Right. I'm surprised the author of this piece is surprised. As someone as apparently knowledgeable about education as he is, you'd think this would be top of the list. All the grit in the world doesn't matter if the places you apply to want a degree, the right kind of degree, the right schools, with the right grades, and most importantly, that the filters keep getting tighter and the requirements made more ridiculous (since the numbers of people who apply to any given job increases and you need a way to keep that pile of resumes manageable.)