Our education is what we make of it

Granted, going to a place like Harvard has its benefits.  There’s the prestige, and there’s the opportunities, resources, and networking.

But all those great educational things that are associated with Harvard are available elsewhere.

I had my chance to go to Harvard and I turned it down.  They were very gracious in giving me an opportunity.  But I felt that there were also many other great school out there that suited my style better.  I wanted to give myself a great education, and I felt that education is what I made of it for myself and I didn’t need the oldest university in the US to feed that to me.  Plus great universities aren’t about spoon feeding info.  You have to go out there and get it yourself.

Never before has there been so much information available to us at our fingertips.  If we want the best education for ourselves.  We already have that staring right at us.  Let’s just take advantage of it.  And there’s always more effort that we can put into taking charge of our own education.

You don’t need Harvard for that.

Most of the great Harvard graduates are great, not because Harvard made them great.  I would say that it’s because these folks were able to take the bull by its horns and educate themselves and make connections for themselves and transform habits for themselves that lasted a lifetime.  They didn’t need Harvard either.  But they happened to enjoy going to Harvard as part of their journey in life.  Good for them!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Harvard.  I even spent some time studying at Harvard, and one summer I was concertmaster (violin) of the Harvard Summer Orchestra.  Many of my good friends are from Harvard.  But I’ve had a few students I’ve known who were heartbroken about not getting into Harvard.  I have been on the admission side (interviews) for another Ivy League school, I know that the decision making process is a tough one and not always perfect.  And I would say the same with changing the title of this blog entry to “No need to go to Brown, etc.”  But I still think a college education is worthwhile for personal growth and opportunities – and once at college, there are so many opportunities which we need to actively seek out.  That’s what “Education is what we make of it” means.

And I try to tell all this above to myself, and I felt a need to write it out.  This way, I hope to continue my own active education with the resources which are available to me.

Let me know what you think.