David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

the portion of degrees that are earned by
each group.

STEM

degrees

Top

Third

Middle

Third

Bottom

Third

Percent 53.4 31.2 15.4

Isn’t that strange? The students in the
bottom third of the Harvard class drop
out of math and science just as much as
their counterparts in upstate New York.
Harvard has the same distribution of
science degrees as Hartwick.
Think about this for a moment. We
have a group of high achievers at
Hartwick. Let’s call them the Hartwick
All-Stars. And we’ve got another group
of lower achievers at Harvard. Let’s