Does where you go to college actually matter?

[Anonymous]

If you are in investment banking or want to be a Supreme Court justice, yes. If you are working for Craptastic, Inc., probably not unless the top execs all have the same background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to think so. Then the internet and sites like coursera and edx were invented, allowing anyone on this planet with an internet connection to access the course content offered by elite institutions.

Quirky question-

If someone graduates from Harvard/Yale/Princeton but marries someone from a state school, which one of you loses? State school spouse gains a lifetime of discussions with an Ivy-educated spouse while the Ivy-educated spouse gets a lifetime of discussions with someone who went to (gasp) a state school.

As they say, the difference isn't the education, it's who you're sitting next to.

[Anonymous]

It can. There was a specific program at my NESCAC school that definitely jump started my career. I could never have afforded to get my foot in the door without that, coupled with more generous financial aid for that semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s an example. I have several friends who were smart and went to W&M or UVA but majored in education and became teachers. Had they gone to Longwood instead that wouldn’t have changed a thing for their job. But UVA majorly changed their selection of spouse. And all three of them married high earners and none of the wives work any longer.

This is the ticket. Those of you with daughters, read up.

[Anonymous]

If you excel, and are in the top group of students, and are talented, no it does not matter - you can go to Podunk University and still have a great career and get into a great grad school.

If you are a middling student, it makes a difference. A middling student at Harvard will go further than a middling student at Podunk U.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you excel, and are in the top group of students, and are talented, no it does not matter - you can go to Podunk University and still have a great career and get into a great grad school.

If you are a middling student, it makes a difference. A middling student at Harvard will go further than a middling student at Podunk U.

I don’t even think that’s true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you excel, and are in the top group of students, and are talented, no it does not matter - you can go to Podunk University and still have a great career and get into a great grad school.

If you are a middling student, it makes a difference. A middling student at Harvard will go further than a middling student at Podunk U.

I don’t even think that’s true.

It is, but a “middling student” isn’t getting into Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to think so. Then the internet and sites like coursera and edx were invented, allowing anyone on this planet with an internet connection to access the course content offered by elite institutions.

Quirky question-

If someone graduates from Harvard/Yale/Princeton but marries someone from a state school, which one of you loses? State school spouse gains a lifetime of discussions with an Ivy-educated spouse while the Ivy-educated spouse gets a lifetime of discussions with someone who went to (gasp) a state school.

Some people would flip that -- the state school spouse gets stuck with a lifetime of discussions with an Ivy-educated spouse who thinks that makes them smarter or more interesting. The Ivy-educated spouse gets a lifetime of discussions with someone who went to school with a more representative swath of people and may well have acquired different perspectives. Or maybe the state-school educated spouse gets an Ivy-educated spouse and their educational debt.

The Ivies don't actually offer a better education. They offer brand-name recognition, and connections and networks and prestige. There are plenty of fields where a state school might well offer the best program. (And I'm married to an Ivy-educated person, who fortunately does not think that makes him better or smarter or more interesting.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say no. I went to SUNY Binghamton and am a partner at a law firm with someone who went to Duke undergrad. We both got to the same place.

(In case you're wondering he went to Yale for law school and I went to Boston Univ.)

This is a common example and fully agree. However you had to be higher in your law school class at BU to get looked at by the same firms willing to go much deeper into the class at Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you make friends and connections during college? Did you stay in touch with those people? If not, it doesn’t really matter once you are 5yrs out of school.

Where you go matters for connections and opportunities.
You can go to a prestigious school and fail recognize or to take advantage of ample opportunities. You can go to a mediocre school and bust your butt to find and take advantage of opportunities.

I agree that the connections matter because they can lead to opportunities. Maybe those connections happen during college but they can also happen in other places. DH went to a community college and transferred to a no name school. He’s in his late 40s and does major business deals with people he met during that time. None of them were met at the colleges. He’s a people person and met people through hobbies, part time jobs, internships then stayed in touch with many. He wasn’t trying to make connections for future work when he was in his 20s. They discuss work and some ended up in similar fields put of luck, but they still have those common interests and are long time friends.

