Squandered elite education

[Anonymous]

I came from a similar background but don't equate salary with how I used my elite education. I guess it's what is important to you. I value the life of the mind and appreciated the amazing classes I had as an undergrad that propelled me into grad school. I don't make anywhere near 400k a year but I love my job in an amazing organization and I make enough to live a decent lifestyle and save money. Good enough for me, I'm grateful not to feel like I'm in a job that sucks out my soul, so again, it's what you personally value and prioritize and what you like to do with your short time on this earth. I'm sorry that you feel unfulfilled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you have fallen for the falsehood that going to an "elite" school somehow means you got a different education and should be walking a different road than everyone else.

The reason certain schools have an elite reputation has nothing to do with the education one receives there, nor with the future accomplishments of the majority of the graduates. Most are sitting in the cubicle next to the state school grad taking orders from the small regional college grad.

This! Sorry (not sorry) to burst your bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up pretty lower middle class in a rural southern town. I escaped by getting into an Ivy League and getting tons of aid.

And then promptly squandered that opportunity by making all the wrong career choices (I never interned while in college, just went home and helped out my folks), didn’t understand the potential salary ranges for various careers nor the importance of prestige and clout for your work history (I looked for interesting work in towns I thought would be interesting to live in)

That’s how I ended up in DC, working for a gov contractor on DoD projects — post 9/11 working on defense seemed cool, jobs seemed stable, and I had never lived in a bigger East coast city. I especially appreciated the stability of the job after going through the dot.com crash.

But I could have done so much more with my elite college education, I just squandered it on jobs that fit my lifestyle (clock out at 5) and stability. No idea that you real people could make $400k or $500k — my parents house TODAY is only worth $100k, so this sounds like made up numbers only people like Gates make. As an old person I realize how dumb I was. Anyone relate?

It is easy to feel less than in DC .., however, I really believe at the end of our lives, our main concern will be whether we did we sufficient good with our one finite precious life.

In retirement you can still use your elite education to help people and transform Lives …

Good luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On campus recruiting. It’s a fairly formal process where students drop their resumes and firms fly out teams of people to conduct interviews on campus. (For example, when I was in college, all the banks interviewed over a week or two. So you would see students in class in suits as they had interviews in between classes.)

Top candidates are then flown to the home office for a second round of interviews, typically lasting a day. Successful candidates then get an offer whether it’s for an internship or a Ft job.

In some industries (banking, consulting, law), you have to get the summer internship to get the job. It’s nearly impossible to just interview in your last year as nearly all spots have been filled.

My top school but not ivy did not have this in the 90s. Or if it happened, it wasn't widely publicized. No one wearing suits in class or anything. I don't remember seeing anyone in a suit on my campus in four years.

Then your top school wasn’t top enough for companies to recruit at.

Or it could have meant that “it wasn’t widely publicized “. If by 90’s the PP means the times before every student had internet, finding out might have meant seeing a flyer on the bulletin board in the Econ/Policy department. If that wasn’t your major, or your professor didn’t announce it, or you passed by the bulletin board before the flyer went up, you were sool.

On campus recruiting was a major event at campuses. You couldn’t miss it. It wasn’t a flyer on a board, there were banners, big career fairs, speakers, and students walking around in suits. That poster’s school just wasn’t top enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you have fallen for the falsehood that going to an "elite" school somehow means you got a different education and should be walking a different road than everyone else.

The reason certain schools have an elite reputation has nothing to do with the education one receives there, nor with the future accomplishments of the majority of the graduates. Most are sitting in the cubicle next to the state school grad taking orders from the small regional college grad.

This could not be further from the truth. It is not a falsehood. That does not mean every grad but for the overwhelming number they did get a different education. Don’t fool or lie to yourself. Most are on a different road. No most do not do the same things.

No, you’re 100% wrong. Where you go to college has ZERO bearing on your long-term earnings. The Dale and Kruger study proved it. So yes, actually, the Ivy grads do indeed do the same things as state school grads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you have fallen for the falsehood that going to an "elite" school somehow means you got a different education and should be walking a different road than everyone else.

