My child attends an elite college. It is overrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard will forever be the most elite but it isn’t the right school for everyone. All others schools will move up and down in the elite list, and so, the most important factor is fit. Rankings isn’t important, experience is!

What if I major in Art and Film at Harvard

Aren’t there some Oscar winning actors who went there? Harvard is a great degree to have even if you do not succeed in your first career. I don’t have a Harvard degree but I am humble enough to recognize that their degree worth a lot. Sure for film people, they think USC is better, but as I wrote before, the fit is more important. If you don’t think you will be Spielberg, then it is better to have a Harvard degree. That is assuming you can get in.

They were actors and then went to Harvard, then back to acting. They did not go to Harvard out of high school and then become actors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

Your writing is atrocious and you apparently have no idea what the liberal arts actually are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

Your writing is atrocious and you apparently have no idea what the liberal arts actually are.

Sorry I left out a 0. Meant to say $50,000.
Just gooled it and
"According to Payscale.com, entry-level HR Managers with less than five years of experience are paid $51,000 on average. During their mid-career, they see their average salary rising to $62,000."

This is if they get lucky to land a HR position at some good company.
Average salary is expceced to be lower with a liberal arts degree. Dont' get mad at the facts.

[Anonymous]

Also googled;

"A liberal arts degree includes the study of history, literature, writing, philosophy, sociology, psychology, creative arts and more. Liberal arts programs are designed to help you formulate compelling arguments, communicate well and solve problems."

I think my idea was pretty on target.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a former immigrant (went back to my home country because US is completely insane and in precipitous decline) I will note that this whole college as a brand charade is a very American thing. Americans will spend 99% of their time discussing college culture and brands, and is this particular school exactly as much elite as that one, and then they will spend 1% discussing majors. they will let their kids study garbage and feel they should not say anything about it despite burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Truer words have never been spoken. And, I am born in the USA.

I know, look at Oxford and Cambridge, everyone there majors in STEM. No stupid literature majors there . . .

funny you came up with that example when those schools have nothing in common with US universities. you are admitted to study particular subject and everyone knows it coming in, and you are prepared accordingly or you wouldn't be admitted in the first place. unlike in the US where you waste two years exploring and taking random classes.

[Anonymous]

Parents helicopter over kids to get them into “top tier” schools and then completely drop the ball when it comes to helping them choose a lucrative or “impressive” field of study. If you are going to go through all the trouble of hovering over your child so they get into Harvard, why would you pay for them to study interpretive dance?

I’m more impressed by a kid in a pre med program at a mid tier school than a kid studying creative writing at an ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a former immigrant (went back to my home country because US is completely insane and in precipitous decline) I will note that this whole college as a brand charade is a very American thing. Americans will spend 99% of their time discussing college culture and brands, and is this particular school exactly as much elite as that one, and then they will spend 1% discussing majors. they will let their kids study garbage and feel they should not say anything about it despite burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Truer words have never been spoken. And, I am born in the USA.

I know, look at Oxford and Cambridge, everyone there majors in STEM. No stupid literature majors there . . .

funny you came up with that example when those schools have nothing in common with US universities. you are admitted to study particular subject and everyone knows it coming in, and you are prepared accordingly or you wouldn't be admitted in the first place. unlike in the US where you waste two years exploring and taking random classes.

Of course they don't. In the US, we "let their kids study garbage". It's not about variety. It simply that some majors are garbage and others are not. It's blessing that this only occurs in the US and at quality non-US schools like Oxford and Cambridge, no one majors in something garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents helicopter over kids to get them into “top tier” schools and then completely drop the ball when it comes to helping them choose a lucrative or “impressive” field of study. If you are going to go through all the trouble of hovering over your child so they get into Harvard, why would you pay for them to study interpretive dance?

