I'm starting to have 2nd thoughts about that...

Remember when I said, not too long ago, that it didn't seem to matter here in DC where you came from and where you got your degree? That everyone is an out-of-towner here? That only your performance and hard work matters?

Two weeks ago, I found out that I didn't get the fellowship that I had been hoping for. This was the fellowship that, while I was interning here last fall and trying to talk to as many analysts as I could, everyone seemed to agree was the best avenue for me if I wanted to become a government analyst myself.

Here are some highlights of those who did make the final cut: American University, 34; Columbia, 21; George Washington University, 28; Georgetown, 32; Harvard, 15; Johns Hopkins, 19; Princeton, 17.

This is of course a whole bunch of sour grapes on my part, cursing the fact that I attended a second or third rate school and trying to avoid blaming myself for my failure to win the fellowship that I wanted. But it makes me wonder how much truth really was in my previous post. Neither extreme position can be true - that your alma mater doesn't matter at all or that it is the only thing that matters.

Maybe it would be nice to know that one or the other extreme is in fact true. Maybe that would make me feel better.