Cofounder of thumbtack here. I grew up in East Tennessee, attended public schools through high school and then got my bachelors at the University of Tennessee.
For the record, I never went to a better school because nobody ever told me that I could.
My high school graduation rate was somewhere around 50%, and when the guidance counselors found out that I got a scholarship to the University of Tennessee, they pretty much made a plaque to commemorate the success and then moved on to the other kids.
It's a problem I'd like to work on in the next couple of years.
However, while I'm opining, I might add that I could be the exception that proves the rule.
All three of my cofounders were Ivy educated, and a heavy proportion of our early investors and advisors were either connections from their social network or people who they met at the various Ivy networking functions.
I'm really not sure what to say about it. It's just how the world works. People like to help people that they know, and when you go to an Ivy League school it just so happens that the people you share a dorm room with are going to be in a much better position to help you than my freshman year roommates at UT.
The UT alumni Association, bless their hearts, can't seem to see any purpose for contacting alumni except for donations and to organize football watching parties.
My most successful friends from back home are lawyers, doctors, and small business owners. My cofounders' most successful friends from back home are venture capitalists, Stanford professors, and finance types.
If the guidance counselors had given you advice, it would likely have been wrong. After hearing a few friends in College complain about terrible advice from their counselors, I thought it might just be that people only tell the bad stories. So, I asked every single one of my college friends (mostly Seniors) at the time specifically if they had gotten advice from a guidance counselor, and whether they thought it was good. This turned up more stories of bad advice, but nothing positive.
This was at a state school in Indiana, so maybe just midwest guidance counselors are bad, but it's still troubling to me.
For the record, I never went to a better school because nobody ever told me that I could.
My high school graduation rate was somewhere around 50%, and when the guidance counselors found out that I got a scholarship to the University of Tennessee, they pretty much made a plaque to commemorate the success and then moved on to the other kids.
It's a problem I'd like to work on in the next couple of years.
However, while I'm opining, I might add that I could be the exception that proves the rule.
All three of my cofounders were Ivy educated, and a heavy proportion of our early investors and advisors were either connections from their social network or people who they met at the various Ivy networking functions.
I'm really not sure what to say about it. It's just how the world works. People like to help people that they know, and when you go to an Ivy League school it just so happens that the people you share a dorm room with are going to be in a much better position to help you than my freshman year roommates at UT.
The UT alumni Association, bless their hearts, can't seem to see any purpose for contacting alumni except for donations and to organize football watching parties.
My most successful friends from back home are lawyers, doctors, and small business owners. My cofounders' most successful friends from back home are venture capitalists, Stanford professors, and finance types.