Squandered elite education

[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.

LOL, yes, this.

+1 this is a great point

[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.

You don’t take the same classes. The education is different. At Princeton it is totally different from say Duke which is way different than state flagship. That is true across all majors. What you do with it is up to you. But no —- not the same outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought you were going to say you went to Yale then became a SAHM. You didn’t squander your degree at all. You’ve done well. You set goals for yourself, and you achieved them. It’s completely legitimate for work-life balance to be one of your goals. You’ve done great, OP.

Going to Yale then becoming a SAHM wouldn't be "squandering a degree" at all either. The happiest, most successful women I know from HUG and HBS are all stay at home moms now lol.

There's more to life than slaving away for the rat-faced man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow this resonates for me! It feels like shit that people without guidance or role models can often end up making all of the wrong decisions out of pure class ignorance. It sucks because everyone thinks there is something wrong with you.

I don't get it. If you were really working class/middle class, why did you major in English? Pretty much all the non-wealthy students at my Ivy majored in STEM or went to law school or finance.

DP: Because the message that many of us got was simply: “Go to college, get a steady job with benefits.” And no one, anywhere, including at our colleges told us anything that went beyond that. I also think you might be wrong about what “pretty much all the non-wealthy students did”. —and/ or the students you went to school with had access to a lot more information than the students that I went to school with, possibly a decade or more before you.

Let me keep repeating this until you get it: You don’t know what you don’t know.

And if no one goes out of their way to show you, teach, you, and expose you to what you don’t know — you still don’t know.
Nice that all the “non-wealthy “ students that you knew went to law school. That takes time and money and support that many of the “non-wealthy “ students that I went to school with simply did not have.

My counselors all said “follow your passion” and “do what you love and the money will follow”

Major really doesn’t matter anyway. I know a Russian Lit major whose first job was at Goldman. I know many English majors in corporate roles at Disney and Microsoft. The most important things are really internships and those first jobs — it needs to be the right pedigree/path. And most jobs/internships are obtained through networking, so a random MC student won’t have any connections — I literally did not know any professionals except for my pediatrician and dentist and teachers. How would my factory working parents know even an accountant (does H&R Block seasonal worker count)?

I disagree. Lots of corporate internships are obtained not through family networking, but through cold-applying and OCR.

Also, your first job after graduation doesn't matter that much. I know lots of people who bartended or worked on organic kale farms for a year after graduation but went to grad school and/or are now in high-paying corporate jobs from my Ivy.

If you're actually interested in corporate work (especially in finance), that first job out of college is by far the most important one. It's what sets you up for everything: buyside opportunities, business school, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow this resonates for me! It feels like shit that people without guidance or role models can often end up making all of the wrong decisions out of pure class ignorance. It sucks because everyone thinks there is something wrong with you.

I don't get it. If you were really working class/middle class, why did you major in English? Pretty much all the non-wealthy students at my Ivy majored in STEM or went to law school or finance.

DP: Because the message that many of us got was simply: “Go to college, get a steady job with benefits.” And no one, anywhere, including at our colleges told us anything that went beyond that. I also think you might be wrong about what “pretty much all the non-wealthy students did”. —and/ or the students you went to school with had access to a lot more information than the students that I went to school with, possibly a decade or more before you.

Let me keep repeating this until you get it: You don’t know what you don’t know.

And if no one goes out of their way to show you, teach, you, and expose you to what you don’t know — you still don’t know.
Nice that all the “non-wealthy “ students that you knew went to law school. That takes time and money and support that many of the “non-wealthy “ students that I went to school with simply did not have.

My counselors all said “follow your passion” and “do what you love and the money will follow”

Major really doesn’t matter anyway. I know a Russian Lit major whose first job was at Goldman. I know many English majors in corporate roles at Disney and Microsoft. The most important things are really internships and those first jobs — it needs to be the right pedigree/path. And most jobs/internships are obtained through networking, so a random MC student won’t have any connections — I literally did not know any professionals except for my pediatrician and dentist and teachers. How would my factory working parents know even an accountant (does H&R Block seasonal worker count)?

I disagree. Lots of corporate internships are obtained not through family networking, but through cold-applying and OCR.

Also, your first job after graduation doesn't matter that much. I know lots of people who bartended or worked on organic kale farms for a year after graduation but went to grad school and/or are now in high-paying corporate jobs from my Ivy.

If you're actually interested in corporate work (especially in finance), that first job out of college is by far the most important one. It's what sets you up for everything: buyside opportunities, business school, etc.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Literally not a single person from the NINETIES has said that this information was widely available to them as a non-UMC person on campus.

We have heard from rich people who said in the 90s they knew this info. And we have heard from non-rich people saying that they knew this info in the aughts.

But no one has said that they were non-rich in the 90s and thought this info was readily available.

But lots of non-rich people saying they were not aware of this info in the 90s.

So all the people talking about their aughts experiences are totally not relevant to this original question.

I went to HUG in the 1990s and this corporate recruiting info was all pretty widely known, at least by junior year (when it really mattered).

Did you guys not have any friends at school? Were you all complete shut-ins? Did you not see all of the company presentations, all the kids filing into the Charles Hotel in suits each fall? All of this was in the newspaper, the info was posted on bulletin boards all over campus. Nobody ever read Liar's Poker or Den of Thieves?

[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.

You don’t take the same classes. The education is different. At Princeton it is totally different from say Duke which is way different than state flagship. That is true across all majors. What you do with it is up to you. But no —- not the same outcomes.

Obviously since Ivies admit the smartest and/or richest students, those students have different outcomes than students at less selective schools. Unfortunately some dum dums slip in who think they are god's gift to the world when in fact they are insufferable and incompetent.

[Anonymous]

I do not know many wealthy people, but the one wealthy family I know are all ordinary
What sets them apart is family wealth and the start in life, career in daddy’s business
Once you have that kind of wealth people are nice to you and will help, almost push you up the career path
I suppose one example, rather extreme, is Trumps children. Paris Hilton got her opportunities handed to her too
Hollywood actresses have famous parents
It isn’t just the entertainment industry, a new intern at one company I worked at introduced himself by giving a 5 minute speech about his father. (A dr high up in NIST and that company has a big contract with them, somewhat through him)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

THis isn't exactly true.

A lot of people are misguided and have the wrong beliefs about money.

Again, people dont know what they dont know.

You strike me as someone who doesnt see nuances and grey areas in life.

Frankly, I would hate to have someone like you as a mother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

THis isn't exactly true.

A lot of people are misguided and have the wrong beliefs about money.

Again, people dont know what they dont know.

You strike me as someone who doesnt see nuances and grey areas in life.

Frankly, I would hate to have someone like you as a mother.

Wow. That escalated quickly.