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The problem isn’t the prestige it’s that prestigious institutions in America don’t produce high-quality talent. They’re instead mostly corrupt credentialing mills for the rich and well-connected. From what I understand, DeepSeek also only hires from the best universities in China, but “best” actually means something relative to how difficult entrance to those organizations is to achieve and their coursework.

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I read this too but there was no source on this. The founder Liang Wenfeng himself comes from Zhejiang university. Its admissions rate is 20%, which is much higher than traditional US "elite" schools. Wenfeng has said this about hiring though:

"If you are pursuing short-term goals, it is right to find people with ready experience. But if you look at the long-term, experience is not that important. Basic skills, creativity, and passion are much more important.”

The Chinese college application works way differently from American ones. The admission rate is meaningless. Zhejinag University is state assigned 985 university (there are in total 9 of them). Believe me any students in elite high schools in China will be very happy if they can be accepted into Zhejiang University. Most of them unforunately don't have the score to even think of applying. It technically is not applying. Students take the once a year exam, if they don't score higher than top 500 in their province, don't even think about trying to apply Zhejing Univ.

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