Do Prestigious Schools Matter for Future Success?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

Sure. But prestige + talent is killer. Those who get in RD unhooked 3% acceptance rates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at bios of successful people in the field you are interested in. It will give you an idea. I know CEOs and very rich people from unremarkable schools. But if you are not able to figure out how to make it on your own and need to be at Goldman Sachs or something, then yes, it will matter.

I would say in the past it has not mattered much except in a few fields. That may change with this obsession with prestige we have going. Maybe not once people figure out many of these kids are not special and just cheated their way to 4.0.

Even at Goldman Sachs, there's a spread of schools. Just look at their leadership:

David Solomon, Chairman & CEO: Hamilton College (undergraduate)
John Waldron, President & COO: Middlebury College (undergraduate)
Robert Kaplan, Vice Chairman: University of Kansas, Lawrence (undergraduate) + Harvard Business School (MBA)
Ashok Varadhan, Co-Head of Global Banking & Markets: Duke (undergraduate) + Stanford (PhD)
Dan Dees, Co-Head of Global Banking & Markets: Duke (undergraduate)
Marc Nachmann, Co-Head of Global Wealth Management: Wesleyan (undergraduate) + Harvard Business School (MBA)
Tucker York, Co-Head of Global Wealth Management: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (undergraduate) + Harvard Business School (MBA)

All of these individuals are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and they had a range of education journeys. Of course you see degrees from Harvard, Duke, and Stanford, but the top 2 executives didn't need that.

Other than University of Kansas, all of these schools are well regarded for banking (and Middlebury and Wesleyan probably are in the prestigious SLAC category), have strong Wall Street alumni networks and are very expensive. It's not as though Hamilton is some $20k/year SUNY. I gather the Kansas graduate needed the Harvard MBA to break into Wall Street.

This was BEFORE GS only looked at applications from target schools. Look it up — it matters for all of the Wall Street. Google those words. Also WSJ has a list of top schools for high paying jobs in chosen careers. In DMV, Georgetown is on all the lists but UVA, AU, GW are not, for example.

no one wants to hear truth

How many people actually want to work there though? This is such a narrow example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

Sure. But prestige + talent is killer. Those who get in RD unhooked 3% acceptance rates

The question was about future success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Title says it, but if I hear things like "My kid didn't go to an ivy and he turned out fine, he went to Duke undergrad and Stanford for an MBA." OBVIOUSLY that doesn't count if you're including two very prestigious schools that are better than most of the ivy league. I'm talking about going to regular schools (not top privates or flagship state schools) and having a great career. Thanks!

I guess every family approaches it differently, but ours is willing to spend on education more than anything else. We want to set our kids up well. So if our kid can get into a school like Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Stanford, Wharton, whatever it may be, we'll do our best to make it work.

The question was, can they be successful if they don't get in. The answer is yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at bios of successful people in the field you are interested in. It will give you an idea. I know CEOs and very rich people from unremarkable schools. But if you are not able to figure out how to make it on your own and need to be at Goldman Sachs or something, then yes, it will matter.

I would say in the past it has not mattered much except in a few fields. That may change with this obsession with prestige we have going. Maybe not once people figure out many of these kids are not special and just cheated their way to 4.0.

Even at Goldman Sachs, there's a spread of schools. Just look at their leadership:

David Solomon, Chairman & CEO: Hamilton College (undergraduate)
John Waldron, President & COO: Middlebury College (undergraduate)
Robert Kaplan, Vice Chairman: University of Kansas, Lawrence (undergraduate) + Harvard Business School (MBA)
Ashok Varadhan, Co-Head of Global Banking & Markets: Duke (undergraduate) + Stanford (PhD)
Dan Dees, Co-Head of Global Banking & Markets: Duke (undergraduate)
Marc Nachmann, Co-Head of Global Wealth Management: Wesleyan (undergraduate) + Harvard Business School (MBA)
Tucker York, Co-Head of Global Wealth Management: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (undergraduate) + Harvard Business School (MBA)

All of these individuals are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and they had a range of education journeys. Of course you see degrees from Harvard, Duke, and Stanford, but the top 2 executives didn't need that.

