[jbooth]

Well, whatever their passions were, writing powerpoint decks in order to justify internal power moves at another company, because someone wanted something done so they hired you to provide post hoc rationalization for it.. I mean, really? This is what we're doing with "the best and the brightest"? Expert MS Office users?

[jessriedel]

Again: if so, this is a problem with the consulting market, not Yale. You're not going to change anything by pleading with Yale grads to turn down lots of money.

Much more interesting is the argument that consulting, though productive, takes advantage of college student's fear of risk in order to win out over riskier options which are actually in the students best interest. (I'm skeptical.) Then, indeed, it would be beneficial to talk to these students about the problem.

[jbooth]

I wasn't criticizing anything so specific as either Yale, students, or a particular consulting firm. Everyone's going to follow the incentives.

But why are the local incentives so stupid in the larger view?

[bane]

This is what we're doing with "the best and the brightest"? Expert MS Office users?

Maybe it's time to stop thinking of top-tier schools as producing the best and brightest.

After all, Google was started by a couple of state school undergrads.