I’m more impressed by a kid in a pre med program at a mid tier school than a kid studying creative writing at an ivy.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a former immigrant (went back to my home country because US is completely insane and in precipitous decline) I will note that this whole college as a brand charade is a very American thing. Americans will spend 99% of their time discussing college culture and brands, and is this particular school exactly as much elite as that one, and then they will spend 1% discussing majors. they will let their kids study garbage and feel they should not say anything about it despite burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Truer words have never been spoken. And, I am born in the USA.

I know, look at Oxford and Cambridge, everyone there majors in STEM. No stupid literature majors there . . .

funny you came up with that example when those schools have nothing in common with US universities. you are admitted to study particular subject and everyone knows it coming in, and you are prepared accordingly or you wouldn't be admitted in the first place. unlike in the US where you waste two years exploring and taking random classes.

Of course they don't. In the US, we "let their kids study garbage". It's not about variety. It simply that some majors are garbage and others are not. It's blessing that this only occurs in the US and at quality non-US schools like Oxford and Cambridge, no one majors in something garbage.

Not sure what you are trying to say but there is a big difference between British and American universities and the way parents and children approach them. Nowhere else in the world is college decision-making so similar to choosing vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a former immigrant (went back to my home country because US is completely insane and in precipitous decline) I will note that this whole college as a brand charade is a very American thing. Americans will spend 99% of their time discussing college culture and brands, and is this particular school exactly as much elite as that one, and then they will spend 1% discussing majors. they will let their kids study garbage and feel they should not say anything about it despite burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Truer words have never been spoken. And, I am born in the USA.

I know, look at Oxford and Cambridge, everyone there majors in STEM. No stupid literature majors there . . .

funny you came up with that example when those schools have nothing in common with US universities. you are admitted to study particular subject and everyone knows it coming in, and you are prepared accordingly or you wouldn't be admitted in the first place. unlike in the US where you waste two years exploring and taking random classes.

Of course they don't. In the US, we "let their kids study garbage". It's not about variety. It simply that some majors are garbage and others are not. It's blessing that this only occurs in the US and at quality non-US schools like Oxford and Cambridge, no one majors in something garbage.

Not sure what you are trying to say but there is a big difference between British and American universities and the way parents and children approach them. Nowhere else in the world is college decision-making so similar to choosing vacation.

Just look at the post above. There is no value to learning anything that isn’t pre-professional or STEM. And that’s a uniquely American problem, so obviously no one at Oxford, Cambridge or any other reputable non US university must be studying such garbage topics. Why even let your kid apply to Cambridge to read literature. What a waste.

[Anonymous]

yeah, you don't go to cambridge to study literature. the time to study literature is high school and even middle school. after that, you read literature for fun. you don't major in literature. not because it is not important, but because you are not good enough to make living doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yeah, you don't go to cambridge to study literature. the time to study literature is high school and even middle school. after that, you read literature for fun. you don't major in literature. not because it is not important, but because you are not good enough to make living doing it.

Of course, no Oxbridge student ever studied Shakespeare...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard will forever be the most elite but it isn’t the right school for everyone. All others schools will move up and down in the elite list, and so, the most important factor is fit. Rankings isn’t important, experience is!

What if I major in Art and Film at Harvard

Aren’t there some Oscar winning actors who went there? Harvard is a great degree to have even if you do not succeed in your first career. I don’t have a Harvard degree but I am humble enough to recognize that their degree worth a lot. Sure for film people, they think USC is better, but as I wrote before, the fit is more important. If you don’t think you will be Spielberg, then it is better to have a Harvard degree. That is assuming you can get in.

They were actors and then went to Harvard, then back to acting. They did not go to Harvard out of high school and then become actors.

false. Also a loft of the most gifted actors we recognize came out of the Yale drama school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yeah, you don't go to cambridge to study literature. the time to study literature is high school and even middle school. after that, you read literature for fun. you don't major in literature. not because it is not important, but because you are not good enough to make living doing it.

Of course, no Oxbridge student ever studied Shakespeare...

Hush. Don’t ruin the narrative!