Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton,
Columbia, Stanford, and Chicago. Are
you better off hiring a Big Fish from a
Tiny, Tiny Pond than even a Middle-
Sized Fish from a Big Pond? Absolutely.
Conley and Önder struggle to explain
their own findings.^5 “To get to Harvard,”
they write,
an applicant has to have great grades,
perfect test scores, strong and
credible recommendations, and know
how to package all this to stand out to
the admissions committee. Thus,
successful candidates must be
hardworking, intelligent, well-trained
as undergraduates, savvy and