Why talent sorting in Germany is flawed
Simon Grimm:
- German academia doesn’t have world-class universities and is self-avowedly egalitarian.
- Without a clear top university, many talented students instead enter highly competitive medical schools to prove their ability.
- But, as argued here, medical school is a bad default choice for these students if you care about accelerated scientific, material, and moral progress. This is for four reasons:
- Entering many different universities instead of one top college, talented students do not generate and thus do not profit from local agglomeration effects.
- Medical students aren’t allowed the intellectual flexibility to explore ideas and projects independently.
- Medical school takes six years, offering no intermediate degree. This locks in students’ choice of study, even if they change their minds.
- Lastly, practicing medicine offers small impact at the margin (i.e., talented medical students can’t add much to an already highly advanced medical system).
- Instead, talented individuals could study subjects and enter jobs that allow them to do much more good.
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