All but maybe one are white men.

The college doesn't matter.

Affirmative action from 1619 until around 1965 or so.

Fair point. The question is who will be holding their jobs in 20 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

So people who have not talent can be truly successful in work endeavors? We're not talking about mere accumulation of wealth.

I guess, what does talentless success mean to you?

[Anonymous]

The two most successfully people from my FCPS graduating class went to Radford and no college. So definite NO.

[Anonymous]

You’re citing exceptions, not the rule. At the time those people went to school there were likely many fewer people including highly educated and skilled, American and non, and less skilled immigration and outsourcing.

The reality is, and I’m in HR, that the school matters a lot. That and employment experience are top criteria for entry and there are so many great candidates that it’s hard to justify not hiring that Gtown or Stanford or Duke kid to take a chance on GW or second tier, forget no name. That’s the reality. Go in insta Wall Street acct and you’ll see kids are not getting in to even be looked at for an e try job outside of targets.

Yes you can be successful but conventional path requires a top school, there are just too many qualified people and you have to differentiate somehow

[Anonymous]

There are many articles now about whether certain schools are worth the $ invested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

Sure. But prestige + talent is killer. Those who get in RD unhooked 3% acceptance rates

The question was about future success.

That's what I'm talking about. The kids that are naturally very smart AND hard workers. They got in on their own moxy and hard work---not a hook, not early, etc. Those types have a lot of future success as they keep working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

Sure. But prestige + talent is killer. Those who get in RD unhooked 3% acceptance rates

The question was about future success.

That's what I'm talking about. The kids that are naturally very smart AND hard workers. They got in on their own moxy and hard work---not a hook, not early, etc. Those types have a lot of future success as they keep working.

Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Clinton, Obama where prestige met talent. Didn't come from privilege. Attended prestigious university, worked hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on your how far down you are comparing schools. UVA vs VT, no. UVA vs GMU, maybe, but probably not. UVA vs Longwood, absolutely

Oh honey. Educate yourself before you post. UVA is ranked 24 for all universities. VT is only 51. GMU is 109 and Longwood is 15 in Regional colleges

DP. How utterly unsurprising - one of the arrogant UVA boosters has come to school us all! Give it a rest, for once in your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on your how far down you are comparing schools. UVA vs VT, no. UVA vs GMU, maybe, but probably not. UVA vs Longwood, absolutely

Oh honey. Educate yourself before you post. UVA is ranked 24 for all universities. VT is only 51. GMU is 109 and Longwood is 15 in Regional colleges

DP with no connection to any of these schools.

The irony of someone referencing US News using the word "educate" is clearly lost on this fool. Let me give it to you straight: you're an idiot.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

Sure. But prestige + talent is killer. Those who get in RD unhooked 3% acceptance rates

The question was about future success.

That's what I'm talking about. The kids that are naturally very smart AND hard workers. They got in on their own moxy and hard work---not a hook, not early, etc. Those types have a lot of future success as they keep working.

Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Clinton, Obama where prestige met talent. Didn't come from privilege. Attended prestigious university, worked hard.

Are we seriously claiming that Zuckerberg and Obama didn’t come from privilege? Zuckerberg graduated from the best boarding school in America?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is a great substitute for talent. Ask me how I know

Sure. But prestige + talent is killer. Those who get in RD unhooked 3% acceptance rates

The question was about future success.

That's what I'm talking about. The kids that are naturally very smart AND hard workers. They got in on their own moxy and hard work---not a hook, not early, etc. Those types have a lot of future success as they keep working.

Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Clinton, Obama where prestige met talent. Didn't come from privilege. Attended prestigious university, worked hard.

Are we seriously claiming that Zuckerberg and Obama didn’t come from privilege? Zuckerberg graduated from the best boarding school in America?

+1 Gates went to one of the most well known private schools on the west coast and had a wealthy background. Bezos is the son of an heiress and his family “gifted” him $300k to start his company. It is shameful and near propaganda to put these people anywhere close to Clinton’s name.