October 09, 2005
Virginia Postrel on Who Runs Texas
By Jim Dallas
A composite of two posts, found Here and here:
Texas is certainly run by UT, SMU, and A&M grads, with the occasional Bush thrown in for diversity... A reader writes to correct my claim that Texas is run by UT, SMU, and A&M grads... "I was struck by the incredible difference between Dallas law firms and Houston law firms when I was interviewing for summer clerkships. Although it is generalizing somewhat, Houston is considerably more meritocratic than Dallas...As a native of San Antonio, I had absolutely no connection to either city, and I came from the lower middle class anyway * no country clubs or society balls in my background. In Houston, interviewers were consistently impressed by my academic credentials. In Dallas, I faced constant questions about my connections to the city, who I knew (no one), who my daddy knew (no one), etc. Over the course of my ten callback interviews in Dallas, I got the strong sense that those firms would have preferred an SMU/SMU resume (as long as it also had Highland Park H.S. and Highland Park C.C. on it) to my 'top-20 university/top 5% at top-10 law school' credentials."
What say you, Burnt Orange readers?
Posted by Jim Dallas at October 9, 2005 11:54 AM
| TrackBack
As a life long Dallasite, I would disagree. This person's single experience notwithstanding, I have always perceived Dallas (and Houston for that matter) to be a meritocratic city. Everyone I meet nowadays (and these are young professionals "on track" to positions of power) has moved here from somewhere else in the past 5 years.
San Antonio is VERY unmeritocratic, having the same attitude as small East Texas towns, where 12 families run the town like a fiefdom.
Austin, for all its hype about being a liberal city, is little better. The diversification of Austin's economy over the past 12-15 years has helped a little, bit its still a "who you know: town.
Just my two cents
I think Postrel's analysis is a little Dallas-centric, in that much of what she says about SMU can be said about Rice and UH (at least with regard to the graduate and arts schools of the latter) in Houston and elsewhere in Texas. By and large, Houston is more of an open city than Dallas to newcomers, but neither city is as closed/glass-ceilingish as many other US cities, like Boston or Philadelphia, for example. Also, from my experience, while Texas schools have a lot of sway with regard to networking opportunities (and how could they not, we live in Texas, for heaven's sake!), an Ivy League background doesn't hurt you, and can open a lot of doors, at least in the bigger cities of the state.
Look at the Texas House of Representatives and where the Reps. went to school. #1: UT #2 UH Go Coogs!
Aren't we forgetting Baylor? Come on, we're at least as important at SMU! And God loves us more! :)
