My child attends an elite college. It is overrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know who says getting into/attending an Elite College isn't a big deal?

Poor people and those who were rejected.

My favorite growing up: Im really smart but Im just not a good test taker.

Uh yeah. You're not that smart.

The SAT correlates more than family income than IQ.

and GPA is not??

[Anonymous]

Rich families do not obsess over this sort of thing anymore. They go wherever they want.

[Anonymous]

OP reveals herself to be an utter imbecile when she defines a benefit of attending an elite school as finding a wealthy spouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP reveals herself to be an utter imbecile when she defines a benefit of attending an elite school as finding a wealthy spouse.

It’s the truth and nobody is allowed to admit it. Even if you don’t meet them while an undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids also went to “elite” colleges. I think your reference to “elbowy overachievers” is gross. My DD definitely is a grind it out kind of student but also made plenty of close friends, was involved in a couple of clubs and in a sorority. Not elbowy at all. Her starting salary out of college was in the range you referenced. Even if it was half that, I would think she is doing well - but I never thought that her college was supposed to be a path to a high paying career. She had a great education and that was the goal. I think your take that it’s the well-connected or elbowy overachievers who benefit from the education is ridiculous, and you sound like you need to tear other kids down to feel better better about where your own kid has landed.

Her starting salary was 60K or 150K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bottom rung morons who repeat that “college only matters for your first job” nonsense. Your college remains on your resume for 40 to 50 years. Yale is going to pop off your resume when you’re job hopping in your 30s and 40s and the selection committee internally refers to you as the “Yale guy.” Only folks who went to bottom rung colleges think credential prestige doesn’t matter past age 22 — and you all don’t really even believe it, you just wish it was true.

Most jobs do not ask about your college resume after you have work experience (ie. a first real job out of college). What matters after first job is references from previous jobs and what you did at those job(s). So other than the possible connections you use to get an interview, yes, nobody really cares about where you went to college after that (minus a few industries like banking and PE).

Your school is always listed on your cv. They won't look at your transcript, sure. But the school and the degree is always there. And it matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bottom rung morons who repeat that “college only matters for your first job” nonsense. Your college remains on your resume for 40 to 50 years. Yale is going to pop off your resume when you’re job hopping in your 30s and 40s and the selection committee internally refers to you as the “Yale guy.” Only folks who went to bottom rung colleges think credential prestige doesn’t matter past age 22 — and you all don’t really even believe it, you just wish it was true.

Most jobs do not ask about your college resume after you have work experience (ie. a first real job out of college). What matters after first job is references from previous jobs and what you did at those job(s). So other than the possible connections you use to get an interview, yes, nobody really cares about where you went to college after that (minus a few industries like banking and PE).

Your school is always listed on your cv. They won't look at your transcript, sure. But the school and the degree is always there. And it matters.

Does it matter for physical therapists? Teachers? Dietiticians?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bottom rung morons who repeat that “college only matters for your first job” nonsense. Your college remains on your resume for 40 to 50 years. Yale is going to pop off your resume when you’re job hopping in your 30s and 40s and the selection committee internally refers to you as the “Yale guy.” Only folks who went to bottom rung colleges think credential prestige doesn’t matter past age 22 — and you all don’t really even believe it, you just wish it was true.

Most jobs do not ask about your college resume after you have work experience (ie. a first real job out of college). What matters after first job is references from previous jobs and what you did at those job(s). So other than the possible connections you use to get an interview, yes, nobody really cares about where you went to college after that (minus a few industries like banking and PE).

Your school is always listed on your cv. They won't look at your transcript, sure. But the school and the degree is always there. And it matters.

I have a Junior so am reading a lot on this board. This comment just above was almost an epiphany for me. Yes, it is so true that forevermore the schools your kid attends will be listed on their resume. I mean, I am 54 and my undergrad and graduate schools are still listed. We may not like it but in some sense school name recognition may really matter for years to come. It may not be a make-or-break thing in one's career trajectory, but it does calculate into that first-impressions type of way. I can not deny that it does.

[Anonymous]

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.

My one child attends an elite college. It is underrated!
My other child attends an non-elite college. It is overrated!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP reveals herself to be an utter imbecile when she defines a benefit of attending an elite school as finding a wealthy spouse.

It’s the truth and nobody is allowed to admit it. Even if you don’t meet them while an undergrad.

We know three couples who are 100% Harvard and none of them are from the same time frames, and all three couples have multiple kids.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read this whole thread, but I got my undergrad at a mid-level state school and my masters from an Ivy, so I thought I'd contribute my own personal experience.

