What’s the point of going to a top school if you end up in the same place as someone who didn’t

[Anonymous]

Why fly first class private suite when middle seat last row gets you to the same place?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, this is a question of whether the emperor is wearing any clothes or not.

If you are facing disadvantages due to your ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic status, etc., then a higher ranked school may make a bigger difference in your life. But if you are an average upper-middle class student with status and connections in life, then the value of the advantage is more questionable.

We're mammals. We have an instinct to ensure our children's survival. It's a powerful force. When everyone around you is acting like a T20 school is life or death, you figure you should act that way too. It takes mindfulness and figuring out your real priorities in life not to get carried along with the current. I was getting four hours of sleep a night in high school, and for what? I don't want that for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a troll. I’m the parent of a HS sophomore who is killing themselves excelling in school and participating in extracurriculars to be competitive for T20.

At the same time, I see parents on here posting how their kid went to Cornell and ended up in the same place as someone who went to Pitt or another similarly ranked school.

At the same time, in my job I work alongside people who have gone to ivies and schools I’ve never heard of. I went to Michigan, btw.

My sister did her undergraduate at Oxford, stayed in the UK and is now partner at a well respected consulting firm alongside other partners that went to no name schools from India.

So seeing the stress my kid goes through, I am honestly asking what is the point of a Yale or Princeton if they take you to the same place that a school like Rutgers and Radford can take you?!

Ah, the perennial 'does it really matter?' question from those comfortably outside the velvet rope. Let me illuminate the distinction you are evidently missing.
Your anecdotes about colleagues ending up in the same building or your sister at Oxford alongside Indian partners prove precisely nothing beyond basic competence. Of course raw talent exists everywhere. Pitt, Radford, no name schools in India. The point is not whether someone can succeed; it is how they succeed, where they start, and the effortless glide path provided.

Yale or Princeton are not merely schools; they are global keys to locked doors. They provide:
1. An instant, unassailable brand worldwide. A resume that bypasses HR algorithms and lands directly on the desks of people you will never meet. No explaining required. Ever.
2. A network that is the establishment. Your Michigan peers are fine. My classmates run the firms, funds, and faculties your peers aspire to join. This network is not LinkedIn connections; it is lifetime access to decision makers who answer calls because of the crest on the degree.
3. A concentration of ambition and resources. Your sophomore is stressed? Good. They are competing in the Olympics, not the county fair. At Rutgers, they might be the smartest in the room. At Princeton? They are sitting alongside future Nobel laureates, Fortune 500 CEOs, and Senators. The expectations, the peers, the opportunities, it is simply a different universe of potential.

Does a Pitt grad eventually land a good job? Possibly. Does the Princeton grad walk into McKinsey, Goldman as a baseline expectation? Routinely. The 'same place' you naively observe is often just the starting line for the elite grad, while it is the finish line for others. The trajectory, the ceiling, the sheer ease of ascent, that is what you are paying for. And what your child is striving for.

The 'point' is securing a position where merit is assumed, doors open silently, and the path to the top is not a grueling climb, but a well lit escalator.

If you cannot perceive that distinction from your vantage point at Michigan... well, that rather proves it, does it not?

Indian-American who attended a T10 in the 1990s on financial aid. I (sadly) agree with it all. My own Wall Street career is entirely due to the network and the expected trajectory.

My own kids are at T10 as well. Doors already opened for them in ways they are not for peers at Wisconsin, Pitt, Colorado, Maryland, UNC. No fighting to get prestigious internships, no gunning for clubs (you realize they don’t matter as much at elite schools). Just deciding on a career path and off you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 'point' is securing a position where merit is assumed, doors open silently, and the path to the top is not a grueling climb, but a well lit escalator.

This is all PP really had to write. All the other paragraphs were fluff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

They all had an accent and was curious as to their backgrounds so looked up their bios.

Don’t you do some due diligence on doctors for major medical events for your kid?

Turned out that major surgery was not needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 'point' is securing a position where merit is assumed, doors open silently, and the path to the top is not a grueling climb, but a well lit escalator.

This is all PP really had to write. All the other paragraphs were fluff.

Agree with that Sentiment .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

They all had an accent and was curious as to their backgrounds so looked up their bios.