I am an extreme introvert, went to a prestigious college, did not make connections and did not keep in touch with anyone. I also have a successful career but it’s very different than DH’s. I wish I had more of that personality. I have connections through work and my career but that is much different.

So to summarize, your personality matters much more than your college when it comes to connections.

[Anonymous]

I went to a decent but not "elite" state university for college and graduated with no debt due to a combination of scholarships and in-state tuition. I then went to a very prestigious graduate program, for which I borrowed close to 100k to attend.

My takeaway having been educated both places is that if you can get an education at a reasonably good school without debt, that is far more important than the relative prestige of the institution. If you get scholarships or your parents have the funds and you can go somewhere more prestigious without incurring debt, there is no reason not to -- certainly it can help on the margins.

But the sticker price of these schools, even Harvard/Yale/Stanford is not worth it if you need to finance it through the bank. In this day and age, having a college degree and zero debt is a huge gift. If you can get into Harvard, you can probably get a full-ride to a less prestigious school. I'd take the full ride in a heart beat. I wish I'd understood this when I decided to go to grad school. I worried my college degree wouldn't get me where I wanted to go, and didn't adequately consider how my grad school debt would close doors for me all by itself.

So yes, where you go matters. But it's not simply a question of going to the "best" school you can get into.

[Anonymous]

It depends on what you want out of life. If you want to be a SCOTUS clerk or or make a ton of money or rub shoulders with very successful people, yeah a name-brand school is going to be helpful (Thomas hires non-Ivy grades so I’m not going to say it’s a requirement).

But if you want meaningful work, solid relationships, a rewarding life, that kind of thing, no, where you go to school doesn’t matter.

(Unless you come from poverty, in which case, to have enough money to get your needs met, a name brand school will probably make a big difference)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a decent but not "elite" state university for college and graduated with no debt due to a combination of scholarships and in-state tuition. I then went to a very prestigious graduate program, for which I borrowed close to 100k to attend.

My takeaway having been educated both places is that if you can get an education at a reasonably good school without debt, that is far more important than the relative prestige of the institution. If you get scholarships or your parents have the funds and you can go somewhere more prestigious without incurring debt, there is no reason not to -- certainly it can help on the margins.

But the sticker price of these schools, even Harvard/Yale/Stanford is not worth it if you need to finance it through the bank. In this day and age, having a college degree and zero debt is a huge gift. If you can get into Harvard, you can probably get a full-ride to a less prestigious school. I'd take the full ride in a heart beat. I wish I'd understood this when I decided to go to grad school. I worried my college degree wouldn't get me where I wanted to go, and didn't adequately consider how my grad school debt would close doors for me all by itself.

So yes, where you go matters. But it's not simply a question of going to the "best" school you can get into.

THIS. Unless you are fully committed to biglaw or i-banking, private loans are not worth it. At all.

[Anonymous]

I'm from the midwest and we would find if odd if a person lived here and went to an Ivy league school. Funny even. We all went to state schools, got jobs and no one cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a decent but not "elite" state university for college and graduated with no debt due to a combination of scholarships and in-state tuition. I then went to a very prestigious graduate program, for which I borrowed close to 100k to attend.

My takeaway having been educated both places is that if you can get an education at a reasonably good school without debt, that is far more important than the relative prestige of the institution. If you get scholarships or your parents have the funds and you can go somewhere more prestigious without incurring debt, there is no reason not to -- certainly it can help on the margins.

But the sticker price of these schools, even Harvard/Yale/Stanford is not worth it if you need to finance it through the bank. In this day and age, having a college degree and zero debt is a huge gift. If you can get into Harvard, you can probably get a full-ride to a less prestigious school. I'd take the full ride in a heart beat. I wish I'd understood this when I decided to go to grad school. I worried my college degree wouldn't get me where I wanted to go, and didn't adequately consider how my grad school debt would close doors for me all by itself.

So yes, where you go matters. But it's not simply a question of going to the "best" school you can get into.

Not always such a simple calculus. My aid package was much more generous at HYPS than at state school. But I did end up marrying someone from a state school! One of the deepest thinkers I've ever met.