Categories:
Economics and Culture
Economics of Education
Questions for everyone:
1. How many people you met in K-12 are you still friends with?
2. How many people you met in K-12 do you professionally interact with?
Questions for college attendees:
3. How many people you met in college are you still friends with?
4. How many people you met in college do you professionally interact with?
Questions for graduate/professional school attendees:
5. How many people you met in graduate/professional school are you still friends with?
6. How many people you met in graduate/professional do you professionally interact with?
Please include your age and major in your response.
READER COMMENTS
Tom West
Apr 29 2015 at 12:17am
1. 0 – we scattered to the winds by grade 7
2. 0
3. 20 (+ wife) – they still form the vast majority of my current friends
4. 1 – most of my college friends are in CS, but work for different companies
age: 53, major: computer science
Tom West
Apr 29 2015 at 12:19am
Oops. noticed is was K-12, not elementary. Still 0 on both counts. University scattered my high school friends all over to be rarely seen again.
(Not a Facebooker, which would probably change things.)
FCAJR
Apr 29 2015 at 12:23am
1. 0
2. 0
3. 1
4. 0
5. 1
6. 0
age=54, BSEE, MBA
Levi Russell
Apr 29 2015 at 12:26am
1. 5
2. 0
3. 6
4. 0
5. 4
6. 7
age: 28
majors: finance (undergrad), agricultural economics (doctorate)
Cole
Apr 29 2015 at 12:30am
1. 5
2. 0
3. 20
4. 0
Age: 24
Major: economics, minor in CS
Occupation: programmer
I’m counting ‘friend’ as anyone I intentionally try to hang out with even if it is only once or twice a year.
Nicholas Weininger
Apr 29 2015 at 12:35am
1. 2
2. 0
3. 10
4. 2
5. 2
6. 0
Age: 36
Majors: CS (undergrad), math (undergrad and grad)
Sean
Apr 29 2015 at 12:37am
1. 4
2. 1
3. 0
4. 0
5. 0
7. 0
Age: 48
UG: Biochemistry/Philosophy
PGC: Accounting/Finance
PGR: Behavioural Economics
Having worked a lot internationally, most of my network of friends relate to companies I have worked with or the expat communities in each country.
Andy
Apr 29 2015 at 12:44am
1. 15-20
2. 0
3. 10-15
4. 2
5. 15-20
6. 20+
Age: 33
Undergrad Major: Econ/CS
PhD: Econ
Topher Hallquist
Apr 29 2015 at 12:52am
Age: 27
Major: philosophy
Survey questions: basically 0 in all cases, unless you define “friend” more loosely than I’m comfortable with. Having switched fields since leaving grad school probably has a lot to do with it.
Caliban Darklock
Apr 29 2015 at 3:49am
45 – Occult Science / Computer Science
None. Across the board.
I dropped the last person from my life that I’d known in high school when I was 28. That’s about the time when all my friends became work colleagues.
Devon
Apr 29 2015 at 5:23am
1. 0
2. 0
3. 3
4. 0
5. 3
6. 0
34, history (ba), IR (ma)
This fails to account for the networking powers that some alma maters have with people you meet later.
How many people at my workplace took an interest in unconnected new employee me because they had gone to the same school in a different decade?
2 from undergrad and one from grad
MG
Apr 29 2015 at 5:51am
I am surprised no one has inquired what the definition of “friends” is. If it includes social media, the numbers would change dramatically, but would they reflect the intention of the bleg?
Ross Emmett
Apr 29 2015 at 7:06am
1. Facebook friends with 15. The one person I still met when I was back home died a couple of years ago. I would meet him for coffee once every three to five years.
2. Zero
3. Zero.
4. Zero.
5. Still friends with my supervisor. Among other students from IMBA program, I am Facebook friends with 9. No other interaction with other students either at IMBA or Ph.D. level, either as friends or as colleagues.
On the other hand, I established friendships with about 20 people who were already professors while I was in grad school, and I am still friends with at least 10 of them (Buchanan died, Heyne died, Larry Moss died, as did a couple of the people I knew at Univ. of Manitoba). And professional colleagues as well (#6).
Age – 58
Undergrad Major: History. Graduate Degrees: IMBA. Ph.D.
I might add I had an unusual Ph.D. experience. I had already been a professor of business, and held Research and Visiting Fellow appointments at a College within the University, where my day-to-day interactions were solely with professors. My only contact with other graduate students was in the classroom.
