Fixing Higher Education & New Startup Opportunities

[@vinj98]

Georgia Tech offers 2 master's degrees - Comp Sci and Analytics - for less than $11k. GT ranks highly in both fields. Online learning is one of the building blocks of an effective education model that exists and should be more widely adopted.

[@pelangos]

Two of my most favorite, witty, (totally not alien) businessmen

[@pelangos]

@-marshmallow something I have in store for the future my friend :) not sure if you're a VC, a founder, or just a copycat - but you'll have to wait and see.

[@foswa6335]

I love this podcast. Easily my favourite, thanks for these!

[@NaomiBrockwellTV]

I'd love to have Marc or Ben on the show to discuss web3 and techno optimism! 🙏

[@andybrice2711]

"Brilliant" is another good example of modern education technology. Some of its older, more text-based lessons are not so great. But the ones based around rich interactive graphics punctuated by test questions are excellent for building and cementing insight.

[@JayEs31]

Good discussion but you don’t seem to understand actual student debt which is mostly in the $40k range. You are using retail published cost but no one pays that and most state college graduates - the majority of degrees - graduate with minimal debt

[@R0cky0]

Because$300,000 to them is like$300

[@CarterHPage]

Demand drives price, not cost. Ivy league schools experience a 20:1 unmet demand, and that excludes those who would like to attend, but dare not apply. If the schools were to engage in an auction for spots, where would the market clear? $1.0 million per annum ... perhaps more? Every year the schools raise prices as high as they think they can before public blowback. They then woefully bemoan rising costs, and beg for donations. The answer to the question comes in analyzing the financial statements from third*tier private schools, those with an admit rate just above the application rate. Here you'll encounter a consistent 20% profit margin, 50% discount to face tuition and other profound statistics. Even there, the profits outpace most public corporations.

[@drlufly]

I work in higher education and am passionate about changing it. I totally agree that "wise" engagement with capital is needed for change to happen. Will A16Z host some networking events or workshops for entrepreneurs who want to change higher-education?

[@christinehill1038]

This is good. I hope you do the Q&A. What role do you see for the admissions officers in the future? In talking to them, I found them completely cut off from the economic logic that you are discussing. Many have not taken a math class since high school, never mind an economics class. Yes, they seem to control the shape of the future at these universities. Exceptions are Stuart Schmill at MIT and William Fitzsimmons at Harvard. The rest live in La La Land.

[@zachz1667]

Favorite podcast!

[@SilasPath]

1-1 tutoring is the decentralized path taking shape now. It started with KZbinrs teaching what they do. Coursera and platforms like Teachable enable you to teach something in afternoon for a high-margin profit. You can use the leftover time for coaching / tutoring calls.

[@joryiansmith]

Lots of great ideas here 🔥

[@danielharris6433]

Love the content guys! Keep it comin!!

[@matts3414]

These are great, keen for a part 3!

[@yes-vy6bn]

21:30 but has bloom's 2 sigma problem been tested on a long timescale? head start for instance improves outcomes while the program is running, but as soon as they leave the program they revert back to the mean. similarly, intelligence gains from the environment seen in high intelligence families adopting low intelligence children also revert to the mean as soon as they become adults. in theory, this means the only way bloom's 2 sigma problem works is if you have a tutor for your entire working life too, but then do the human resources required negate the education gains?

[@user-zp8mg2kn6m]

Forth-paying constituents: That’s the bottom line! Somewhere down the line administrators and non-intellectual faculty have become the center of the business.

[@tuckerbugeater]

open up their books and prove who's influencing them!

[@marcelluswileydatdude]

Brain food time!

[@tomsdailystudy]

Good follow up podcast. Iran for S.T.E.M was an interesting talking point.

[@StephenLee529]

I appreciate this series however, what if the greatest gains are in the first 12 years of education. How about looking at that and if we really still need 12 years of school before College? My last born is graduating this year from HS and from where I sit as a parent I question if even education before college needs a complete overhaul too. In the Information Age computers do a lot of lifting. What if we overhauled the entire educational system from grade 1 to and through college?

