Great notes by Bryan—big confirmation that the selection effect of very bright kids willing to risk a New, Improved (maybe), Old Fashioned (Great Books!), non-top 100 (so far) college are likely to make it really good.
Will take years, before the admin folk & professors learn how to game the system, and there’s something quite fun possibility that it succeeds in using ai & humans to eliminate all gaming. (Getting the credential without mastering the knowledge).
Replacing the current elites is the right goal for all brokenists. Most edu reformists, and certainly I, support all new challenges. And trials of better methods, including returning to older methods that work better than the more recent experiments. And sending Alpha School HS grads to current elite colleges, like Austin Scholar at Stanford, helps reform pushes in those colleges.
I do wonder if they would meet my viewpoint diversity quotas of at least 30% Dem & 30% Rep professors. I think neither Arnold nor Bryan are registered Republicans. Tho they are both far from most Dem woke elite professors.
My opinion of Caplan has crashed, unless he is somehow quoted out of context.
Say it with me, "Correlation is not causation."
I have no doubt that if UATX students have more personality, it has nothing to do with selection criteria elsewhere and everything to do with the students attracted to UATX's unique characteristics.
As for other schools, it is very possible their students would have even less personality without trying to select for it.
It's also worth pointing out that "better personality" is rather subjective, even more so when talking about large groups.
In his, 'Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist,' George Stigler said it didn't much matter where a student got his Bachelor's degree, because every university has some good teachers. It did matter very much where you got your Master's and Phd, because in grad school the students learn more from each other than from faculty. Sounds like UATX might have convinced Stigler to think again.
I now have three children who have graduated from college—our daughter is a recent 2026 graduate.
Our sons both went to STEM schools (the names are somewhat irrelevant). Both had humanities as part of their curriculum (our oldest got to read JD Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy, and Plato’s Republic. Our youngest son took a philosophy class that focused on feminism, but it was his choice because the generic class was full.) Both got hands on experience with their core subjects (Environmental/Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering). Both are happily employed in their respective fields.
Our daughter’s school is an entirely different story. Again I won’t give any names, but I don’t believe her school’s curriculum is dramatically different from any other top, small, “liberal arts” college. She was a psychology major and even had to write an independent study paper to graduate, but after that it’s all downhill. Her non-psych classes were a useless collection of misfit studies and courses that emphasized “White Privilege” and “Western Imperialism and Oppression”. I was thrilled when she received a D+ in her woke fashion class that asked the students to proclaim how shameful the fashion industry is for exploiting third world countries (clearly our daughter was unable to conform to the class standards).
If I had to give any advice to parents of soon-to-be-graduating high schoolers, I would say, unless your kid is going to become an engineer (STEM fields) or go on to a professional school like medicine or law, don’t waste your money.
But if your kid can meet the standards of UATX that sounds like a great opportunity.
PS—Our daughter picked her school because she wanted to play college lacrosse, which worked out well—her team made the NCAA Tournament twice.
I have always wanted to educate myself on the Western canon. I found a website called wellread40.com. What I don't have is a group to discuss it with and a teacher to weigh in! I wish I did. My goal is to truly understand Western ideas.
I’m curious about the socio-economic background of the students. Do most come from upper middle class/wealthy backgrounds (compared to kids attending public universities)? Do most of their parents own small businesses, or engage in other entrepreneurial ventures? Did a majority of students play a competitive sport in high school? Do most students have siblings, or are they more often than not an only child? These students are obviously bright, enthusiastic, and engaged — God bless — but what’s their “secret sauce”?
The students and their parents are willing to forego the brand-name schools and participate in an experiment. Yes, a high share of parents are entrepreneurs. The unconventional path that UATX represents selects for students who are self-assured and efficacious. This personality is exemplified by Austin Scholar (https://austinscholar.substack.com/), although she happens to be at Stanford rather than UATX.
Or, maybe even more important, "want their children to actually BE the kind of children who attend ATAX": "Anyone who meets the students would want their own children to attend UATX."
have not tried it yet. I have been assuming is that it is like Cursor, in that someone with no experience in software development would be overwhelmed by it.
I’m enjoying it so far. It can make charts and fetch data similarly to Claude Code, but seems to infer some common sense preferences better from the context so I don’t see the same need to redo a chart to change trivial things as often
Great notes by Bryan—big confirmation that the selection effect of very bright kids willing to risk a New, Improved (maybe), Old Fashioned (Great Books!), non-top 100 (so far) college are likely to make it really good.
