NP. I was going to respond to the top post with basically what 2nd pp said—that most ivy kids got there by hard work and family sacrifice, not entitlement. The bar to get in is really high, even for the very small percent who are development cases. Sure, maybe 10% are rich US or foreign students, but that’s a minority. Top pp clearly doesn’t know much about ivy schools and is stuck on some 1950s cliche about white men from good families who make the short hop from Andover to Harvard. |
| Bigger issue is the private school set who gravitates toward a few DC schools and then dismisses other academic institutions for college. Omg my child is ruined because they are going to U of Md. Many schools are the same if not better than Harvard. Lots of kids with no jobs after Harvard. Many excellent state schools you come out with a degree where you can actually get a job and not have to go to grad school. This is not saying that Harvard is not terrific because it is but along with Harvard you have to manage the appearance of being an elitist and spoiled and many employers are staying way far from that. Liberal arts degrees are also not very helpful in today’s job market. Most important is finding a school where your 22 year old is not saddled with debt especially if they are going into a career where it will be hard to pay it back. |
Unless you are an engineering or computer science major, NO undergraduate degree is particularly helpful in “today’s Job market.” A biology degree from Stanford will get you a job as a lab assistant. Not exactly what most kids are raring for. The majority of degrees - math, science, or liberal arts - require a graduate or professional degree. Guess what? You have a better shot at a top graduate school if you’re coming from a top undergraduate institution with top marks. No employer is going to shy away from a Harvard grad. Sorry, but we deal with peer envy much more than managers’ concerns. It’s pretty easy to tease out through the interview process who has social skills and who doesn’t. Sad to say, it’s often the kids from elite schools who have the social skills - everything from how to diffuse a potentially awkward moment or interaction to knowing how to handle the right fork and how much and what to drink at a luncheon with a client. |
| Not my experience. Have many an ivy intern wanting to be running the place and not liking normal intern work. Give me a hard working state school kid who is working for a couple years before they go to a grad program. |
| Second rate organizations get second rate interns. Don't thin that proves your point. |
Well how’d you get in the Private/Independent Schools forum? |
The horror, the horror! “Wanting to be running the place”? Please learn some rudimentary grammar. The desire to be CEO is common to spoiled millennials, and I’ve encountered it among those from Podunk State more often than I have among Ivy grads. They may feel the same way but they have the grace and social skills to hide it better. |
I agree. I went to an Ivy League school back when they weren’t so generous with the grant money. I just HAD to go there, so I saddled myself with debt, thinking that the name on my resume would somehow help me overcome that financial sinkhole one day. Fifteen years later, it hasn’t. I’m still paying through the nose. What that name has done is given me educational currency, and it has opened a few doors, but if I had to do it again, I’d go to a much more reasonably priced undergrad and dole out the money for a great grad school. |
| PP again - I’ve also worked with folks who went to state schools, and they are just as smart and competent and aren’t struggling with a similar financial burden. |
| Not a high standard. |
Assuming you can get into the "great grad school" in the first place. The margin for error is usually much bigger coming from an Ivy than most reasonably priced undergrads. |
+1. You do realize a graduate of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT is going to have an easier time getting into a great graduate school than someon who graduated from Kansas State. It’s not just the school name that makes a difference. It’s Th fact that the professors who teach you are the tops in their fields of endeavor and command respect within their disciplines. When you get a recommendation from Nobel Laureate vs. Professor Pippy Q. Pippypants, it does make a difference in your chances for admission. |
I am so stealing " Professor Pippy Q. Pippypants" LOL |
In tribute to my Ivy education, I have to credit Dave Pilkey and Captain Underpants, although I believe the character is more accurately Professor Pippy P. Poopypants. |
| My brother just graduated two years ago from a state school that had Professor Poopypants and is about to start Wharton for grad. Something that his buddy from Cornell couldn't do as he didn't get in. Whatever..save your money at BS level so you don't get any bs when trying to get into grad school. |