[@limitlessfiberglass4561]

Marc and Ben - thank you for your conversations and the rest of a16z. As an entrepreneur, your discussions are extremely enlightening!

[@SilasPath]

Some serious brainstorming going on! I enjoyed it.

[@andrewconquest8504]

I love the not so subtle reference to Adam Neumann's Flow

[@gemthomas]

Griggs V. Duke Power Co ... Violated civil rights act of 64 ... Theres ways to utilize benefits of the test for job placement without taking test by using different metrics and this keeps the decision to hire or not within bounds of law.

[@richard_mensah]

Salley is doing a great job with leadership development

[@nicoletti_]

beans beans cool cool beans

[@robertnicoletti]

cool

[@DrBillConerly]

Excellent, thought provoking.

[@misomiso8228]

1:52:36 I love that episode.

[@danielharris6433]

Awesome!! Keep it coming guys!!

[@shivayshakti6575]

Loved it thanks :)

[@SilasPath]

Good topic.

[@williambanks6624]

Oh man, the critique of DEI so clearly echoes the Reggie White address to the Wisconsin State Legislature. It's too bad the Reverend is no longer with us -- he would have made a great guest.

[@Iamfafafel]

So replace SATs with East Asian style test?

[@gemthomas]

FERPA legislation has to be amended first to streamline testing young adults and teenagers to align them with suitable careers.

[@youthfully]

1:1 coaching* :)

[@PaulSchwarzer-ou9sw]

🎉🎉

[@mgetommy]

Nom nom nom

[@mgetommy]

Brain food

[@Iamfafafel]

here's a pushback on Ben's take on why it's good to encourage African-Americans to go into their culturally incentivized industries - music and sports - over encouraging them to go into more traditional routes such as STEM. data from pgpf shows that in 2022, the median black household income is ~$20k below the median income. in my opinion, financial upward mobility should be the number one issue that diversity initiatives aim to solve. i suspect Ben's take is influenced by the disproportionate amount of success stories he comes into contact with, evidenced by his friendship with Nas. i don't know the numbers, but i heavily suspect music and sports are winner-takes-all markets. so from a macro standpoint, Ben's take sounds a bit like encouraging African-Americans to join the gold rush. would love to hear a response if another episode comes out! as an aside, i would love to know of any comparative studies between, for example, the tech and music industries. specifically, i would like to see a comparison between 1. how relative difficulty of obtaining a, for example, $60k job, and 2. see how many openings there are for said job.

[@seanpierre1338]

Uuh dude theres a reason people avoid this topic

[@chriscross7671]

Separating research from teaching is a bad idea, as it would significantly delay the dissemination of new knowledge. In addition, over time, it diminishes students' exposure to research, hindering the influx of talent into academia and the opportunity to learn the scientific method. The latter is not the same as learning how to succeed in industry.

[@mefisto05s.20]

Need 3rd episode

[@DavidRamosAuthor]

The incentives are still so skewed. Institutions chatge what they eant, gov covers increasing % of that. The problem ks the degress themselves no longer matter - nor do the 4 yr time frame. We need things that have a faster pipeline to work

[@INNIMA]

The 4 year time framed worked perfectly fine. Stop restructuring an entire system just because blacks cant perform academically

[@troybuckholdt]

ASVAB is better than SAT

[@8w494]

Easy fix: 1. No government loans 2. Merit based entrance

[@ejohn977]

Wow, what an original and product thought. This is definitely not a trite talking point that professionally online word vomit hacks like Ben Shapiro would make. What’s your thought process on coming up with something like this? We’re all so curious to hear what else you have to say on this issue. It is a disservice to Marc and Ben, having a thoughtful and interesting discussion, that someone who takes the time to make a comment like l your’s would listen to their conversation on higher education.

[@after1001]

It's funny how VCs think they're presidents of universities

[@OnionKnight541]

i wish you guys would edit these videos and cut out the stuttering, the "right," the dumb stuff.