The reason certain schools have an elite reputation has nothing to do with the education one receives there, nor with the future accomplishments of the majority of the graduates. Most are sitting in the cubicle next to the state school grad taking orders from the small regional college grad.

This could not be further from the truth. It is not a falsehood. That does not mean every grad but for the overwhelming number they did get a different education. Don’t fool or lie to yourself. Most are on a different road. No most do not do the same things.

No, you’re 100% wrong. Where you go to college has ZERO bearing on your long-term earnings. The Dale and Kruger study proved it. So yes, actually, the Ivy grads do indeed do the same things as state school grads.

DP: No, YOU’RE wrong. The part you seem to be missing is that there are other aspects to education besides “long term earnings”. It’s fine, of course, if that’s your goal, and that’s how you choose to measure the value of your education. There are, however, other possible metrics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you have fallen for the falsehood that going to an "elite" school somehow means you got a different education and should be walking a different road than everyone else.

The reason certain schools have an elite reputation has nothing to do with the education one receives there, nor with the future accomplishments of the majority of the graduates. Most are sitting in the cubicle next to the state school grad taking orders from the small regional college grad.

This could not be further from the truth. It is not a falsehood. That does not mean every grad but for the overwhelming number they did get a different education. Don’t fool or lie to yourself. Most are on a different road. No most do not do the same things.

No, you’re 100% wrong. Where you go to college has ZERO bearing on your long-term earnings. The Dale and Kruger study proved it. So yes, actually, the Ivy grads do indeed do the same things as state school grads.

DP: No, YOU’RE wrong. The part you seem to be missing is that there are other aspects to education besides “long term earnings”. It’s fine, of course, if that’s your goal, and that’s how you choose to measure the value of your education. There are, however, other possible metrics.

That’s what people say who want to equate value to something subjective.

If you went to an Ivy there is no way to possibly measure whatever it is that you feel you got out of that against the scenario that you’d have gone to a different school. There are too many factors to consider to measure it even against people with similar backgrounds and occupations who did or did not go to those schools. There are multiple Ivy League schools. People don’t rank them all the same way and their ranks are changed over time so we’d have to consider when someone graduated and whixh degree they obtained.

There is subjective value placed on various degrees and colleges. There are schools, well known and not well known, held in high regard, that aren’t in that group of schools simply because they’re not located there and/or are not as old. There are schools that few people consider with very well regarded programs for their field (think of Webb for Naval Architecture).

I’m sorry, Ivy League, aside from perhaps some networking and your own egos, there is little to measure that you can prove on a format such as this one. We can’t measure the feeling you have when you say you went there.

Whatever you learned there, I hope it was not data analysis.

Also, this thread is PACKED with comments about how people who went to these schools aren’t living the life they were promised in their own head. This argument of other measures only appears when that other argument is clearly lost.

[Anonymous]

There is a difference between not having access to information versus not looking for the information. If you go into college wanting to maximize your earnings then I'd imagine you'd find the information on finance/consulting. If you go into college wanting to "find your path" in something you are passionate about then it's unlikely you'll stumble across the difference in lifetime earnings between different career paths.

What seems to have happened to a lot of us is we didn't want to care about money in college and now we care about it more, because we're not that passionate about our careers anyway. I admit it. It is what it is and I have a lot to be grateful for nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a difference between not having access to information versus not looking for the information. If you go into college wanting to maximize your earnings then I'd imagine you'd find the information on finance/consulting. If you go into college wanting to "find your path" in something you are passionate about then it's unlikely you'll stumble across the difference in lifetime earnings between different career paths.

What seems to have happened to a lot of us is we didn't want to care about money in college and now we care about it more, because we're not that passionate about our careers anyway. I admit it. It is what it is and I have a lot to be grateful for nonetheless.

People don't know what they don't know.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t go to elite schools but decades later I still can’t get an attorney job to save my life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a difference between not having access to information versus not looking for the information. If you go into college wanting to maximize your earnings then I'd imagine you'd find the information on finance/consulting. If you go into college wanting to "find your path" in something you are passionate about then it's unlikely you'll stumble across the difference in lifetime earnings between different career paths.

