I love school & mitochondria

Hi there,

I believe this is the last week when we can say “Happy new year” without it sounding weird. Just fyi.

Lots to cover today so let’s dig in.

First, it’s been great to see applications flowing in this past weekend and week. As a reminder, Early Decision applications are due January 15, 2026 (in ~3 days).

School of compliance

I recently read this essay by Thomas Arnett of the Clayton Christensen Institute which had me nodding along so hard that my neck almost fell off. (I recommend you read it)

I particularly liked this part about the ‘unofficial curriculum’ of school which teaches our kids that:

• There is always someone above you who sets the assignment.

• The path to success is deciphering what that person wants

• The safest strategy is to follow instructions faithfully

• Tasks come with rubrics that specify the criteria for a good performance.

• Your job is to hit those criteria as cleanly as possible.

As you read it, you’ll see the Forge Prep model checks almost every point the Clayton Christensen team shares about what modern education needs to look like in an AI age.

Do you really want your kid going to a traditional school of compliance?

The AI doctor is coming for the surgeons

Elon Musk predicts humanoid robots will be able to do surgery in 3 years.

Now, Elon is typically hyper-aggressive with his estimates so I’d bet against this happening in 3 years, but he is directionally right.

Let’s say it is 4x longer and hence 12 years.

What does that mean for the jobs our kids are graduating into?

The jobs that you and I might have seen as safe paths will no longer be available.

In light of this, it’s certainly time to rethink education.

Imagine an alumni network that worked for you

We recently unveiled The Guild which is Forge Prep’s network of founders, public co CEOs, scientists, coaches and more who students can tap into.

Some of the names you’ll see are visible below but take a look at the site and you’ll see an amazing (and still growing) group of incredibly accomplished folks who want to pay it forward to the next gen:

• Henry Schuck, founder & CEO of ZoomInfo (Nasdaq: GTM)

• Martin Blackman, former GM of US Tennis Association Player Development

• Neha Shah, co-founder of $1B supply chain/procurement business

• Dr Andrew Abraham, founder of Orgain (acq by Nestle for $2B)

Any many others.

I ‘love’ school

This video is great.

Give it a watch and let me know which one of these was your favorite thing about school.

My favorite was writing 1000 word essays on books I didn’t read 😆 

At a minimum, the video will make you chuckle (underused word btw).

We underestimated the dissatisfaction

My calendar this week (see below) is absolutely jammed with parent conversations.

We are so happy with the response, but frankly, even we were not expecting this level of concern and/or dissatisfaction with the traditional factory model of education.

If you think your child is capable of and deserves more than the aforementioned ‘school of compliance’ provides them, feel free to set up time with us to learn more.

Or if you’re ready to give your child a modern education, apply here.

That’s all for today.

If you have questions or want to see us cover other areas in future newsletters, let me know.

Have a great week ahead.

And Happy new year (that’s the last time I’ll say that)

Forge ahead,

Anand

Co-founder, Forge Prep

P.S. If you have questions or ideas, you can always reply to this email as I get all responses and reply.

P.P.S. Also, we have an AI head of school which you can ask questions too of as well. We think it’s important for us to be playing around with the technologies of the future if we want students to know them as well.

“He” (“It?) is still being trained so if you get a weird response, feel free to confirm with me as well.