Does where you go to college actually matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being privately educated is being privately educated. Regardless of income.

No it isn’t. There are crappy private universities and amazing public ones.

I'm going to guess you never tried both. I did.

Private elementary or high school is different than public school for a variety of reasons. It's not simply a comparison of rankings.

Private university education is different than public college for a variety of reasons. It's not simply a comparison of ratings.

I'm sorry you don't understand. Maybe you were not privately educated

??? I think you meant to respond to the other poster.

No.

Then you can’t read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only people who care about the prestige of a college are other people who... went to a prestigious college.

It's funny how much dick waving is happening in this thread.

With the exception of your first job out of college, when you look for futures jobs, those who are hiring are looking for your experience. Where you went to college might have influence but most are more interested in what your most recent job was. Oh, and if it looks like you would fit in to the office. Personality goes a long way.

And people out of highly selective colleges and universities have been vetted already. This is why Wall Street firms might need all of 2 hrs after an interview to call back with a six-figure job offer - all the while not bothering to recruit from lesser colleges and universities.

this wall street obsession is gen X striver mom cringe. zoomers dont even want to be bankers.

[Anonymous]

As long you go to a half-decent university, the rich (often private school) kids will always gravitate towards their own bubble and mix with each other. In that respect, the college doesn't really matter all that much, the ethos your kid is exposed to is basically the same. And frankly, if you're an unhooked white or Asian kid, the Ivies aren't even a realistic possibility. So let's be honest, you're not going to be looking at Yale vs. UVA you'll be lucky if you're looking at something like Northwestern vs. UVA, Georgetown vs. Maryland, VA Tech vs. UVA. You status-obsessed striver moms won't believe me, but I assure you nobody and I mean nobody gives a shit either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a pop-science guy (name escapes me at the moment) who said there was some data showing that the ranking of the college you went to was less important for your prospects than being in the top half of whichever college you ended up choosing.

Malcom Gladwell

He’s a Canadian. Canada doesn’t rank colleges and universities the way the USA and the U.K. do. When was the last time the U.K. prime minister didn’t graduate from oxford or Cambridge? Likewise in the US, Joe Biden made news not because he went to an ivy but because he’s a rare non-ivy prez.

[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.

This is how I think about it, too. The answer should take relationships and a network into consideration.

Harvard is mostly rich people so they already have major advantages.

[Anonymous]

Of course it does in that every life choice creates path dependency. A popular post-college paid internship for my college peers was with AEI, with whom we had a loose connection. That post-college choice, made easier or harder by where you went, can affect so much more later.

So, for a few years? Absolutely. But as I hire folks for jobs now, expecting 5-10 years of employment elsewhere? I barely even *look* at where the person went to undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Scalia once said the best clerk he ever had was a guy that went to Ohio State, but also that he never would have hired him because of that (he was a holdover from another judge).

Yeah, you probably won't clerk for the Supreme Court, but that doesn't Mena you can't be a great lawyer. But, for instance, ine of the top engineers I know when to his state school. What you do once you get there matters more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Not at all.

Maybe not Duke vs. Harvard or UVA vs. Duke, but you're saying it doesn't matter if you go to Harvard or Longwood? For real?

Longwood Average Salary After 10 Years
$43,200

Harvard Average Salary After 10 Years
$136,700

Haha! We look at this in the stats class I teach. Here you want to be looking at modal and not mean salary. At least some of the reason the mean is so high for Harvard is because a few individuals (like gates and sucked beef) end up skewing the mean. It's also high because of people who work in family businesses who are overpaid for their services by wealthy parents, including wealthy overseas families. This number is not a guarantee that YOU will make this salary if you are just a regular Joe.

This. It’s also a false dichotomy—no one is choosing between Harvard and Longwood. It would be better exercise to compare Longwood to JMU or Radford or CNU, or Harvard to Notre Dame. Radford and Harvard both serve separate, important purposes.

Relatively few would be choosing between UVA and Harvard and the few that would choose UVA would be athletes or perhaps Jefferson scholars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scalia once said the best clerk he ever had was a guy that went to Ohio State, but also that he never would have hired him because of that (he was a holdover from another judge).

