databanks of other government agencies. For instance, income tax information could be linked to IRS information, while pertinent information from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or criminal justice systems, also could be electronically sluiced into FAFSA.”

While we wait another millennium for this level of government integration, financial aid experts from colleges and student loan providers make FAFSA debunking part of their annual ritual, a costly way to pick up where governmental red tape leaves off.

There’s no question that an Ivy League education is an asset, but is it really worth the hefty price tag and elitism that comes along with it? According to this recent Wall Street Journal article, the diplomas that hang in the offices of most of the nation’s top CEOs are from state universities or small private schools. This may be surprising, as most people (myself included!) automatically assumed that getting that Harvard degree was like a “golden handshake,” where you are inducted into the elite club which rules finance and business. Turns out, this isn’t so. In fact, only 10% of CEOs heading the top 500 companies received an undergraduate degree from an Ivy League school.

Who are these big-time CEOs with the small-time degrees?

Obviously, there’s a bunch, but we’ll mention a few. First, there’s the CEO of Wal-Mart, H. Lee Scott, who attended Pittsburg State University in Kansas. There’s also Intel CEO Paul Otellini who went to the University of San Francisco, and Cosco CEO James Sinegal who went to San Diego City College. Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson attended the University of Texas-Austin, and Proctor & Gamble’s CEO A.G. Lafley graduated from Hamilton College in New York. All this goes to show that innovation, perseverance, intelligence, and acumen go a lot further in cultivating success that the byline on your degree.

“What counts most, CEOs say, is a person’s capacity to seize opportunities. As students, they recall immersing themselves in their interests, becoming campus leaders and forging strong relationships with teachers. And at state and lesser-known schools, where many were the first in their families to attend college, they sought challenges and mixed with students from diverse backgrounds — an experience that helped them later in their corporate climbs.”

Why Did They Choose State or Small Schools?

Several of the CEOs mentioned that they chose the schools they did because they could receive more individualized attention at a state or small school, whose professors were devoted to teaching rather than advancing their own careers. In addition, they pointed out that there’s no point in attending a difficult, prestigious school if it doesn’t fit your needs, or just doesn’t pay attention.

“You can go to a top-end school and end up dramatically underperforming, or you can go to a place that cares and blow away what everyone thinks,” says Mr. Green, who still stays in touch with his economics professor, Charlie Kramer. A trustee at Dean, he feels angry when he encounters “parents who are afraid or ashamed to say their son or daughter is attending a community college,” he says.

Interestingly, there might be a good reason not to attend a prestigious school: you might be viewed as unwilling to ‘start at the bottom’ of a company, or just simply over-qualified. And as most CEOs spent a lot of time with one company, working through the ranks, it might be a drawback.

“A lot of people who earn degrees from tier-one universities and business schools aren’t willing to start at the bottom of a huge company” and spend years scaling layers of management and hoping to reach the top, says Richard Tedlow, a business historian at Harvard Business School.

What About No Degree at All?

It’s true that some CEOs out there actually dropped out of college to pursue their ideas and businesses. Bill Gates quit Harvard to start Microsoft. One case in point is Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon to go work for Atari, and then to start Apple. However, this is of course the rare success story; many more people who drop out of college never make it as far as Steve Jobs, and even he had a long struggle to get anywhere, stating that dropping out “wasn’t romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room so I slept on the floor of friends’ rooms and returned Coke bottles…to buy food.”

However the take-home message seems to be: make the best educational decision for your budget and goals, as an Ivy League degree does not promise success. A student can achieve the same level of success with a degree from a state or small school, its all about the individual that makes the difference.

Here’s the continuation of some tips to get into (and be happy in) graduate school. These tips may help you focus yourself during interviews and the admission process, or at least give you something to think about. As mentioned before, some of the tips are geared towards science-related fields (which is where I’m at) but most generalize to all types of study.

11. Good scientists (mathematicians, lit profs, etc) don’t always make good mentors.
When you read awesome papers or books, its easy to imagine this brilliant person as the perfect mentor. But its important to get a variety of opinions to find out if the person you want to work with is a good teacher, and good with people. Personalities are not always compatible, don’t let it interfere in getting your degree.

12. Don’t be afraid to get out if it isn’t working.
Trust your gut when visiting schools, as well as rotating in labs. If it doesn’t keep your interest and excite you, you will get bored with the research quickly and dread going to lab. You don’t want to waste your time and the time of others pursuing something (or some project) you don’t really love.

13. Stand up for yourself, and keep at it.
Someone, someday will challenge your scientific ideas. You’re smart, defend your theories! Very little in science is concrete, and there are many camps of respected thought on the same issues. During interviews, essays, or even casual conversations, don’t back down just because a more respected scientists doesn’t agree. You might even change their mind.

14. Share most of your ideas, but keep a few to yourself.
Its always hard to know how many of your ideas to share, and how many to keep secret in interviews. As you go on the road to interview, or describe the kind of research you wish to do in essays, be frank and creative about your theories without going specifically into methods. On the other hand, if you’ve got a HOT idea, all the labs you talk to may be future competitors if you don’t attend the school. Therefore, keep sensitive information quiet. You can always tell the admissions committee rather than the scientist about it.

15. Apply for NRSAs or other outside funding.
You can apply for these before you enter graduate school. Its a bear, but does relay your commitment to getting funded.

16. Be curious.
You can never ask too many questions or be too curious about the program and its students. Ask for as much information as possible so you can make a good informed decision.

17. Know some science lineage.
This only matters if you are interviewing with a “big name” or the scientific descendant of one. Scientists “pass the torch” to their pre- and post-docs. Therefore if you know someone along their lineage, either really or by proxy, its a good rallying point.

18. Know who won the Nobels that year, in your field.
This seems to be something that science interviews often hit on to a) see if you pay attention, b) keep the conversation rolling. Don’t run out and read all the papers, but its a good tidbit to know who, what, and why–generally.

19. Email the students in the program, and in the lab.
Trust me, this is how to get the scoop on any future mentor. Also, if the students are unhappy, it will be evident.

20. Find out where/what students from that program are doing now.
Are they all in Big Pharma? All in academia? Straight to tenure or high school teachers? It matters, as it dictates the value of your future degree.

21. No second-choices. Nothing but science will do.
If the committee gets wind that you’re also applying to med school, law school, and pharmacy school, they might not take you seriously. It might seem like science is your backup plan, and offer the position to someone else.

22. Be professional, talk shop, ask what projects their students are doing.
When in doubt (or to recover from a blunder or fill a lull), a sure winner is to ask what projects the lab is working on or talk about the most recent paper they published. You read it right? You understand the concept, well, use this opportunity to comment as to what the next step might be.

Hopefully these tips may help in the interview and admissions process. Got more tips? Leave them in the comments!