Will take years, before the admin folk & professors learn how to game the system, and there’s something quite fun possibility that it succeeds in using ai & humans to eliminate all gaming. (Getting the credential without mastering the knowledge).
Replacing the current elites is the right goal for all brokenists. Most edu reformists, and certainly I, support all new challenges. And trials of better methods, including returning to older methods that work better than the more recent experiments. And sending Alpha School HS grads to current elite colleges, like Austin Scholar at Stanford, helps reform pushes in those colleges.
I do wonder if they would meet my viewpoint diversity quotas of at least 30% Dem & 30% Rep professors. I think neither Arnold nor Bryan are registered Republicans. Tho they are both far from most Dem woke elite professors.
"their students had much better personalities"
My opinion of Caplan has crashed, unless he is somehow quoted out of context.
Say it with me, "Correlation is not causation."
I have no doubt that if UATX students have more personality, it has nothing to do with selection criteria elsewhere and everything to do with the students attracted to UATX's unique characteristics.
As for other schools, it is very possible their students would have even less personality without trying to select for it.
It's also worth pointing out that "better personality" is rather subjective, even more so when talking about large groups.
In his, 'Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist,' George Stigler said it didn't much matter where a student got his Bachelor's degree, because every university has some good teachers. It did matter very much where you got your Master's and Phd, because in grad school the students learn more from each other than from faculty. Sounds like UATX might have convinced Stigler to think again.
I now have three children who have graduated from college—our daughter is a recent 2026 graduate.
Our sons both went to STEM schools (the names are somewhat irrelevant). Both had humanities as part of their curriculum (our oldest got to read JD Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy, and Plato’s Republic. Our youngest son took a philosophy class that focused on feminism, but it was his choice because the generic class was full.) Both got hands on experience with their core subjects (Environmental/Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering). Both are happily employed in their respective fields.
Our daughter’s school is an entirely different story. Again I won’t give any names, but I don’t believe her school’s curriculum is dramatically different from any other top, small, “liberal arts” college. She was a psychology major and even had to write an independent study paper to graduate, but after that it’s all downhill. Her non-psych classes were a useless collection of misfit studies and courses that emphasized “White Privilege” and “Western Imperialism and Oppression”. I was thrilled when she received a D+ in her woke fashion class that asked the students to proclaim how shameful the fashion industry is for exploiting third world countries (clearly our daughter was unable to conform to the class standards).
If I had to give any advice to parents of soon-to-be-graduating high schoolers, I would say, unless your kid is going to become an engineer (STEM fields) or go on to a professional school like medicine or law, don’t waste your money.
But if your kid can meet the standards of UATX that sounds like a great opportunity.
PS—Our daughter picked her school because she wanted to play college lacrosse, which worked out well—her team made the NCAA Tournament twice.
Why no mention of Grok?
I have always wanted to educate myself on the Western canon. I found a website called wellread40.com. What I don't have is a group to discuss it with and a teacher to weigh in! I wish I did. My goal is to truly understand Western ideas.
Talk to AI about it?
I’m curious about the socio-economic background of the students. Do most come from upper middle class/wealthy backgrounds (compared to kids attending public universities)? Do most of their parents own small businesses, or engage in other entrepreneurial ventures? Did a majority of students play a competitive sport in high school? Do most students have siblings, or are they more often than not an only child? These students are obviously bright, enthusiastic, and engaged — God bless — but what’s their “secret sauce”?
The students and their parents are willing to forego the brand-name schools and participate in an experiment. Yes, a high share of parents are entrepreneurs. The unconventional path that UATX represents selects for students who are self-assured and efficacious. This personality is exemplified by Austin Scholar (https://austinscholar.substack.com/), although she happens to be at Stanford rather than UATX.
Or, maybe even more important, "want their children to actually BE the kind of children who attend ATAX": "Anyone who meets the students would want their own children to attend UATX."
What do you think of Codex?
have not tried it yet. I have been assuming is that it is like Cursor, in that someone with no experience in software development would be overwhelmed by it.
I’m enjoying it so far. It can make charts and fetch data similarly to Claude Code, but seems to infer some common sense preferences better from the context so I don’t see the same need to redo a chart to change trivial things as often