HYPSM/Elite School Alums - What has been the downside of your degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:potential downsides or costs of attending such a school.

I am reluctant to post here, because of hate from envious disbelievers. But I attended Frostburg State, and did a masters degree at Old Dominion. It is awkward socially, because it intimidates people. Some people even pretend they don't know where these universities are located.

Women are particularly nonplussed. The proud career-climbing feminists are just dumbfounded that a man has two degrees they cannot match, and refuse to date me.

But the worst ones are the phony people who congratulate me with an obsequious smile. I can tell they they insincere, and are really dying inside.

I feel your pain, brother. I have one of those master’s degrees in business from Central Michigan University that they offered on remote military bases around the world decades ago.

The biggest problem I’ve run into is getting potential employers to take me seriously. It’s like they wonder why someone with such a credential would bother with their company. And rather than suffer the humiliation of being used as a temporary landing spot while I plot my next career move, they seem to prefer to not hire me at all.

Despite the drawbacks of having such a degree, it’s all kind of worth it to qualify for membership on those dating sites for people with elite degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Legacy is a blessing and a curse. If your dc gets in due to legacy, people assume it was just because of legacy. If they don’t get in, people assume the Ivy degree isn’t what it used to be.

This. And the resentment that builds when your kids - even if truly brilliant - fail to gain admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:potential downsides or costs of attending such a school.

I am reluctant to post here, because of hate from envious disbelievers. But I attended Frostburg State, and did a masters degree at Old Dominion. It is awkward socially, because it intimidates people. Some people even pretend they don't know where these universities are located.

Women are particularly nonplussed. The proud career-climbing feminists are just dumbfounded that a man has two degrees they cannot match, and refuse to date me.

But the worst ones are the phony people who congratulate me with an obsequious smile. I can tell they they insincere, and are really dying inside.

Thank you for illustrating so well what many of the HYPSM alums have shared.

A few years back, Conan O’Brien said that as soon as you leave the Ivy gates, everyone out there is going to hate you because you went to Harvard. He was joking, of course, but I have found this to be largely true.

I don’t know what it is but mentioning that you went to one of these schools really triggers something in people.

[Anonymous]

Really enlightening reading this. Will make my kid read this since he is very likely getting rejected on Ivy day.

[Anonymous]

I love all the comments from 11/17/2023 2:54 on down. LOL.

I went to Harvard and Harvard Business School and you got the attitude exactly right! Thank you !!! You remind me of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" the first satire I ever read.

[Anonymous]

I felt like I was “supposed” to choose.a lucrative career but wanted to be a teacher or a speech pathologist. I knew others kind of thought that was strange. Corporate recruiting was intense but I remember feeling like there was little career and postgrad guidance for someone with my interests. I was so confused I interviewed with Smith Barney and Bain and BCG even thought I wasn’t interested in finance or consulting. I even took a consulting job, I think because I didn’t feel I had other options at the time! When I finally found my way to education, I’d get comments like “you must be a smarty pants.” It didn’t feel kind or well-meaning. In retrospect, I got a fantastic education and I did eventually figure it out. But it makes absolutely no difference that I went to HYP. My peers went to places like Frostburg State and JMU and Delaware and St Mary’s etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Graduate schools esp. law & medical schools boast how many different colleges their students come from. Harvard Medical School loves saying how their students come from 200 different colleges. It’s a geographic, religious, ethnic & economy diversity thing.

If you’re at a HYPSM undergrad expect to have to find somewhere else to go for grad school.

Um, not true. I didn't go to Yale Law but had a friend who did and I used to attend parties there. It seemed like most of her classmates went to top schools' (she went to Princeton). The people who went to UMich and the like really felt out of place and were always making comments about it. It's hard to go to parties in your 20s and be one of the few who didn't go to an Ivy or Stanford.

Lol. You were going to the wrong parties. (Ours were better.)

[Anonymous]

T10 Alum from 1990 . Zero downside! All up. “Feeder” to med/law and great jobs , even the bottom half kids got into med and top law or good paying jobs. Lifetime best friends, connections, and ability to be nerdy/intellectual and have fun.
As a formerly poor white kid it changed my life. Admit it or not, elite schools do open doors and are often the best fit for the ambitious brainy kids.

[Anonymous]

Is UVA considered elite

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is UVA considered elite

no

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In many jobs it’s better to have gone to a local school. I.e. if you’re applying to law firms in Houston, they’d rather a U of Houston law grad with a specialization in oil & gas than a Yale Law grad. Having local connections & knowing the local culture of where you want to work matters a ton.

In Texas people are neither interested nor impressed by out of state school. They've dozens of low cost and high quality great state schools and prefer their own graduates. For example, medical schools limit out of state applicants to 10%, 90% seats are for residents.

They don't particularly know or care much about their own elite private schools, even though Rice, SMU and Baylor are highly ranked. UT and A&M cults are strong because they are huge and have dozens of satellites campuses on top of huge flagships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is UVA considered elite

Its #24 in the nation. It's very, very, very good. I think people consider HPYSM elite. And then tier down from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is UVA considered elite

Its #24 in the nation. It's very, very, very good. I think people consider HPYSM elite. And then tier down from there.

It's in the Georgetown, U Mich, U Chicago type tier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People with hiring power aren’t keen on hiring job applicants from schools that rejected their child.

More so if kid was discriminated against because of race or class, which is a common and proven historic practice at ivy institutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People with hiring power aren’t keen on hiring job applicants from schools that rejected their child.

More so if kid was discriminated against because of race or class, which is a common and proven historic practice at ivy institutions.

Historically, blacks, jews, Asians have been discriminated against because Ivies like to do social engineering.