My perspective on it is this: no college of any level will guarantee you a job afterward. All you have when you graduate is academic knowledge and social connections. It's incumbent on the individual to go out and make things happen with the resources they have. Also, academic knowledge often is only vaguely useful in your chosen job field. When hiring new grads at my business, we anticipate at least a year of training them up to be competent.

The smartest people I encountered at the Ivy I went to were no smarter than the smartest people I encountered at my mid-level state school. Practically speaking, there seems to be an upper limit to how intelligent people can be, and you can find people of that level at most universities. However, I did notice that the AVERAGE intelligence and drive at the Ivy was higher than the average at the state school. I.e. there were a greater number of slackers and dummies at the state school (though there were also slackers and dummies at the Ivy!), so you were more likely to find people at state school who didn't really give a flip and were just there to coast and party. (Again, that personality also existed at the Ivy I went to, just in much smaller quantities).

Thus far (about ten years out from my grad degree) the main difference I've noticed is the social network. Probably 15% - 20% people I went to the Ivy with are now in C-level leadership positions at companies. Having remained friendly and in good contact with these people, they are now business colleagues. Conversely, I've also remained friendly and in good contact with the people I went to state school with, and less than 1% of those people are in any positions of leadership, let alone C-level leadership. I only have continuing business interests with one person from the state school.

Obviously this is just a persona anecdotal story, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP reveals herself to be an utter imbecile when she defines a benefit of attending an elite school as finding a wealthy spouse.

It’s the truth and nobody is allowed to admit it. Even if you don’t meet them while an undergrad.

We know three couples who are 100% Harvard and none of them are from the same time frames, and all three couples have multiple kids.

Did they meet through an alumni club? Did they meet through jobs that H grads are most likely to inhabit? You get my drift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read this whole thread, but I got my undergrad at a mid-level state school and my masters from an Ivy, so I thought I'd contribute my own personal experience.

My perspective on it is this: no college of any level will guarantee you a job afterward. All you have when you graduate is academic knowledge and social connections. It's incumbent on the individual to go out and make things happen with the resources they have. Also, academic knowledge often is only vaguely useful in your chosen job field. When hiring new grads at my business, we anticipate at least a year of training them up to be competent.

The smartest people I encountered at the Ivy I went to were no smarter than the smartest people I encountered at my mid-level state school. Practically speaking, there seems to be an upper limit to how intelligent people can be, and you can find people of that level at most universities. However, I did notice that the AVERAGE intelligence and drive at the Ivy was higher than the average at the state school. I.e. there were a greater number of slackers and dummies at the state school (though there were also slackers and dummies at the Ivy!), so you were more likely to find people at state school who didn't really give a flip and were just there to coast and party. (Again, that personality also existed at the Ivy I went to, just in much smaller quantities).

Thus far (about ten years out from my grad degree) the main difference I've noticed is the social network. Probably 15% - 20% people I went to the Ivy with are now in C-level leadership positions at companies. Having remained friendly and in good contact with these people, they are now business colleagues. Conversely, I've also remained friendly and in good contact with the people I went to state school with, and less than 1% of those people are in any positions of leadership, let alone C-level leadership. I only have continuing business interests with one person from the state school.

Obviously this is just a persona anecdotal story, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

It could be that the Ivy attracts people who are more economically ambitious in the first place, which leads to the phenomena you described.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rich families do not obsess over this sort of thing anymore. They go wherever they want.

Rich - no.

Wealthy - yes.

I married into wealth. The parents don't care where their kids go or what they study. The kids are financially set for life whether they go to University of Pittsburgh or UPenn. I met my wife at a large state school where she was pursuing a degree in a field she enjoyed, not necessarily one that's very lucrative. She now has a job that she loves that pays $65k/year and that's after doing it for years.

The rich people are the ones who obsess over every aspect of their lives while the wealthy simply live their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rich families do not obsess over this sort of thing anymore. They go wherever they want.

Rich - no.

Wealthy - yes.

I married into wealth. The parents don't care where their kids go or what they study. The kids are financially set for life whether they go to University of Pittsburgh or UPenn. I met my wife at a large state school where she was pursuing a degree in a field she enjoyed, not necessarily one that's very lucrative. She now has a job that she loves that pays $65k/year and that's after doing it for years.

The rich people are the ones who obsess over every aspect of their lives while the wealthy simply live their lives.

+1 A friend married into a wealthy family. The kids in the family majored in subjects that they wanted to study and went to a wide range of colleges/universities. They work in non-profits and NGOs, one is a Kindergarten teacher, social worker, etc. The ambitious members of the family are lawyers or involved in the family business.