What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

Where are these jobs being advertised? My son is at HYP and if you’re not in finance, the jobs are all study-abroad types.

Then yours is not paying attention. I doubt they come to one HYP as well as other ivies and not the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:better peer group

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?

Maybe don't believe everything you read. Also college isn't just about the outcome. It's not trade school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?

To not be around people who ask dumb questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?

To not be around people who ask dumb questions.

How is it dumb to question why someone would work so hard for nothing?

[Anonymous]

Mom and dad want the best sticker for their rear window. It’s all about peacocking for shallow parents.

[Anonymous]

Have better colleagues. See what high caliber researchers and scholars are like. Develop own higher standards. Network with high level peers. Take clases in subject you really like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have better colleagues. See what high caliber researchers and scholars are like. Develop own higher standards. Network with high level peers. Take clases in subject you really like.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

I don't stalk my student's job portal, but I find this mostly bs. They are applying for the same national positions as everyone else. Hell, their job portal is open to the public, so there aren't that many secrets to share.

When McKinsey, Bain, SpaceX, N-G and the like come to campus to hold recruiting events for the (ivy) students, it is clear there is a difference. Startups come too. Additionally. phD programs reach out to departments offering Q and A sessions. TOP PHD programs, ivy/elite or T10 in the field.

I had this at a mediocre state school. I don’t know why they make these ivy kids feel so special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?

To not be around people who ask dumb questions.

How is it dumb to question why someone would work so hard for nothing?

Someone who view this as “nothing” is someone who views “a better career” — whatever that might mean as the sole or primary goal of education. That’s an extremely limited viewpoint, and not one that I share. Now, as AI takes over — with questionable accuracy — many jobs, talk to coders about how that’s working out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

I don't stalk my student's job portal, but I find this mostly bs. They are applying for the same national positions as everyone else. Hell, their job portal is open to the public, so there aren't that many secrets to share.

When McKinsey, Bain, SpaceX, N-G and the like come to campus to hold recruiting events for the (ivy) students, it is clear there is a difference. Startups come too. Additionally. phD programs reach out to departments offering Q and A sessions. TOP PHD programs, ivy/elite or T10 in the field.

I had this at a mediocre state school. I don’t know why they make these ivy kids feel so special.

Because they are special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One reason to aim for T20 is that some kids feed off of the motivation/energy of the kids around them.

DD went T20 and is surrounded by bright, motivated kids like her who study hard but also enjoy their lives outside of their studies. This was the vibe we were hoping for, and she is really happy.

I hope you realize that you can get that same vibe at many schools in the 25-50/60 range as well. My kid is at one ranked ~40 (used to be low 30s for decades before class sizes didn't matter anymore). Of their group of 20+ friends, EVERYONE was WL/Spring Start/Fall Soph start at a minimum of 2 T25 schools. Same goes for over 40-50% of the students they are in classes with (and engineering kids are already very smart). They are surrounded by bright, motivated kids, but they just were part of the 90-95% who don't get admitted to T25 schools. Same goes for my kid's 2nd choice. Both schools are literally known for this---it's a running joke, and there are articles every year in the school newspapers/etc about this. You don't have to attend a T25 to be surrounded by bright, motivated kids.

If your student is a 99th%ile-99.99%ile student, they cannot get the same vibe at a school as you describe.
They would not fit in with 20+ friends who all were WL at T25. The 40-50% of students are the average kids there: by the data they are mostly 90th-95%ile kids, "bright and motivated" compared to the average student at MSU, Auburn, but would all be significantly below average at a T15/ivy and the rest of the T20 or T5-8 LACs. Great they found their fit, but academic and motivational fit is all relative. Ours know enough students from their HS who go to T50 level and they simply would not fit academically.
Our older 2 kids private school and their sibling's public top magnet each have median SAT around 1400. Based on WISC scores at the private and similar nationally normed test ranges shared by colleagues at the magnet, the 1400 (superscored) correlates well to the fact that we know the median IQ range is around 122. Of course SAT is not IQ but the two correlate, with the SAT skewed higher percentile-wise due to superscoring and extra time.
The ability level of the top 15% is 99%ile or higher. The median students are TWO math levels below the top 15-20%kids and do not get into AP Physics C or AP chem because they do not do well enough in the first physics and chem classes at these high schools, taught and tracked by many phD teachers who lead the departments and have decades of experience teaching the 85-99.9 to understand the wide variety of intellectual ability in that range.
The level of writing of a 93%ile student is different than a 99+%ile. Ask any teacher or professor. A 93rd%ile student is not in the same league with a 99%ile.
There is nothing at all wrong with the very top students wanting to be surrounded by predominantly similar intellects. Only on DCUM do parents have to brag about finding "fit" at lower ranked schools and curse the parents who know their kids best fit is at the ivy/elite schools.

If your "99% kid" cannot fit in and learn from being around other kids who have 1500+/3.9+/8AP+ resumes and are also curious about learning, then your kid will have a hard time in real life. Because they will be working with and FOR someone who went to UMBC/JMU/Towson and have to learn to somehow function. In fact those people might be their boss and might make more than them.

Not if you go into certain fields and employers. There are still fields and employers where your boss will never have just a bachelor’s degree from UMBC and there are lots of other fields and employers where this would be hugely unlikely.