Even if you and I become friends through the Internet, you may not know enough to trust my other friends, or recursively trust my friends' friends. The Internet gives us "the strength of weak ties" but building dense networks is still an unsolved problem.
Alumni of elite MBA programs build VERY LARGE networks of trust. They trust other alumni that they have never met much more than you and I would trust a stranger. And they maintain their networks over years--sharing job openings, asking for back-channel reference checks of mutual friends, etc. These networks are a massive advantage if you want to be--for example--a venture capitalist.
There are other ways to build that kind of network without spending money. You could join a hypergrowth company like Facebook or Airbnb. You could join the military. Alumni from Israel's Unit 8200 have founded so many companies, the unit may as well be a business school.
But it is a mistake to deny that dense elite networks exist, or to believe that solely connecting with strangers on the Internet is a sufficient replacement.
Even if you and I become friends through the Internet, you may not know enough to trust my other friends, or recursively trust my friends' friends. The Internet gives us "the strength of weak ties" but building dense networks is still an unsolved problem.
Alumni of elite MBA programs build VERY LARGE networks of trust. They trust other alumni that they have never met much more than you and I would trust a stranger. And they maintain their networks over years--sharing job openings, asking for back-channel reference checks of mutual friends, etc. These networks are a massive advantage if you want to be--for example--a venture capitalist.
There are other ways to build that kind of network without spending money. You could join a hypergrowth company like Facebook or Airbnb. You could join the military. Alumni from Israel's Unit 8200 have founded so many companies, the unit may as well be a business school.
But it is a mistake to deny that dense elite networks exist, or to believe that solely connecting with strangers on the Internet is a sufficient replacement.