Yeah, you probably won't clerk for the Supreme Court, but that doesn't Mena you can't be a great lawyer. But, for instance, ine of the top engineers I know when to his state school. What you do once you get there matters more.

Oh good lord! Ohio State! How ever will that poor person make it in life?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scalia once said the best clerk he ever had was a guy that went to Ohio State, but also that he never would have hired him because of that (he was a holdover from another judge).

Yeah, you probably won't clerk for the Supreme Court, but that doesn't Mena you can't be a great lawyer. But, for instance, ine of the top engineers I know when to his state school. What you do once you get there matters more.

Oh good lord! Ohio State! How ever will that poor person make it in life?!

Funny, I knew a guy from Ohio State. He would have thrown his family members under the bus for a promotion. If that’s what you have to do coming out of Ohio State, no thanks.

[Anonymous]

More prestigious schools tend to have students/alumni who are great contacts. It can be helpful in your career.

Your roommates dad will be the CEO of a company and so will they one day. Your classmates will go on to great grad programs or work at McKinsey and go on to do noteworthy and often newsworthy things.

You can do quite well without any of this but it depends what you want.

I lived in NYC and having a degree from a prestigious school helped me get a job in investment banking. Ultimately I hated it and I'm a stay at home mom now but I met my husband though work. That wouldn't have happened if I had gone to a different school.

[Anonymous]

It's all about opportunity an elite school affords you. The question should be asked like this instead: what percentage of the graduates of a top university makes top contributions in each graduate's field of interest?

For example, what is the chance that a physics student from U Michigan vs one from Harvard physics department would make a breakthrough discovery in their respective career?

Most of the graduates, no matter which school they came out from, will turn out to be mediocre, but some will be brilliant. Those who graduated from a top school will have better chance to be the first rate brilliant. That's the difference, a higher chance to be great. You just need to look how many supreme court justices are from Harvard and Yale, compared to how many are from other schools. It is same story in other field for other top schools as well. Chance of success is the key word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's all about opportunity an elite school affords you. The question should be asked like this instead: what percentage of the graduates of a top university makes top contributions in each graduate's field of interest?

For example, what is the chance that a physics student from U Michigan vs one from Harvard physics department would make a breakthrough discovery in their respective career?

Most of the graduates, no matter which school they came out from, will turn out to be mediocre, but some will be brilliant. Those who graduated from a top school will have better chance to be the first rate brilliant. That's the difference, a higher chance to be great. You just need to look how many supreme court justices are from Harvard and Yale, compared to how many are from other schools. It is same story in other field for other top schools as well. Chance of success is the key word.

Uhh I think the chance is pretty similar for both Umich and Harvard physics grads. You should've picked a generic state school for that example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More prestigious schools tend to have students/alumni who are great contacts. It can be helpful in your career.

Your roommates dad will be the CEO of a company and so will they one day. Your classmates will go on to great grad programs or work at McKinsey and go on to do noteworthy and often newsworthy things.

You can do quite well without any of this but it depends what you want.

I lived in NYC and having a degree from a prestigious school helped me get a job in investment banking. Ultimately I hated it and I'm a stay at home mom now but I met my husband though work. That wouldn't have happened if I had gone to a different school.

Troll. Same variation of the same posts over and over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's all about opportunity an elite school affords you. The question should be asked like this instead: what percentage of the graduates of a top university makes top contributions in each graduate's field of interest?

For example, what is the chance that a physics student from U Michigan vs one from Harvard physics department would make a breakthrough discovery in their respective career?

Most of the graduates, no matter which school they came out from, will turn out to be mediocre, but some will be brilliant. Those who graduated from a top school will have better chance to be the first rate brilliant. That's the difference, a higher chance to be great. You just need to look how many supreme court justices are from Harvard and Yale, compared to how many are from other schools. It is same story in other field for other top schools as well. Chance of success is the key word.

History amply demonstrates that Supreme Court Justices typically are not chosen for their brilliance.