I mean, you can go to the Yales and Harvards of the world, and realize that the benefits of the credentials they confer relative to other schools are vastly disproportionate to the difference in education provided. 1/ https://twitter.com/Chris_arnade/status/1262738212579094528

You can also realize that this is how the game is played, and that refusing to play it changes nothing. Would I have been a substantially worse lawyer if I'd gone to University of Oklahoma for undergrad and law school? Probably not. But lots of people would assume so. 2/

When I was at BigLaw Firm X, we had an applicant who went to a middling state law school, graduated top of his class, and clerked for a federal circuit judge. When I suggested him to a lawyer on the hiring committee, he looked at me like I'd just sprouted a third eye. 3/

This guy went on to be an AUSA, partner at a different BigLaw firm, and is now an executive VP at a Fortune 50 company. Yet people took a pass on him because of his credentials. 4/

So, yeah, I'll encourage my kids to max out their credentials. I'll also remind them that it's a stupid game they have to play, and that their degree is mostly a status signal that also indicates nothing about their inherent worth or anyone else's. 5/5