Are you ever secretly jealous of people with degrees from elite private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, my spouse went to no name schools and makes more than my sibling doctor who went to ivys.

I guess for me, it's not really about the money. It's about all the vague, ambiguous things, like class and pedigree. I don't necessarily like that I think this way, but I do. You can fake a lot of things in life, like the ability to buy luxury brands or nice clothing or an expensive watch, or certain affectations. But education? You can't fake that.

Columbia was literally caught faking rankings, and 1/3rd of their students come in through the General Studies backdoor. Definitely fakeable.

What does it mean "the General Studies backdoor" ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm moderately successful, I would like to think. I'm by and large happy and stable. I have a degree from a public school that, for the most part, hasn't been a disservice to my career. My college experience, many years ago at this point, was fine (no highs or lows). I feel like I came into my own after college, where I was fortunate to fall in with a circle of brilliant friends and acquaintances. Here's the thing. They all have degrees from from Yale, Stanford, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Columbia, UChicago, etc. ... and I am literally the only one who graduated from your average run-of-the-mill school. Although they never make it a point to alienate me, I do definitely feel like the odd duckling out at times, and can't help but feel a little bit jealous at points.

Anyone have this experience, too, or am I crazy?

Not jealous of their degrees. I am sure though I would have gone much further in life (including my personal life) if my parents had been more well educated. My father was blue color. They jumped at the first scholarship I was offered (from a very mediocre school). My test scores were off the charts but we did not even make a list or consider good schools. They were just so glad my college was paid for.

I probably could have gotten a full ride to an Ivy, which would have set me on a whole different path (in terms of dating, etc), but they did not even know what to aim for. Oh well.

My twin brother and I come from very poor and desperate circumstances. Father completely abandoned the family and mother had addiction problems and never worked. We both went to college on athletic scholarship. While competing at the top level of Division 1 had its benefits, athletic scholarships are from ideal in any number of respects. For students without any parental support, it is a difficult means of survival. Can't work part time during the year, and so on. Plus, because athletic scholarships are one year deals, renewable at the discretion of the athletic department, the reality is that athletics are always the first priority. Even being All-ACC offered limited comfort for renewal. The corruption in athletics and the academic breaks given athletes are disturbing - less so at the school I attended but still a depressing factor. I went to Duke, a poor choice socially for a poor kid but the education within the classroom was excellent. My twin went to UNC. I was a good student, but my brother found the scenario at UNC to his liking. He was a math major, a 4.0 gpa, Phi Beta Kappa and so on. This demonstrates the silliness of chasing prestige. My twin went on to obtain a Phd in Econ from a highly ranked public school and is a well known investor and money manager. I went on to law school and with the majority of law schools in the top ten in the rankings being private schools. well, I spent a lot of money to get a private school degree with some so-called prestige behind it. The education quality was no different than lower ranked schools, and if you want to live in a courtroom, maybe not the best choice. Lawyers however do care deeply about which law school you attend. The NY firm I worked for only hired from a very small list of law schools, and demanded top 5 percent of the class. I thought it was silly but that is what it took to get on with them. Not sure the big law firm thing was all that great but it did give me the background to enter into a field which I really enjoy. Both my twin and I incurred no debt in connection our educations. Very lucky - especially given our circumstances. We needless to say spoiled our kids, and in my case my kids went to higher ranked schools than Duke.

I am grateful to Duke but turned down Big 10 offers (which I regret). (I just couldn't turn down Duke, which along with Stanford offered to my immature mind the most valuable athletic scholarship in the nation. Just not a good reason to choose a school). Socially the Big 10 schools would have been much more accepting to me - I was looked down upon as an outcast at Duke. Moreover, Duke doesn't typically prepare you well for anything but more school, a challenging thing for a poor person. I was in an honors program which I really did not deserve to get in (the athletic thing again), and every single one of us - 11 in total - went on to graduate school. A significant number went to Harvard or Yale - certainly not for me as I was lucky just to graduate with my health intact and with a plan to do something other than teaching or coaching - a fine profession by the way but not one for my skill set. I went to the "worst" ranked graduate school of the bunch! I look at these prestige schools as not a very good value for most - those who can pay might see things differently. When you get beyond the social posturing, the key is to get the most out of the school you attend. Big state flagship schools offer so many resources for the ambitious and focused student.

[Anonymous]

My spouse and I have degrees from the schools you list and it's not anything to envy. Does it impress strangers at a cocktail party - absolutely. Does it matter in terms of career advancement - probably not any more so than a state flagship with terrific network. Nothing to be envious of.