What seems to have happened to a lot of us is we didn't want to care about money in college and now we care about it more, because we're not that passionate about our careers anyway. I admit it. It is what it is and I have a lot to be grateful for nonetheless.

LOL, yes, this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you have fallen for the falsehood that going to an "elite" school somehow means you got a different education and should be walking a different road than everyone else.

The reason certain schools have an elite reputation has nothing to do with the education one receives there, nor with the future accomplishments of the majority of the graduates. Most are sitting in the cubicle next to the state school grad taking orders from the small regional college grad.

This could not be further from the truth. It is not a falsehood. That does not mean every grad but for the overwhelming number they did get a different education. Don’t fool or lie to yourself. Most are on a different road. No most do not do the same things.

No, you’re 100% wrong. Where you go to college has ZERO bearing on your long-term earnings. The Dale and Kruger study proved it. So yes, actually, the Ivy grads do indeed do the same things as state school grads.

DP: No, YOU’RE wrong. The part you seem to be missing is that there are other aspects to education besides “long term earnings”. It’s fine, of course, if that’s your goal, and that’s how you choose to measure the value of your education. There are, however, other possible metrics.

That’s what people say who want to equate value to something subjective.

If you went to an Ivy there is no way to possibly measure whatever it is that you feel you got out of that against the scenario that you’d have gone to a different school. There are too many factors to consider to measure it even against people with similar backgrounds and occupations who did or did not go to those schools. There are multiple Ivy League schools. People don’t rank them all the same way and their ranks are changed over time so we’d have to consider when someone graduated and whixh degree they obtained.

There is subjective value placed on various degrees and colleges. There are schools, well known and not well known, held in high regard, that aren’t in that group of schools simply because they’re not located there and/or are not as old. There are schools that few people consider with very well regarded programs for their field (think of Webb for Naval Architecture).

I’m sorry, Ivy League, aside from perhaps some networking and your own egos, there is little to measure that you can prove on a format such as this one. We can’t measure the feeling you have when you say you went there.

Whatever you learned there, I hope it was not data analysis.

Also, this thread is PACKED with comments about how people who went to these schools aren’t living the life they were promised in their own head. This argument of other measures only appears when that other argument is clearly lost.

I’m quite comfortable standing up for valuing things that are subjective. The PP @11/29 18:34 expressed it nicely.
You’re comfortable wth data and numbers and competitiveness — and what you imagine is “objective “ — although often, it’s likely not. That’s fine. That’s not all there is though, even if that’s all that you personally care about. You got what you sought. As did I. There may or may not be much overlap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a difference between not having access to information versus not looking for the information. If you go into college wanting to maximize your earnings then I'd imagine you'd find the information on finance/consulting. If you go into college wanting to "find your path" in something you are passionate about then it's unlikely you'll stumble across the difference in lifetime earnings between different career paths.

What seems to have happened to a lot of us is we didn't want to care about money in college and now we care about it more, because we're not that passionate about our careers anyway. I admit it. It is what it is and I have a lot to be grateful for nonetheless.

People don't know what they don't know.

But real thing that they didn't know is how much money they would want to make in the future. If you don't care about money then you won't care that you can make 4-5x as much by going into a different career path. People don't take in information that they don't care about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The goal for anyone should be to have your next generation do better than you. Your parents accomplished that in spades and you have the opportunity to do that too if you have children.

Keep up the good work.

I agree. 100%.

The OP squandered nothing and accomplished a lot. There should be nothing to regret and important to remember that leveling up can take generations. Creating a stable and happy life for your offspring is a great gift and will provide them with an excellent foundation to thrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a difference between not having access to information versus not looking for the information. If you go into college wanting to maximize your earnings then I'd imagine you'd find the information on finance/consulting. If you go into college wanting to "find your path" in something you are passionate about then it's unlikely you'll stumble across the difference in lifetime earnings between different career paths.

What seems to have happened to a lot of us is we didn't want to care about money in college and now we care about it more, because we're not that passionate about our careers anyway. I admit it. It is what it is and I have a lot to be grateful for nonetheless.

People don't know what they don't know.

You’re new to this thread, aren’t you? 😉