Bill
Apr 29 2015 at 7:27am
1. 4
2. 0
3. 0
4. 0
5. 2
6. 1
I’m 48. Econ major undergrad. MBA with concentrations in finance and statistics.
Cullen
Apr 29 2015 at 7:31am
1. 1 (if going by people who I actively contact, which I’m using as the standard here).
2. 0
3. 0
4. 0
5. 4
6. 0
25 years old, undergrad history major, graduated from law school last year.
Thomas
Apr 29 2015 at 7:33am
1. 0
2. 0
3. 2
4. 0
5. 7
6. 0
I’m 50. Engineering, multiple careers, now finance.
Ben
Apr 29 2015 at 7:44am
Define “friends”; I am “friends” with many people to varying degrees ranging from the exchange of cards at Christmas to spending time together almost daily, so where is the threshold? Define “professionally interact”; does the fact that I read this blog, and that it influences my thinking sometimes about conservation biology and evolutionary biology (my field), does that mean I am “professionally interacting” with you? Heck, given that I attended several colleges and focused, at times, on things from anthropology to philosophy to organic chemistry to biology, define “major” – what I ended up with a degree in was a minority of all of the years I spent in college, so do you really only want my official “major”? And you say “do you” professionally interact with – so you want only present-day interactions? Even if I have coauthored papers with people from high school, say, if that only happened in the past I don’t count it? How far in the past? I find this all extremely vague.
Joe S
Apr 29 2015 at 7:45am
1. 5
2. 0
3. 3
4. 0
5. 12 (+ wife)
6. 2
30, AgEcon (BS, MS)
J.
Apr 29 2015 at 8:06am
1. 2
2. 0
3. 2
4. 0
5. 5
6. 1
Age: 32
Majors: Physics/Philosophy (BA), Physics (MA, PhD)
Kevin
Apr 29 2015 at 8:09am
1) 1
2) 0
3) 2
4) 0
5) 20+
6) 12
*I’m still in graduate school.
Age: 29
Major: Epidemiology
Sol
Apr 29 2015 at 8:12am
1. handful? I find this one hard to count.
2. 0
3. 5
4. 0
5. 0
6. 0
age 44, math & computer science, then math.
Yaakov
Apr 29 2015 at 8:50am
1. None
2. None
3. Several, depending on how you define “friends”. For a moderate definition the answer is 1.
4. None. I may have had one or two clients from school, but not anything meaningful. I did several times give free advice to peers or friends of peers from college. I do the same to current neighbors.
5. None
6. None.
I am 47, majored in electrical engineering. I was brought into my current profession by a childhood friend, but he went to a different school and was not in my grade.
Jay
Apr 29 2015 at 9:10am
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
38 years old. Undergrad: Biology Professional: Dentistry
Matt H
Apr 29 2015 at 9:27am
1. 2 both my best friends are from this period, I speak to them regularly
2.0
3.0 had lunch with someone 2 years ago, but that is about it.
4.0
5.12 – Recently organized a reunion, had about 20 people there.
6. 1 – hard to count, I worked with one of them recently, and have worked with others in the past, I know I could network for jobs if I needed one, but I don’t…and unless I want to move to SF it wouldn’t be useful.
Major: Human Computer Interaction
None of this counts facebook, in which I am “friends” with my entire elementary school class.
Kevin V
Apr 29 2015 at 9:28am
1. 10 – we were close in high school, hung out over the summers during college; social media has preserved the ties.
2. 1 – a friend helps with graphic design for my academic projects.
3. 8 – mostly through common political activities, 2 are people who weren’t enrolled in college.
4. .5, sort of, kind of.
5. 10 or so, including teachers and temporary fellows.
6. nearly 10; we remain close and plan events together; we also read each other’s papers on a regular basis.
Age: 32, Major: Philosophy, Graduate Focus: Philosophy.
Brad
Apr 29 2015 at 9:29am
1. 2
2. 0
3. 1-2
4. 0
5. 0
6. 0
I am 40, majored in Economics undergrad and started PHD but left early with MS. Also got a second finance MS.
