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Comment by paulsutter | Hacker News Reader

You might want to reconsider your distaste for the robotics club. Take a look at the CEOs of the 10 most valuable companies now vs 10/20/30 years ago (Hint: Larry Page, Mark Zuckerburg, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Satya Nadella...) Jack Ma was rejected by Harvard Business School ten times, by the way.

Expect big changes in banking over the coming decades as well. You may want to evolve your thinking.

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I wasn't taking aim at robotics club (which is awesome). I was taking aim at slim resumes with 1-2 activities.

You might also give Mark Zuckerbergs and Bill Gates a reason to actually stay at Harvard (I’m taking aim at the slim technical curriculum and easy As)

Philip Greenspun on “Lean In”:

> Sandberg confirms that “A is Average” at Harvard. Her brother David...takes “a class in European intellectual history”, skips all but two lectures and all but one book, gets tutored for three hours and receives an A for the semester (p32-33). The guy’s success is attributed to the general confidence of men. Sandberg does not consider how likely it is that her brother’s confidence would have resulted in an A in a physics class at Caltech.

They teach Humanities courses at Caltech too. And Harvard teaches Physics. Mixing critiques of grade inflation and the Humanities weakens both.

Whats wrong with one or two activities? I did design build fly in college, and it took up every single moment of time I wasn't studying or working.

The kids winning the "at large" bids have 6-12 extracurriculars and standout in many of them OR they have 1-2 and are distinguished in them at the state or national level. So if you had a project that ate up all your time like that, we'd look to see if you'd won any sort of national or state recognition for it. If not then it wasn't going to help the cause.

When hiring, I’d eagerly interview the design-build-fly candidate, and immediately reject candidates with 6-12 extracurriculars. You want problem-solvers with strong interests, follow-through, and real teamwork. Not superficial resume padders.

How does a kid realistically do 6-12 extracurriculars, school, sleeping, and eating in a 24 hour day?

If the admissions departments are just looking for higher numbers every year without even considering if they are plausible, that sounds like they are just asking for resume padding or fraud

resume padding then?

Why would someone apply to a school ten times??

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