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

call them the Harvard Dregs. Each is
studying the same textbooks and
wrestling with the same concepts and
trying to master the same problem sets in
courses like advanced calculus and
organic chemistry, and according to test
scores, they are of roughly equal
academic ability. But the overwhelming
majority of Hartwick All-Stars get what
they want and end up as engineers or
biologists. Meanwhile, the Harvard
Dregs—who go to the far more
prestigious school—are so demoralized
by their experience that many of them
drop out of science entirely and transfer
to some nonscience major. The Harvard
Dregs are Little Fish in a Very Big and
Scary Pond. The Hartwick All-Stars are