[Anonymous]

I'm jealous of my neighbor with Porsche 911

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I have degrees from the schools you list and it's not anything to envy. Does it impress strangers at a cocktail party - absolutely. Does it matter in terms of career advancement - probably not any more so than a state flagship with terrific network. Nothing to be envious of.

I have multiple ivy league degrees (undergrad, m.s., ph.d.) and it's never occurred to me that this would "impress strangers at a cocktail party." In fact among the thousands of ivy league grads I know/have known, I don't think any of them gives their pedigree a second thought - maybe only when they're putting their resume/CV together for a new job! If there is any feeling of a discrepancy between state schools and elite private schools I don't think it's on the part of the ivy folks (unless they are a total dick)

[Anonymous]

Never thought about it. So no.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm moderately successful, I would like to think. I'm by and large happy and stable. I have a degree from a public school that, for the most part, hasn't been a disservice to my career. My college experience, many years ago at this point, was fine (no highs or lows). I feel like I came into my own after college, where I was fortunate to fall in with a circle of brilliant friends and acquaintances. Here's the thing. They all have degrees from from Yale, Stanford, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Columbia, UChicago, etc. ... and I am literally the only one who graduated from your average run-of-the-mill school. Although they never make it a point to alienate me, I do definitely feel like the odd duckling out at times, and can't help but feel a little bit jealous at points.

Anyone have this experience, too, or am I crazy?

Never!!! I don't think about it, other than maybe the cost and the school loans they likely have. There are plenty of highly-educated fools on the planet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Harvard, approximately 30% of the enrolled students are legacies. While regular applicants have a 3-6% admittance rate, legacies have a 30+% admittance rate.

Schools tend to guard their legacy figures tightly, but this was revealed during the lawsuit at Harvard. I believe that all schools should drop legacy preference.

I recall an interview with Sebastian Thrun, who started Udacity and was a professor at Stanford. He opened up his online graduate level computer science course at Stanford to everyone in the world. He had thousands of students. When he finished all of the grades, he realized that his best graduate CS student at Stanford ranked something like #1040 in the class. The adage that there is more talent than opportunity is true.

I would agree to that if you could also tell me how you can fund the school for its long term financial health so that it can maintain the resources for its research advantage and a significant number of poor family kids can have the opportunities to go to the school without paying.
Don't just imagine a world in ideal terms, think the premises practical as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Harvard, approximately 30% of the enrolled students are legacies. While regular applicants have a 3-6% admittance rate, legacies have a 30+% admittance rate.

Schools tend to guard their legacy figures tightly, but this was revealed during the lawsuit at Harvard. I believe that all schools should drop legacy preference.

I recall an interview with Sebastian Thrun, who started Udacity and was a professor at Stanford. He opened up his online graduate level computer science course at Stanford to everyone in the world. He had thousands of students. When he finished all of the grades, he realized that his best graduate CS student at Stanford ranked something like #1040 in the class. The adage that there is more talent than opportunity is true.

I would agree to that if you could also tell me how you can fund the school for its long term financial health so that it can maintain the resources for its research advantage and a significant number of poor family kids can have the opportunities to go to the school without paying.
Don't just imagine a world in ideal terms, think the premises practical as well.

The research does not show a significant relationship between alumni giving and legacy preference.

http://production.tcf.org.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/app/uploads/2016/03/08201915/2010-09-15-chapter_5.pdf

It is a false assumption that getting rid of legacy preference will result in lower giving. Several universities have gotten rid of legacy admissions within the last decade or so and have not seen a drop off in alumni giving.

[Anonymous]

NOT jealous of people with degrees from Columbia, Chicago, or Northwestern.

In general, admire those people with degrees from Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, or UPenn.

[Anonymous]

I went to Stanford. I have great admiration for people who went to the military academies. To me, they totally kick butt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NOT jealous of people with degrees from Columbia, Chicago, or Northwestern.

In general, admire those people with degrees from Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, or UPenn.

LOL. Hello, UPenn booster.

[Anonymous]

I’m worried about being an outcast for not going to one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m worried about being an outcast for not going to one

This is ironic. As a poor person. I felt like an outcast going to Duke. It was unnerving to see students with cars paid for, no worries about food or having enough to eat, and boondoggles in Europe. If you can navigate them, well regarded flagships offer a ton of opportunities and a plan to get the most out of them makes sense,