Don’t you do some due diligence on doctors for major medical events for your kid?

Turned out that major surgery was not needed.

If time allowed for a medical event or procedure I would research doctors, but no, when my kid goes to the hospital I don’t check where the doctors went to school. And definitely not just because they have accents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

They all had an accent and was curious as to their backgrounds so looked up their bios.

Don’t you do some due diligence on doctors for major medical events for your kid?

Turned out that major surgery was not needed.

If time allowed for a medical event or procedure I would research doctors, but no, when my kid goes to the hospital I don’t check where the doctors went to school. And definitely not just because they have accents.

Time would have allowed it after getting out of the ER for observation.

It’s really not that uncommon to check out the bios of your doctors…which you know and now for some reason you are just doubling-down on your comment.

Your comment was stupid and out of left field and had nothing to add as to how the medical profession works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not a troll. I’m the parent of a HS sophomore who is killing themselves excelling in school and participating in extracurriculars to be competitive for T20.

At the same time, I see parents on here posting how their kid went to Cornell and ended up in the same place as someone who went to Pitt or another similarly ranked school.

At the same time, in my job I work alongside people who have gone to ivies and schools I’ve never heard of. I went to Michigan, btw.

My sister did her undergraduate at Oxford, stayed in the UK and is now partner at a well respected consulting firm alongside other partners that went to no name schools from India.

So seeing the stress my kid goes through, I am honestly asking what is the point of a Yale or Princeton if they take you to the same place that a school like Rutgers and Radford can take you?!

You get to say "I went to Yaaaaaaale" and feel superior.

As my friend who went to Radford said "ivy students make great subordinates." And having supervised some, as well, I agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

They all had an accent and was curious as to their backgrounds so looked up their bios.

Don’t you do some due diligence on doctors for major medical events for your kid?

Turned out that major surgery was not needed.

If time allowed for a medical event or procedure I would research doctors, but no, when my kid goes to the hospital I don’t check where the doctors went to school. And definitely not just because they have accents.

Time would have allowed it after getting out of the ER for observation.

It’s really not that uncommon to check out the bios of your doctors…which you know and now for some reason you are just doubling-down on your comment.

Your comment was stupid and out of left field and had nothing to add as to how the medical profession works.

It’s pretty weird to check where all of the doctors you see in a hospital went to school because they had accents. Deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a troll. I’m the parent of a HS sophomore who is killing themselves excelling in school and participating in extracurriculars to be competitive for T20.

At the same time, I see parents on here posting how their kid went to Cornell and ended up in the same place as someone who went to Pitt or another similarly ranked school.

At the same time, in my job I work alongside people who have gone to ivies and schools I’ve never heard of. I went to Michigan, btw.

My sister did her undergraduate at Oxford, stayed in the UK and is now partner at a well respected consulting firm alongside other partners that went to no name schools from India.

So seeing the stress my kid goes through, I am honestly asking what is the point of a Yale or Princeton if they take you to the same place that a school like Rutgers and Radford can take you?!

Ah, the perennial 'does it really matter?' question from those comfortably outside the velvet rope. Let me illuminate the distinction you are evidently missing.
Your anecdotes about colleagues ending up in the same building or your sister at Oxford alongside Indian partners prove precisely nothing beyond basic competence. Of course raw talent exists everywhere. Pitt, Radford, no name schools in India. The point is not whether someone can succeed; it is how they succeed, where they start, and the effortless glide path provided.

Yale or Princeton are not merely schools; they are global keys to locked doors. They provide:
1. An instant, unassailable brand worldwide. A resume that bypasses HR algorithms and lands directly on the desks of people you will never meet. No explaining required. Ever.
2. A network that is the establishment. Your Michigan peers are fine. My classmates run the firms, funds, and faculties your peers aspire to join. This network is not LinkedIn connections; it is lifetime access to decision makers who answer calls because of the crest on the degree.
3. A concentration of ambition and resources. Your sophomore is stressed? Good. They are competing in the Olympics, not the county fair. At Rutgers, they might be the smartest in the room. At Princeton? They are sitting alongside future Nobel laureates, Fortune 500 CEOs, and Senators. The expectations, the peers, the opportunities, it is simply a different universe of potential.