Evan
Apr 29 2015 at 9:53am
1. 12
2. 2
3. 10
4. 0
5. 18
6. 2
Age 28
Economics/Mathematics major
MBA
Leopold
Apr 29 2015 at 9:59am
Age 40 with MSEE. If you define friends as people I regularly talk with and/or have seen in person in the last 1-2 years then my answer is:
1) 0
2) 0
3) 1-2
4) 0
5) 0
6) 0
Most of my current friends I met through either my work or my wife’s work.
Edward
Apr 29 2015 at 10:22am
1- 3 at my wedding (2 years ago). About 50 on Facebook
2- 0
3- 4 at my wedding. About 100 on Facebook
4- 0
5- About 20 at my wedding. About 200 on Facebook
6- 2 regularly now (one sits on my board), but about two dozen over the years
39 years old.
Undergrads in Physics and Drama
Masters in (1) Industrial Relation and (2) MBA a Finance and Marketing
Greg
Apr 29 2015 at 10:32am
1. 3
2. 0
3. 6
4. 1
5. 20
6. 0
Age: 47; major: Cognitive science, computer science
john
Apr 29 2015 at 10:42am
1. 2
2. 0
3. 4
4. 0
5. 1
6. 0
Age: 45
Degree(s): Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science
At two points, I worked with someone who I went to college with, but both of those jobs are long gone.
Granite26
Apr 29 2015 at 11:02am
1. How many people you met in K-12 are you still friends with?
0 (FB friend ~ 5)
2. How many people you met in K-12 do you professionally interact with?
0
Questions for college attendees:
3. How many people you met in college are you still friends with?
1 (FB friend ~8)
4. How many people you met in college do you professionally interact with?
1
Please include your age and major in your response.
37, Computer Engineering
___
FB friends is, a new way of saying ‘we exchange xmas cards and that’s about it’
gmm
Apr 29 2015 at 11:03am
1: 3
2: 1
3: 10
4: 2
5: 1
6: 1
Age: 28
Undergraduate: computer science
Graduate: computer science
I’ll agree the question is rather under specified.
For example, I met many people through my school friends, even though they didn’t go to the same school as I did. It’s not clear if I should include those in the totals.
Looking forward to being in the “special thanks to” section of your book 😉
Andrew
Apr 29 2015 at 11:17am
1:1
2:1
3:0
4:0
5:0
6:0
Undergrad — Finance
Graduate — MBA
Age 38
Colin
Apr 29 2015 at 11:21am
1. How many people you met in K-12 are you still friends with? 10
2. How many people you met in K-12 do you professionally interact with? 0
3. How many people you met in college are you still friends with? 0
4. How many people you met in college do you professionally interact with? 0
Age: 32
Computer Science
I’ve noticed that all my friends that moved I no longer consider friends.
I still live in the town I graduated high school in and I assume that’s why I still have high school friends.
Alex
Apr 29 2015 at 11:29am
1. 10
2. 2
3. 4
4. 0
5. 3
6. 0
33
undergrad: public administration
Grad: political science
Leo
Apr 29 2015 at 11:52am
1. 5
2. 0
3. 5
4. 0
5. 4
6. 1
31 y/o, Majored in computer science and went to law school. Don’t really work in either field though.
Chris
Apr 29 2015 at 12:02pm
1. 12
2. 3
3. 1
4. 0
5. 10
6. 6
Age: 35
Undergrad: double major Spanish/Business Administration
Grad: Computer Science
I grew up in a city with a huge government lab relative to its population size, which I realized later had the effect of making my high school class much more “STEMy” than most. Many of the friends/colleagues I still have from my high school years only became close friends years later (and more than a thousand miles away from our hometown).
Jon Murphy
Apr 29 2015 at 12:09pm
1) 4
2) 0 (this may be a function of the fact I no longer live in the same state as where I grew up)
3) 15 (I had a small group of friends, all of whom I still are in touch with)
4) 0
5) n/a
6) n/a
Age: 25
Econ: Economics
Chris
Apr 29 2015 at 12:14pm
1. 10-15
2. 0
3. 0
4. 0
5. N/A
6. N/A
32 Y/o
Note on #2, I interpreted the Q to mean in a professional capacity for my job. I am a customer of a few of my old friends small businesses but I do not count that as it has nothing to do with my professional career path. The friends in #1 are all friends that are currently in my cell phone contacts that I have communicated with on a more or less continuous basis since school. I am not much of a Facebooker although that would greatly expand that number if I counted all of them.
I switched from Engineering to Business after 2 years and transferred schools. after the transfer I was working full time while attending school as a commuter part time so I did not develop any relationships at the new school at all.
