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Comment by IsaacL | Hacker News Reader

Certainly an impressive bunch - when I first saw the publicity for the 20 under 20 program, I was miffed that they weren't taking 21-year-olds. But I see now I'd have had no chance of getting accepted - no chance against people who were doing research at the age when I was collecting pokemon cards. Seriously, who are these people? Best of luck to them all anyway.

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The short answer? They're people with connections.

It doesn't matter how smart you are: you don't work in a university lab at age 11 without someone pulling strings for you. (Unless they're counting stuff like gifted/talented summer camps as "work".)

You occasionally see high school kids in the lab in summer doing some sort of trivial research. The best cases are disadvantaged kids who have access to science advocacy programs. The worst cases are kids whose parents have influence and/or work at the university. It's one of the things that drives me nuts about dog-and-pony shows like the Intel science fair -- smart kids who don't have access via ambitious/overzealous parents don't have a chance.

>It doesn't matter how smart you are: you don't work in a university lab at age 11 without someone pulling strings for you.

BUT BUT ... meritocracy

While it's true that they benefit from connections (I've seen SO many smart students lose their lives away through K-12 public education, which wastes FAR more talent than any college/university education system - and connections help them get out of it), the fact is that the Internet is now making it easier for us to make connections with people (you can just email the right person who can pull the strings for you now). In fact, you could get connections simply by friending them on Facebook, and they, being entrepreneurs, are probably more likely than others to accept if they think you're interesting.

^ why people hang out on Quora.

I think this demonstrates that 20 under 20 doesn't do much to prove Thiel's argument that going to college is overrated and overpriced for the average student. Some of these guys could be writing my textbooks

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