Are the ivies overrated? Perhaps too much coddling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to East Flyover State U and ended up in a top professional school with lots of ivy grads. They were okay-everyone in the class was pretty smart but they were not smarter than the non ivy students at all. They were more coddled (and much richer) on average but there were of course exceptions.

I’ve had the same experience.

Sour grapes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to East Flyover State U and ended up in a top professional school with lots of ivy grads. They were okay-everyone in the class was pretty smart but they were not smarter than the non ivy students at all. They were more coddled (and much richer) on average but there were of course exceptions.

I’ve had the same experience.

Sour grapes

I’m not sour. I didn’t post the article or conduct the survey, Forbes did. Why is this place so obsessed with the ivies? It’s not the 1800s anymore, a lot of public schools are just as good or better than ivies, for half the price. The ivies need to get better in STEM to catch up with the evolution of the job market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to East Flyover State U and ended up in a top professional school with lots of ivy grads. They were okay-everyone in the class was pretty smart but they were not smarter than the non ivy students at all. They were more coddled (and much richer) on average but there were of course exceptions.

I’ve had the same experience.

Sour grapes

I’m not sour. I didn’t post the article or conduct the survey, Forbes did. Why is this place so obsessed with the ivies? It’s not the 1800s anymore, a lot of public schools are just as good or better than ivies, for half the price. The ivies need to get better in STEM to catch up with the evolution of the job market.

The ivies can be significantly cheaper than half the price of a public for a low-income student that can get in. These schools are very generous with aid for lower income students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at a HYPSM and working their butt off. No coddling there. Demanding academics!

These kids need to be allowed to compete. I went to Berkeley. I still remember the incredulous stare of my Stanford friends when they saw my work load. They were appalled that the average grades on most tests were 34-40 percent, which curved to a B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope:
One at an ivy. One at UVA. There are many more opportunities at the ivy and for the most part classes demand much more: more reading per week, more difficult problem sets, more complex midterms in calc. Peers do multiple time-intensive activities in addition to class at the ivy and more have campus jobs(though usually these are resume building jobs such as research or paid undergrad learning assistant). Classes are a lot smaller at the ivy but that is not coddling.

+1. I noted the same things in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope:
One at an ivy. One at UVA. There are many more opportunities at the ivy and for the most part classes demand much more: more reading per week, more difficult problem sets, more complex midterms in calc. Peers do multiple time-intensive activities in addition to class at the ivy and more have campus jobs(though usually these are resume building jobs such as research or paid undergrad learning assistant). Classes are a lot smaller at the ivy but that is not coddling.

What about compared to Michigan, Berkeley, and ucla? Those schools are known to be cutthroat and produce a lot of go-getters.

And UVA isn't? Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope:
One at an ivy. One at UVA. There are many more opportunities at the ivy and for the most part classes demand much more: more reading per week, more difficult problem sets, more complex midterms in calc. Peers do multiple time-intensive activities in addition to class at the ivy and more have campus jobs(though usually these are resume building jobs such as research or paid undergrad learning assistant). Classes are a lot smaller at the ivy but that is not coddling.

How in the world do you know this about your college students????

You know how many problems are in their problem sets? How many pages they're reading?

😳

LOL. I'm not PP, but I am Asian, and I have definitely looked at my kid's problem sets and asked them what they're reading when they come home. I want to know what I'm paying for!

[Anonymous]

Ivy worship is pathetic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to East Flyover State U and ended up in a top professional school with lots of ivy grads. They were okay-everyone in the class was pretty smart but they were not smarter than the non ivy students at all. They were more coddled (and much richer) on average but there were of course exceptions.

I’ve had the same experience.

Sour grapes

You must have missed the part about ending up in top grad school. Among Stanford medical school grads (or whatever) it would be very unusual for someone to be salty about their non-ivy undergrad.

[Anonymous]

“Coddling”? Of what sort, exactly?

And: No.

What has happened though, unfortunately, is that instead of looking at a group of schools in a sports league — each with strengths, weaknesses, and their own sets of values and cultures — some people tend to lump them together as a golden prize. I’d be much more interested in knowing how people used —and enjoyed — the opportunities that they had access to at whatever school they attended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope:
One at an ivy. One at UVA. There are many more opportunities at the ivy and for the most part classes demand much more: more reading per week, more difficult problem sets, more complex midterms in calc. Peers do multiple time-intensive activities in addition to class at the ivy and more have campus jobs(though usually these are resume building jobs such as research or paid undergrad learning assistant). Classes are a lot smaller at the ivy but that is not coddling.

How in the world do you know this about your college students????

You know how many problems are in their problem sets? How many pages they're reading?

😳

LOL. I'm not PP, but I am Asian, and I have definitely looked at my kid's problem sets and asked them what they're reading when they come home. I want to know what I'm paying for!

If you actually think you can extrapolate from that to all majors at all ivies (and the same at non ivies) perhaps you yourself could have benefited from a bit more rigor as an undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope:
One at an ivy. One at UVA. There are many more opportunities at the ivy and for the most part classes demand much more: more reading per week, more difficult problem sets, more complex midterms in calc. Peers do multiple time-intensive activities in addition to class at the ivy and more have campus jobs(though usually these are resume building jobs such as research or paid undergrad learning assistant). Classes are a lot smaller at the ivy but that is not coddling.

Same but different top flagship, both stem majors. There’s a reason the Ivies have such high MCAT scores on average and require far less time on prep, the classes and exams are intense and prepare them well.

I know it’s more fun to knock them down and they aren’t perfect, but the intense rigor and keeping up with the best of the best is very challenging and not being coddled in the slightest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope:
One at an ivy. One at UVA. There are many more opportunities at the ivy and for the most part classes demand much more: more reading per week, more difficult problem sets, more complex midterms in calc. Peers do multiple time-intensive activities in addition to class at the ivy and more have campus jobs(though usually these are resume building jobs such as research or paid undergrad learning assistant). Classes are a lot smaller at the ivy but that is not coddling.

How in the world do you know this about your college students????

You know how many problems are in their problem sets? How many pages they're reading?

😳

LOL. I'm not PP, but I am Asian, and I have definitely looked at my kid's problem sets and asked them what they're reading when they come home. I want to know what I'm paying for!

I went to an “elite” public school. I remember taking “introductory” logic and struggling. I asked my TA who did his undergrad at Dartmouth if their introductory course was similar. He laughed and said no. In fact, a lot of the things were covered, he explained, is not introductory. For instance, we were doing fitch-style proofs and things that resembled electrical engineering problems, and I was a philosophy major!

[Anonymous]

No one is disputing that there are super bright people at ivies, it’s more the idea that the dimwits there (and there are definitely plenty of dimwits there) are more capable than the top students at lot lots of other (less rich, less privileged) schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is disputing that there are super bright people at ivies, it’s more the idea that the dimwits there (and there are definitely plenty of dimwits there) are more capable than the top students at lot lots of other (less rich, less privileged) schools.

I don't think a lot of people have that idea. Top students at less rich and less privileged schools have lots of opportunity.