What’s the point of going to a top school if you end up in the same place as someone who didn’t

[Anonymous]

There can be a significant financial advantage to getting into a very competitive private University for a middle income or lower income student.Some of these top schools are extremely generous with tuition and housing assistance. If you can get yourself an admit, you can end up getting a really good education for a lower price than you would pay at other schools that are not as well endowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your alumni network is different. Your potential pool of SOs/life partners is different. Your enjoyment of the learning may be different.

I never understand this comment. The median age for college educated people to get married these days is 30 (and even higher among those with advanced degrees). The odds these days that you are meeting a life partner in college are low.

Cream of the crop marry in their 20s. The leftovers scrabble in their 30s to marry what’s left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your alumni network is different. Your potential pool of SOs/life partners is different. Your enjoyment of the learning may be different.

I never understand this comment. The median age for college educated people to get married these days is 30 (and even higher among those with advanced degrees). The odds these days that you are meeting a life partner in college are low.

Cream of the crop marry in their 20s. The leftovers scrabble in their 30s to marry what’s left.

Not completely true. But it's harder to find a good life partner on Tinder than in your college classes at university.

[Anonymous]

It's remarkable how people draw strong inferences from anecdotes. I see doctors doing this too, in matters of life and death. "I had one patient who..." Personal knowledge skews our conclusions.

So yeah you know this one kid from Skidmore who's a CEO, but come on people, do you really think going to a worse school doesn't reduce your odds of success? Why wouldn't you try to do the best you could at every step of the way?

It's a bit like arguing with vaccine skeptics. Vaccines are a public health necessity. But the people you're arguing with are, almost definitionally, not geniuses. You have to make the case, but you need to rely on repetition and appeals to emotion, not reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your alumni network is different. Your potential pool of SOs/life partners is different. Your enjoyment of the learning may be different.

I never understand this comment. The median age for college educated people to get married these days is 30 (and even higher among those with advanced degrees). The odds these days that you are meeting a life partner in college are low.

Cream of the crop marry in their 20s. The leftovers scrabble in their 30s to marry what’s left.

Not completely true. But it's harder to find a good life partner on Tinder than in your college classes at university.

As if those are the only two options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's remarkable how people draw strong inferences from anecdotes. I see doctors doing this too, in matters of life and death. "I had one patient who..." Personal knowledge skews our conclusions.

So yeah you know this one kid from Skidmore who's a CEO, but come on people, do you really think going to a worse school doesn't reduce your odds of success? Why wouldn't you try to do the best you could at every step of the way?

It's a bit like arguing with vaccine skeptics. Vaccines are a public health necessity. But the people you're arguing with are, almost definitionally, not geniuses. You have to make the case, but you need to rely on repetition and appeals to emotion, not reason.

No, your college does not reduce your odds of success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's remarkable how people draw strong inferences from anecdotes. I see doctors doing this too, in matters of life and death. "I had one patient who..." Personal knowledge skews our conclusions.

So yeah you know this one kid from Skidmore who's a CEO, but come on people, do you really think going to a worse school doesn't reduce your odds of success? Why wouldn't you try to do the best you could at every step of the way?

It's a bit like arguing with vaccine skeptics. Vaccines are a public health necessity. But the people you're arguing with are, almost definitionally, not geniuses. You have to make the case, but you need to rely on repetition and appeals to emotion, not reason.

You seem to think going to what you consider a "top school" is "best" for everyone. That is simply false.

[Anonymous]

There is no point. I worked the same job at a higher salary than a bunch of my colleagues who went to an expensive college and continued on to overpriced, pointless advanced degrees. I was still better than them at what we did. It all depends on the person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your alumni network is different. Your potential pool of SOs/life partners is different. Your enjoyment of the learning may be different.

I never understand this comment. The median age for college educated people to get married these days is 30 (and even higher among those with advanced degrees). The odds these days that you are meeting a life partner in college are low.

Cream of the crop marry in their 20s. The leftovers scrabble in their 30s to marry what’s left.

Not completely true. But it's harder to find a good life partner on Tinder than in your college classes at university.

LOL not true at all. I pray my kids don't find their partner at 20. Way too young to know what you're doing.

[Anonymous]

If you have the means to pay for the IVY with out debt it will always be worth it.

Say you go to medical school and you are Harvard, Yale, etc trained. And you decide to make a career move or say you work for the government and opt to go back in to private practice. The Harvard trained doctor is always going to be given a leg up vs. the doctor from another school.

If you’re smart enough to be educated at an IVY you stand above the others. Even if only on paper. It opens doors.

It provides the ability to meet and marry a spouse who will be at an earning level well above others.

Membership has its benefits.

[Anonymous]

It matters for the tippy top jobs in the most selective careers.

For middle management or lower, it does not matter. If your kid wants to be a teacher, it does not matter. If your kid wants to be an academia, it likely does not matter either since graduate school is more dispositive. To be a SWE, it doesn’t matter.

If your goal is to be a titan of Wall Street, it absolutely helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your alumni network is different. Your potential pool of SOs/life partners is different. Your enjoyment of the learning may be different.

I never understand this comment. The median age for college educated people to get married these days is 30 (and even higher among those with advanced degrees). The odds these days that you are meeting a life partner in college are low.

Cream of the crop marry in their 20s. The leftovers scrabble in their 30s to marry what’s left.

I agree with this! It was true when I was in college 30 years ago and it's true now. I see it amongst my staff - most have PhDs, some MS in STEM field. The Ines that come in married are just.....better.... better looking, better background, smarter, etc.....the ones that go on the hunt until their 30s usually have some social-emotional issues. I know it's an unpopular idea, but it's true.

Now the ones that get married in their late teens or early 20s are different still. These are usually primed for a life of instability.

Mid to late 20s is optimal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid wants to be an academia, it likely does not matter either since graduate school is more dispositive.

Graduate schools see a 4.0 from non-flagship state school applicants the same as a 4.0 from HYPSM?

[Anonymous]

Vaccination or seatbelt analogies in this thread don't make any sense given this context.
If you can afford a particular college and your DC likes it, go for it. But if you're shopping for future friends or worse, a spous, at particular colleges, my condolences to your future generations for having shallow, low-quality ancestors.
If your DC wants to go to grad school, choose an undergraduate institution that's affordable and enjoyable, so they don't spend their entire youth buried in education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to depend on what you want to study and your value system.

I’m in medicine and literally does not matter what school. Many colleagues who went to Ivy for undergrad didn’t like their experience. Maybe ivy is good for careers PP posted- consulting, banking, PE, Wall Street)

For my super high stats kid, I still stress fit and vibe and opportunities for their interests.
For my above avg kid, I won’t make them kill themselves in HS. This is life too. Life is not just in the future.

I will admit that I don’t understand the operations of medicine at all.

My kid was admitted to Georgetown hospital and other than the attending in the ER, not one of the four other doctors that saw my kid even attended a US medical school.

They weren’t Caribbean schools…but European or Indian. None I would even remotely recognize.

This is so weird. Were you asking each doctor you saw what school they went to?

I look up where my doctors went to med school. I have complicated medical history, and the phone it in Caribbean doctors always get my case wrong.

+1

Anyone would be an idiot not to research their doctor’s background.