US university applications seem to want applicants all to be 'leaders' - team leader, project leader, community leader, founders of companies, etc. By demanding leadership experience on the applicants' resumes, is the US universty education implying that leader is uniquely superior to other roles society? Say there two applicants to Harvard: student A is an aspiring academic who is supremely good at theoretical physics, and want to spend the rest of his life studying elementary particles, but is a terrible leader or manager and may even lack some social skills. Student B is socially skilled, good at networking, good at interpersonal relations, captain of debate team, master at salesmanship and presentations, but academically mediocre, not very good at math or science, or anything requires deep and rigorous thinking. Candidate A may end up being a very good researcher and scientist, and candidate B may end up being a senior executive of a fortune 500. I have a feeling that, unless candidate A is Nobel prize-material, Harvard would prefer candidate B. In Europe, other the other hand, they prefer candidate A.
This is why we need Bernie. Free education for alll, there will be no more elite schools.
High school is free. There are elite public (and private) schools in every city. Why would free education make Harvard stop being Harvard
Private schools wouldn't be free and would remain elite. The question is, will the quality of the free, state schools, be impacted and remain at all desirable.
They don't want one over the other. They have soooo many applicants and bright students they can afford to only accept people who are both.
Elite colleges want prestige too. Nobel laureate >> F500 CEO Statistically, students who are "supremely" good at physics (e.g. top 10 internationally) are 100x rarer than strong leaders - the latter are a dime a dozen at top private schools.
If you're talking MBA applicants then yes, they want leaders. For undergrads, there really aren't that many true leaders at that age. They're looking for potential and willingness to lead, not demonstrated leadership acumen
B. Edison. A. Tesla.
I completely fabricated and lied on my high school apps to get into top 3 ivy. Hell, I even paid someone to take my SATs. I’m sure there were many cheaters there. Unfortunately, telling the truth rarely gets you anywhere in these institutions or even life afterwards. I encourage you to confidently bullshit more to get ahead in life. Unfortunately; this doesn’t work in Engineering fields. Stick with leadership or consulting roles. Investment Banking also has a lot of the types like me.
Wait are you serious, did you really get into Harvard/Yale/Princeton with fake extracurriculars and essays? What do you do at Amazon?
@OFOM41: Currently In an IC technical role but was working with hedge funds before this. Yes it was completely fake. I never even took the SAT. it’s still a thing these days; you can pay someone to use a fake ID and take the SAT for you. That being said, you have to be fairly competent, but HYP isn’t that difficult once you’re in; there is a huge curve on assignments and tests and everyone gets through fairly easily.
It's not "either or". You must be both a leader and academically gifted. Not a single person was less than 2 standard deviations to the right on both of your proposed dimensions in my program.
You're on to something but you're creating a false dichotomy. Harvard wants people who will change the world. Or put another way, they want leaders in their field. Both applicant A and applicant B could meet that criteria. In other words, if you're going to be a "talker" (as you put it), you better be world-class at it. The other problem with your framing is that you imply that talkers don't do anything. The power to change minds is, without question, as powerful as any physical science. I could list names, but a brief visit to any book of history will turn up people whose words shaped civilizations.
Harvard wants people who will donate a lot back to Harvard after they graduate. If it takes changing the world to do that, then so be it.
There is more than one definition for leader.
Didn't David Hogg get into Harvard with medicore test scores? Good Think trumps all.
Hows okta team? I see some interesting positions open and thinking about applying
So you doubt his leadership abilities??