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Comment by ___luigi | Hacker News Reader

Universities are not about classes, it's about network out-side the classes. We all know that from experience, but Covid shaped us as a society in different ways. Companies will become global. Being a digital nomad will be normalized, and the difference between an entrepreneurs will be about ecosystem and entrepreneur status in the country.

Network effects will be always there, but not as before.

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> Universities are not about classes, it's about network out-side the classes.

That statement is true for a small set of elite universities. For the vast majority of higher education, the most important things are classes, degrees, and the jobs that result. If by "classes" you mean "lectures" then sure, lectures are a pretty small part of the university.

I come from no-name university in the global south, and network/friends is the very important thing. Literally, I have many friends who traveled the world, worked in different places, and then came back to start a business together (with homies).

> That statement is true for a small set of elite universities.

In fact, elite universities tend to have good program and the prestige can take to places.

Yes, networking and making friends is big. but just learning a lot of the nuts and bolts for what is now my profession was also pretty big. Some people can self learn but the discipline and help from professors brought me a long ways.

I reckon I had very little network effect at unis, nor did I really remember any of the classes.

But it's still useful as a time where I get to think about what I want to do and actually try them (software, hah) with abundance of freedom.

That part was really important.

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