flâneur

How to disrupt higher education?

learnlearnlearn.substack.com · 598 words · saved by 1 readers

I reached out to Minerva founder, Ben Nelson, to discuss my vision for education. I told him that after three years of studying at other universities, I dropped out to join Minerva. I asked him why Minerva, despite being significantly better, hasn't made systematic changes in the higher education industry. "Minerva is a reformist. Reform is a very slow way to make changes. Also, it takes years to gather data to present to people. Even then, they’ll point to confounding variables, saying Minerva graduates succeed because of factors X, Y, and Z," he explained. I then asked, "How can I disrupt higher education?" I felt comfortable sharing my vision with him because Minerva itself is a crazy idea. As a businessman, he approached the question from a business perspective. "Find an underserved market and capture a larger share there," he advised. What? I'm a CS major. It’s actually wtf to me. He elaborated, "Target the top 1% of performers (sophomores and juniors) from B-list schools as the n

I reached out to Minerva founder, Ben Nelson, to discuss my vision for education. I told him that after three years of studying at other universities, I dropped out to join Minerva. I asked him why Minerva, despite being significantly better, hasn't made systematic changes in the higher education industry. "Minerva is a reformist. Reform is a very slow way to make changes. Also, it takes years to gather data to present to people. Even then, they’ll point to confounding variables, saying Minerva graduates succeed because of factors X, Y, and Z," he explained. I then asked, "How can I…

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