Elite colleges matter less that you think
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Anonymous
Ahem. I did not miss the point. Rather, I was asking: if it's true that Ivy leaguers never have to explain how smart they are, how come some of them think that they gave to explain how smart they are? You take yourself awfully seriously. You must be an Ivy League grad. 
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Anonymous
| ^^think that they *have* to. |
Anonymous
~snicker~ |
Anonymous
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I’m not sure what you think I think, but I think anyone who thinks an Ivy League degree is a free pass through life is incredibly naïve. An Ivy League degree will open doors right after college/grad school for that first job. After 5 years or so in a career, the value of the degree approaches meaningless. If you haven’t demonstrated excellence, your mediocrity will reinforce the belief expressed frequently here that Ivy League credentials don’t mean much.
From the long term perspective, the value of an Ivy League degree should be that you receive an extraordinary education and develop important connections, which should help throughout life. But if you fail to nurture those connections and acquire the academic credential at the expense of becoming well rounded you’ll be facing headwinds throughout your career. We’ve all met our share of disgruntled Ivy League grads who just can’t understand why things aren’t working out as they are “supposed to” for Ivy League grads. This frustration is even more common among the CalTech/MIT types who toil under the direction of more charismatic bosses from “lesser” schools. There is a reason that businesses put such a premium on the rare Ivy League grads who played team sports. Evidence of normalcy coupled with academic excellence is a rare commodity. |
Anonymous
NP here. Some of you are pathetic. Read "The Growth Mindset" about people who always have to put other people down. |
Anonymous
There are plenty of Ivy grads who have mediocre careers and most successful people did not go to Ivies, but the value of where you went to school makes a difference in many, many career paths. One-third of Ivy grads go on to become academics. And the selectivity of the undergraduate school makes a huge difference in the quality of the grad program and the hiring opportunities. The fact that your mentor is a leading scholar in the field is much greater at an Ivy than at a regional college. In DC, networks and connections make the world of difference. A surprisingly large proportion of the people I deal with on K St, the Hill, and especially the Administration went to my college or grad school around the same time I did. And it adds a personal dimension that is deeper and more accessible than relationships that don't stretch back to such a memorable time in our lives. This is especially true in law, where the big firms draw so disproportionately from just a few schools. It isn't an accident that all the Supremes went to Ivies, except for Stevens who went to Northwestern and Chicago. Plus, the first 5 years out of school are enormously important to a careers. For lawyers, that time will determine if you make partner. For entrepreneurs, the typical tech start up CEO is less than 7 years out. After you run out of friends and family, you work your classmates for funding and I'm pretty sure that the Ivies offer a much better investor network than other schools. In the philanthropy/nonprofit world, you will find almost no non-Ivy grads at the big foundations or think tanks. |
Anonymous
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"the first 5 years out of school are enormously important to a careers. For lawyers, that time will determine if you make partner"
Absolutely true, but,while an Ivy League credential gets you in the door, you are on your own to succeed (or not) during those five years. It is not at all uncommon for non-Ivy Leaguers to leap frog Ivy League grads during that five year period. |
Anonymous
| This feeds into the debate about whether select univerisities should be accepting kids who get perfect SATs or GPAs, or whether they should be accepting kids with "passion" and "leadership." It's pretty clear that admissions offices have decided for the latter. Probably because, more than the kids who can park their butts at their desks for 5 hours a night, the kids with passion, leadership and talent are the kids who are more likely to go on to successful careers (however you define that) and to become illustrious and generous alums. |
Anonymous
This is not actually a good thing for America or American government. |
Anonymous
Ummmm...No. You missed the point. You replied with snark- not a question. |
Anonymous
An ivy degree does give you a pass. An ivy on a resume will get you the job interview. Then when you sit down for the interview, you're given a presumption of intellect. Sure if your sure if a former employer details an embezzlement scheme you pulled at their company, a criminal background check uncovers a bloody trail of bodies in your background, or you drool and slur your words during the interview, an ivy won't matter much. But those things being absent, you're golden. I know we'd all love to believe our resumes are on equal footing with an ivy grads, but I've seen it time and time again. Ivy has won out over experience and resumes with higher GPAs. If ivies did not give you a pass or certain je ne sais quoi, they would bother so many people. |
Anonymous
should read: they would NOT bother so many people |
Anonymous
Give your obsession with one-upping the Ivy person a rest, loser. |
Anonymous
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Here's something I've come to realize about ivy grads: Their sense of entitlement.
Ivy grads feel entitled to live their lives in any way they want. For some that means climbing to the top of their professional ladders. For others it means backpacking through Europe well into their 30s then opening a shop that sells coffee beans. Whether they hit the pinacle of their careers or seemingly 'waste' their educations, they live their lives unapologetically. It's everyone else whose worried about where the ivy degree will take them. They're pretty confident and sure of themselves and the route they want to take in life. Take actor Hill Harper who went to Brown undergrad and has a law degree from Harvard. Much of his time was spent working as a waiter between acting gigs. At any time he can blow the dust off his degree and get a 'real' job, but he's doing like every ivy grad I know-living his freaking dream without a care about what anyone thinks. So while we're trying to quantify the value of someone's ivy degree and where it should have taken them in X number of years, keep in mind they may very well be doing what the heck they want to. They have the impressive degree and nothing to prove to anyone. |
Anonymous
| There is also a huge amount of luck involved getting into an Ivy that is rarely acknowledged. DD has a friend going to a Big 3, who was rejected by other Ivies, other top 25s, and other liberal arts schools way down the US News list. The process is far from predictable. |