Does a Pitt grad eventually land a good job? Possibly. Does the Princeton grad walk into McKinsey, Goldman as a baseline expectation? Routinely. The 'same place' you naively observe is often just the starting line for the elite grad, while it is the finish line for others. The trajectory, the ceiling, the sheer ease of ascent, that is what you are paying for. And what your child is striving for.

The 'point' is securing a position where merit is assumed, doors open silently, and the path to the top is not a grueling climb, but a well lit escalator.

If you cannot perceive that distinction from your vantage point at Michigan... well, that rather proves it, does it not?

Indian-American who attended a T10 in the 1990s on financial aid. I (sadly) agree with it all. My own Wall Street career is entirely due to the network and the expected trajectory.

My own kids are at T10 as well. Doors already opened for them in ways they are not for peers at Wisconsin, Pitt, Colorado, Maryland, UNC. No fighting to get prestigious internships, no gunning for clubs (you realize they don’t matter as much at elite schools). Just deciding on a career path and off you go.

Meh. I’ve had plenty of yoga instructors who were Ivy League grads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

They all had an accent and was curious as to their backgrounds so looked up their bios.

Don’t you do some due diligence on doctors for major medical events for your kid?

Turned out that major surgery was not needed.

If time allowed for a medical event or procedure I would research doctors, but no, when my kid goes to the hospital I don’t check where the doctors went to school. And definitely not just because they have accents.

Time would have allowed it after getting out of the ER for observation.

It’s really not that uncommon to check out the bios of your doctors…which you know and now for some reason you are just doubling-down on your comment.

Your comment was stupid and out of left field and had nothing to add as to how the medical profession works.

It’s pretty weird to check where all of the doctors you see in a hospital went to school because they had accents. Deal with it.

Dipshit…now you are tripling down…go for a quadruple?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a troll. I’m the parent of a HS sophomore who is killing themselves excelling in school and participating in extracurriculars to be competitive for T20.

At the same time, I see parents on here posting how their kid went to Cornell and ended up in the same place as someone who went to Pitt or another similarly ranked school.

At the same time, in my job I work alongside people who have gone to ivies and schools I’ve never heard of. I went to Michigan, btw.

My sister did her undergraduate at Oxford, stayed in the UK and is now partner at a well respected consulting firm alongside other partners that went to no name schools from India.

So seeing the stress my kid goes through, I am honestly asking what is the point of a Yale or Princeton if they take you to the same place that a school like Rutgers and Radford can take you?!

Ah, the perennial 'does it really matter?' question from those comfortably outside the velvet rope. Let me illuminate the distinction you are evidently missing.
Your anecdotes about colleagues ending up in the same building or your sister at Oxford alongside Indian partners prove precisely nothing beyond basic competence. Of course raw talent exists everywhere. Pitt, Radford, no name schools in India. The point is not whether someone can succeed; it is how they succeed, where they start, and the effortless glide path provided.

Yale or Princeton are not merely schools; they are global keys to locked doors. They provide:
1. An instant, unassailable brand worldwide. A resume that bypasses HR algorithms and lands directly on the desks of people you will never meet. No explaining required. Ever.
2. A network that is the establishment. Your Michigan peers are fine. My classmates run the firms, funds, and faculties your peers aspire to join. This network is not LinkedIn connections; it is lifetime access to decision makers who answer calls because of the crest on the degree.
3. A concentration of ambition and resources. Your sophomore is stressed? Good. They are competing in the Olympics, not the county fair. At Rutgers, they might be the smartest in the room. At Princeton? They are sitting alongside future Nobel laureates, Fortune 500 CEOs, and Senators. The expectations, the peers, the opportunities, it is simply a different universe of potential.

Does a Pitt grad eventually land a good job? Possibly. Does the Princeton grad walk into McKinsey, Goldman as a baseline expectation? Routinely. The 'same place' you naively observe is often just the starting line for the elite grad, while it is the finish line for others. The trajectory, the ceiling, the sheer ease of ascent, that is what you are paying for. And what your child is striving for.

The 'point' is securing a position where merit is assumed, doors open silently, and the path to the top is not a grueling climb, but a well lit escalator.

