Raise the Roof

I happened to spend some time yesterday on a university campus. At one point, I sat down and listened to a podcast. I watched tour groups, couples, and friends stroll by.

It struck me how young some of these students looked. I forgot how college often feels like an extension of high school.

Omitting financial aid, in the United States alone, some napkin math yields hundreds of billions of dollars paid in undergraduate tuition each year. Is it well spent?

For each individual student, we'd love to maximize their outcome. Raise the ceiling on what they can accomplish. Propel them to extraordinary success.

But any education system dealing with large volumes necessarily looks at averages and medians. And more often than not, administrators focus on raising the floor.

The kids who are on track for success don't seem like they need extra help, but the struggling ones are a different story. It would seem silly to sacrifice 9,999 students to somehow make 1 of them a billionaire, right?

YC S05 started with 8 startups and $200k of funding, total. Now they have over a dozen billionaire alums and early decision. It's a university for startup founders.

I'm not sure what they've sacrificed.