Who Needs the Ivies?

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His perspective on MIT is that the curriculum had only begun to evolve to be venture-friendly in the last 10 years.

According to John Trumpbour, research director of Harvard Law School's Labor & Worklife Program, many MBAs say they wish to be entrepreneurs, but relatively few take this path. He reckons a prestigious degree probably makes it easier to take a safe, but nonentrepreneurial, route to affluence and success. With the lucrative salaries and huge signing bonuses offered by top corporations, risking it all to start a tech venture becomes a really difficult decision.

Part of the reason certain types of institutions may be underrepresented among entrepreneurial ranks may stem from school size. Sudhakar Shenoy, an IIT graduate and chief executive of Information Management Consultants, says it's not fair to compare his alma mater to much larger schools. He notes that IITs only graduate 5,000 of India's 176,000 engineers every year, and that based on the number of companies started by its graduates, they were five times more likely than others to start tech companies.

To get a reaction from the academic community, I posted a provocative message on the Sloan Industry Studies listserv, which reaches more than 1,000 professors and deans. In this discussion group, challenging academic norms and traditions is like stirring a hornet's nest. I've received dozens of fiery e-mails every time I've dared. I was astonished that only one academic responded, and no one went on the offensive.

Taking the Focus Off Pedigree

North Carolina State University Professor Subhash Batra, an MIT graduate, didn't take issue with our findings, but wonders whether we're asking the right questions. "If you change the focus to the question, 'What institutions produce the scholars, teachers, thinkers of tomorrow?'" Batra says, "you might get different findings. I think there is danger in making measurements using a one-dimensional scale of entrepreneurial success."

I decided to seek input from Carl Schramm, who is probably the world's leading expert on entrepreneurship and education. Schramm heads the Kauffman Foundation, which focuses on advancing entrepreneurship and improving the education of children and youth. It has supported my work. Schramm says that venture capitalists look for talent in the wrong places; they even hire the wrong people in their own firms by focusing just on pedigree.

The university that produces the most blue chip CEOs and university professors, the most Peace Corps volunteers, and the most productive and long-running patents isn't Stanford or MIT—it's the University of Wisconsin. Students "who do the prestige MBA route find it hard to shake the huge offers and end up becoming risk-averse," Schramm says. Graduates of elite schools tend to be book-smart and have incredible SAT scores, but they often lack street smarts and creativity, he says. Plus, they tend to have a sense of entitlement and superiority that leads to not working well with others, he notes.

Vineet recently completed his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. And he accepted an entry-level position at a Washington, D.C., tech startup. His success or failure will be determined by how hard he works, how much he continues to learn and grow, and how he helps his company meet goals. I don't think anyone cares about what school he graduated from. I can't remember the last time anyone asked me to name mine.

Join a debate about college rankings.

Wadhwa is Wertheim Fellow at the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. He is a tech entrepreneur who founded two technology companies. His research can be found at www.globalizationresearch.com. He holds an MBA from New York University and a bachelor's in computing from the Canberra University of Australia.