If you cannot perceive that distinction from your vantage point at Michigan... well, that rather proves it, does it not?

Indian-American who attended a T10 in the 1990s on financial aid. I (sadly) agree with it all. My own Wall Street career is entirely due to the network and the expected trajectory.

My own kids are at T10 as well. Doors already opened for them in ways they are not for peers at Wisconsin, Pitt, Colorado, Maryland, UNC. No fighting to get prestigious internships, no gunning for clubs (you realize they don’t matter as much at elite schools). Just deciding on a career path and off you go.

Meh. I’ve had plenty of yoga instructors who were Ivy League grads.

Yep. Its usually women who no longer need to work. Used to work at Bain or GS, and got married (sometimes to a co-worker) and one spouse's career fast-forwarded. They other mommy-tracked bc someone needs to be around.
Now, kids are headed to college and mom becomes a yoga instructor.
This is extraordinarily common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a troll. I’m the parent of a HS sophomore who is killing themselves excelling in school and participating in extracurriculars to be competitive for T20.

At the same time, I see parents on here posting how their kid went to Cornell and ended up in the same place as someone who went to Pitt or another similarly ranked school.

At the same time, in my job I work alongside people who have gone to ivies and schools I’ve never heard of. I went to Michigan, btw.

My sister did her undergraduate at Oxford, stayed in the UK and is now partner at a well respected consulting firm alongside other partners that went to no name schools from India.

So seeing the stress my kid goes through, I am honestly asking what is the point of a Yale or Princeton if they take you to the same place that a school like Rutgers and Radford can take you?!

Ah, the perennial 'does it really matter?' question from those comfortably outside the velvet rope. Let me illuminate the distinction you are evidently missing.
Your anecdotes about colleagues ending up in the same building or your sister at Oxford alongside Indian partners prove precisely nothing beyond basic competence. Of course raw talent exists everywhere. Pitt, Radford, no name schools in India. The point is not whether someone can succeed; it is how they succeed, where they start, and the effortless glide path provided.

Yale or Princeton are not merely schools; they are global keys to locked doors. They provide:
1. An instant, unassailable brand worldwide. A resume that bypasses HR algorithms and lands directly on the desks of people you will never meet. No explaining required. Ever.
2. A network that is the establishment. Your Michigan peers are fine. My classmates run the firms, funds, and faculties your peers aspire to join. This network is not LinkedIn connections; it is lifetime access to decision makers who answer calls because of the crest on the degree.
3. A concentration of ambition and resources. Your sophomore is stressed? Good. They are competing in the Olympics, not the county fair. At Rutgers, they might be the smartest in the room. At Princeton? They are sitting alongside future Nobel laureates, Fortune 500 CEOs, and Senators. The expectations, the peers, the opportunities, it is simply a different universe of potential.

Does a Pitt grad eventually land a good job? Possibly. Does the Princeton grad walk into McKinsey, Goldman as a baseline expectation? Routinely. The 'same place' you naively observe is often just the starting line for the elite grad, while it is the finish line for others. The trajectory, the ceiling, the sheer ease of ascent, that is what you are paying for. And what your child is striving for.

The 'point' is securing a position where merit is assumed, doors open silently, and the path to the top is not a grueling climb, but a well lit escalator.

If you cannot perceive that distinction from your vantage point at Michigan... well, that rather proves it, does it not?

Indian-American who attended a T10 in the 1990s on financial aid. I (sadly) agree with it all. My own Wall Street career is entirely due to the network and the expected trajectory.

My own kids are at T10 as well. Doors already opened for them in ways they are not for peers at Wisconsin, Pitt, Colorado, Maryland, UNC. No fighting to get prestigious internships, no gunning for clubs (you realize they don’t matter as much at elite schools). Just deciding on a career path and off you go.

Meh. I’ve had plenty of yoga instructors who were Ivy League grads.

Yep. Its usually women who no longer need to work. Used to work at Bain or GS, and got married (sometimes to a co-worker) and one spouse's career fast-forwarded. They other mommy-tracked bc someone needs to be around.
Now, kids are headed to college and mom becomes a yoga instructor.
This is extraordinarily common.

Sure. Or, you know, grad school just kind of fizzled out and their parents love having them home again etc etc