I got my first job in my career path from a k-12 relationship, the mother of one of my best friends was a VP at the bank I started at, and she gave me an opportunity as a temp to display my skills and earn a full time position
Abe
Apr 29 2015 at 1:26pm
1. 2
2. 0
3. 100ish
4. 20ish
5. NA
6. NA
I’m 32 and I studied economics and statistics.
Xenophon
Apr 29 2015 at 1:38pm
I’m defining “interact with professionally” as “contact by telephone or in person for professional purposes at least once per year.” I hope that meets the definition you intended.
Assuming that the “met in xxx” refers to classmates:
1. 1
2. 0
3. 20
4. 5-ish
5. 6
6. 20+ to various degrees (none daily, way more than 20 yearly)
If “met in xxx” includes either family friends (and their children who weren’t classmates of mine) or my father’s colleagues and students, add another 50+ to #2. Note, however, my father was (and is) an exceptionally well-known and well-connected Computer Scientist. I’m also in C.S., although never in the same subfields that my Dad has worked in.
I’m 53. B.S. Math class of 83, Ph.D. Software Engineering 2008.
Michael
Apr 29 2015 at 1:50pm
1. 3
2. 0
3. 7 (including my wife)
4. 1 (not included in #3 above)
By “friend” I mean people I’ve talked with on the phone or seen in person at least a few times in the last year.
If you’re asking about networking, the number of college acquaintances I could call up for a referral or drinks is 2x higher, but the K-12 number remains about the same.
The one college guy I work with professionally I helped get a job at my company.
29 years old; BSEE
Roger
Apr 29 2015 at 1:55pm
I am pretty much zero on Q1-4. I do have several acquaintances I keep in touch with who are high school buddies, but I would not call any close friends.
I was a business major. I am now 55 years old, but never met a single person from my college acquaintances in any professional capacity, and that despite (or because) it being one of the biggest business schools in the US.
FWIW, I went to college to learn and get my signaling diploma, not to socialize or watch sports. The second I got hired, my degree and prior connections or networks meant ZERO. It was all about performance and politics from that point on. I will say that my business education did a good job of preparing me though for business. It wasn’t JUST signaling.
Steve Bacharach
Apr 29 2015 at 2:27pm
1.10
2. 0
3. 6
4. 0
5. 0
6. 0
Age 44
B.A. Geophysics
M.S. Geophysics
Floccina
Apr 29 2015 at 3:09pm
1. 3
2. 0
3. 0
4. 0
I am about 55 years old. My major was natural resources with my area of interest being Resource Economics.
Cory
Apr 29 2015 at 3:54pm
1: 3
2: 0
3: 2
4: 2
Age: 34
Major: BS in Computer Science.
Eric Rall
Apr 29 2015 at 4:16pm
1. 1
2. 0
3. 32
4. 4
5. 0
6. 0
Age: 33
Undergraduate major: Computer Science
Professional major: Business (MBA)
I also have an MS in Computer Science, but my answers to 5 and 6 refer only to the MBA because there was a near-100% overlap between my peer group with the MS and the BS (I took the MS at the same department of the same college, starting immediately after completing the BS).
Ben Gross
Apr 29 2015 at 4:58pm
1. 0 actual face-to-face, have-a-beer-with-you friends; 45 on Facebook
2. 0
3. 1 (but 2 on my Christmas card list)
4. 0
5. 4
6. 0
age=46, BA, JD
IVV
Apr 29 2015 at 5:05pm
1. ~20, in Facebook
2. 0
3. ~50
4. 0
5. ~10
6. 0
Most of them are in Facebook, with the exception of my wife, who I met in graduate school. I’ll share a beer when we can, which is rare.
Age 40, BS Mechanical Engineering, MS Bioengineering, MBA Finance.
Mike Hammock
Apr 29 2015 at 5:05pm
1. 3
2. 0
3. 5
4. 1
5. 1
6. 3
age 40, major: econ (BS, MS, PhD)
LD Bottorff
Apr 29 2015 at 5:51pm
1. 2
2. 0
3. 0
4. 0
5. 0 (I can’t even name anyone I attended graduate school with)
6. 0
Age 63, majors, math, computer science. Since I am now retired, it is difficult to have professional interaction with any of these folks, but if you had asked the question before I retired from my 30 year career in telecommunications, the answers would have been the same.
