What an Ivy league education gets you - the Atlantic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

bingo.

Parent of a current Ivy student who describes all of his classmates as "cracked" and says it has made him better.

Same. It can cause angst but boy does it push them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

This is it, it’s not the same despite what everyone wants to believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

Eh. Given admission priorities these days, the Ivy League ain't all that in 2026. For smart + emotional IQ, there are a lot of other schools, as everyone who has toured universities over the past three years has discerned. The Harvard Man is a myth today. Things have changed a lot.

Disagree. Ivy leagues are all test required now. Of course they have institutional priorities, but they all submit scores. The majority of other schools are test optional, AND give the same if not more preference to priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a bunch of new ivies including Emory, Vandy, Rice. They can simulate a similar environment.

Ha, nope. Look at parchment match ups, while those are great schools, they are full of kids who didn't get into an Ivy and would have picked it if they had.

My Emory kid toured a couple Ivies but really wasn’t interested and didn’t apply to any. Emory checked off their boxes- warm weather, urban, global, diverse student body. I won’t pretend that Emory (or its peers) are just as selective or prestigious as the Ivies because they’re not. However, not everyone at Emory is wishing they were at an Ivy.

Which in turn is part of why Emory (and similar) will never be in the group of ivy+: the concentration of the highly-driven super smart kids is not as high there. And that's ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

Eh. Given admission priorities these days, the Ivy League ain't all that in 2026. For smart + emotional IQ, there are a lot of other schools, as everyone who has toured universities over the past three years has discerned. The Harvard Man is a myth today. Things have changed a lot.

Disagree. Ivy leagues are all test required now. Of course they have institutional priorities, but they all submit scores. The majority of other schools are test optional, AND give the same if not more preference to priorities.

Columbia remains TO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

Eh. Given admission priorities these days, the Ivy League ain't all that in 2026. For smart + emotional IQ, there are a lot of other schools, as everyone who has toured universities over the past three years has discerned. The Harvard Man is a myth today. Things have changed a lot.

Disagree. Ivy leagues are all test required now. Of course they have institutional priorities, but they all submit scores. The majority of other schools are test optional, AND give the same if not more preference to priorities.

+1 The blip of test-optional admissions affected the students who started college fall '21, fall'22, and fall'23. That's it. The supreme court racial discrimination ruling went into effect after class that started fall'23 was admitted. Half of these three years are graduated or about to. One more year left. It is a tiny blip on the radar in the grad scheme, and to be honest has made it a bit easier to stand out in college, for those unhooked ivy+ kids who got in on their own merit those years.

[Anonymous]

The study findings are what I intuitively would have said was the thing an elite institution gets you. I was a small town girl from a MC high school. Living in a dorm with heiresses and UMC girls acclimated me to the life I lived "ever after."

[Anonymous]

I’m curious is these percentages include grad school when they say xyz percent of Fortune 500 or NYT journalists attended Ivies. Because both HBS and Columbia J-school have big grad programs. Jamie Dimon went to Tufts for undergrad and HBS for grad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious is these percentages include grad school when they say xyz percent of Fortune 500 or NYT journalists attended Ivies. Because both HBS and Columbia J-school have big grad programs. Jamie Dimon went to Tufts for undergrad and HBS for grad.

And to add onto my thoughts - some of the most successful and driven people I have met in the workplace have been a) veterans and b) first-generation grads from public schools with a chip on their shoulder. Though, I’m sure it’s different for more technical fields. I think Ivy+ has a higher percent of driven students than other schools, but there are these types at many colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

And a critial concentration has be reached to get the effects described in the article. Below that critical concentration, it rarely happens.
Ivies are the ones (most likely only ones) exceeding this critical concentration.

[Anonymous]

At least half of Ivy grads have normal/typical lives. The ones you hear about are the smart AND rabidly ambitious ones. Zuckerberg didn’t get his ambition from Harvard. What he got from Harvard/classmates was an idea and the pathway to fund it. And then, there were years more work away from Harvard to make Facebook/Meta what it is today. If your kid is going to Harvard with no real direction, a lack of ambition to change the world or be the very best at what they do, they’re not going to be a standout alumni. Brains and a good school are not sufficient for notable success. You need big ambition, lots of grit, and a network that will fund you. If you have it all, sure the Harvard environment is better than a top state school, but for many it won’t make any difference at all.

[Anonymous]

You guys aren't getting it. It's the expectations you develop for yourself and what your life will be like that matters long after you graduate. Yes, you work hard, are challenged academically. But that's not all. You learn how people from more successful backgrounds think and act. How smarter and academically more accomplished people think and act. You change.
--small town girl from MC high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

And a critial concentration has be reached to get the effects described in the article. Below that critical concentration, it rarely happens.
Ivies are the ones (most likely only ones) exceeding this critical concentration.

If it’s about a “critical concentration,” why wouldn’t an even smaller school be even better (more concentrated)? And shouldn’t it be possible to quantify and measure the concentration? I’d like to know if, as you suggest, a school that is merely at 99.99% of the “critical concentration” truly gets absolutely no benefit. Because my suspicion would be that things are not as black-and-white as that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys aren't getting it. It's the expectations you develop for yourself and what your life will be like that matters long after you graduate. Yes, you work hard, are challenged academically. But that's not all. You learn how people from more successful backgrounds think and act. How smarter and academically more accomplished people think and act. You change.
--small town girl from MC high school

But not everyone is a small town girl from a MC high school. All those people you met at an Ivy, they went to high school somewhere. For people who already met them in high school, what’s the benefit of the Ivy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the article is getting at is that smart people with emotional intelligence go far. Basing that conclusion on Ivy schools is a little reductive however. It's a very outdated metric. There are bright students with a high emotional IQ at all sorts of schools in 2026.

But peer group and good manners do matter of course - as they have since the beginning of time. Not exactly rocket science.

The metric is the concentration of these people. Far fewer in other schools.

bingo.

Parent of a current Ivy student who describes all of his classmates as "cracked" and says it has made him better.

Same. It can cause angst but boy does it push them all.

My Ivy kid is actually surprised by how unimpressive many of their classmates are--can't do math, can't write, etc