Mars
Apr 29 2015 at 5:58pm
1. 6
2. 0
3. 6
4. 1
5. 5
6. 2
Age 27
College majors were finance and philosophy
Grad schools were business and law
Mars
Apr 29 2015 at 6:14pm
PS So do any women read this blog? Watch out for selection bias.
Alan
Apr 29 2015 at 6:49pm
1. 0
2. 0
3. 1
4. 0
51 Economics
Bernie638
Apr 29 2015 at 8:25pm
1: 0
2: 0
3-6 N/A
I’m 44 and I teach people how to operate a nuclear plant but I’ve never set foot on a college campus.
Michael
Apr 29 2015 at 10:14pm
1) 5
2) 0
3) 8
4) 0
28, Economics
Mike Buckland
Apr 29 2015 at 10:58pm
1. 3
2. 0
3. 1 (Married to her)
4. 0
5. 0 (Other people in grad school? Who knew?)
6. 0
BS Chemistry
MS Statistics
Age 56
Missing
Apr 29 2015 at 11:29pm
[Comment removed for supplying false email address. Email the webmaster@econlib.org to request restoring your comment privileges. We’d be happy to publish your comment. A valid email address is nevertheless required to post comments on EconLog and EconTalk.–Econlib Ed.]
Ilya Somin
Apr 30 2015 at 12:12am
1. 1
2. 0
3. 7-8
4. 3-4
5. 8-10
6. Too many to count, but probably at least 20-30 (as you know, I am an academic).
Age:41
Major: Political science and history
David Friedman
Apr 30 2015 at 2:40am
1:0 Unless you count people I have not interacted with for over a decade, might conceivably interact with at some time in the future.
2:0
3: 1
4:0
5:0
6:0
70, Physics PhD
od
Apr 30 2015 at 6:32am
1. 2
2. 0
3. 8
4. 0
5. 5
6. ~10
33, MBA
caryatis
Apr 30 2015 at 10:27am
Judging from the low numbers others have posted, I assume you mean real friends, whatever that means, as opposed to Facebook/other social networks. I’ll give both numbers for comparison.
1. 3 (dozens on FB)
2. 0
3. ~10 (hundreds on FB)
4. 2
28, no major
Max M
Apr 30 2015 at 10:43am
1. 5
2. 0
3. 1
4. 0
5. 1
6. 1
Steve S
Apr 30 2015 at 10:56am
1. 4
2. 0
3. 11
4. 0
30, BS Metallurgical Engineering
P.S. I currently live within 30 miles of my high school and college, which I think makes my numbers even more frighteningly low
alepruitt
Apr 30 2015 at 11:28am
1. 9 [close friends] 60-80 [FB]
2. 0
3. 12 [close friends] hundreds [FB]
4. 0
5. 10 [close friends] 30-40 [FB]
6. 0
28
BSC Economics
MA International Studies
JohnBinNH
Apr 30 2015 at 12:31pm
1. How many people you met in K-12 are you still friends with?
Zero
2. How many people you met in K-12 do you professionally interact with?
Zero
Questions for college attendees:
3. How many people you met in college are you still friends with?
Zero
4. How many people you met in college do you professionally interact with?
Zero
Questions for graduate/professional school attendees:
5. How many people you met in graduate/professional school are you still friends with?
One
6. How many people you met in graduate/professional do you professionally interact with?
Zero
Please include your age and major in your response.
62; BA Linguistics; MSc Computer Science
Mark V Anderson
Apr 30 2015 at 8:29pm
1 0
2 0
3 0
4 0
5 0
6 0
58, accounting undergrad, masters in Tax.
Fascinating look at contributors. Numbers are much lower than I would expect. I would have expected I was an outlier, but I’m not. Is this a function of economic blog readers?
Paul Ralley
May 1 2015 at 11:13am
1. 3
2. 0
3. 20
4. 0
5. 7
6. 3
41, Undergraduate Mathematics, Professional School Accountancy.
Many of the 20 in 3 are only via facebook, otherwise I would have lost touch by now I imagine. Similarly for 5. and Linkedin.
John Fembup
May 1 2015 at 4:58pm
1. 2
2. 0
3. 1
4. 0
5. 0
6. 0
Age 70. Majors = mathematics and English Lit (double major). Am retired now; career was in business.
Comments are closed.