Is it crazy to choose a non-ivy over an ivy

[Anonymous]

Stay out of their way and let them choose the best fit. Normal people do not care about ivies and many see problems with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on which Ivy. In most circles except maybe among first-gen immigrants, there are at least 10 non-Ivy colleges more prestigious than Cornell and Dartmouth. East coast old money prefers Williams to almost all Ivies except HYP. West coast elites and Silicon Valley prefers Pomona, Harvey Mudd over at least 3-4 Ivies, and Stanford any day over all Ivies.

Would you pick williams over say cornell for hard sciences?

[Anonymous]

Depends on which school. Any ivy over Chicago any day every day.

[Anonymous]

If the "non-ivy" is one of the so called T10 schools, Chicago, JHU, Northwestern, then go with the ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is facing such a choice. The non-ivy is their first choice and a better fit. But it’s just difficult to ignore the prestige of an ivy.

Seems like a no-brainer. Pick the 1st choice/best fit. (Who cares what sports conference they belong to.) Always pick the best fit. Congrats OP!

[Anonymous]

It really depends.

Harvard, Yale, Stanford - would be 100% pick
Princeton - only if they are OK with very intense
Columbia- only if they thrive in urban environments
Dartmouth - just no, would choose anything T50 over this one
Brown- maybe depending on the kid, better for an artsy or humanities type kid
Penn - wouldn’t necessarily choose it over another T20 but nothing objectionable about it
Cornell- only if kid likes intense winters, intense academics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on major.

I wouldn’t turn down Wharton for Duke, but for another major, yes

I chose Duke over Wharton. Best decision I ever made. I had a much happier four years (Go Blue Devils!) and have a much better set of friends. I ended up on Wall Street working with Wharton alums and outpaced many of them. And I had plenty of Duke classmates who did the same, and several of them ended up getting MBAs from Wharton.

Not saying this is the right decision for everyone at all. But a very good argument can be made for it.

[Anonymous]

If the alternative is Stanford or MIT, this is not a meaningful question. Both outrank several Ivies.

[Anonymous]

This thread is advertising how much ignorance is floating around here. Lots of good posts but quite a few dumb ones. Within the top tier of schools, there is no right answer as to which is better. Everyone has their own reasons for choices. To authoritatively say School X is better than School Y in most cases is dumb.

This is a place where you have to live for four years. Yes, outcomes matter. But so does happiness, comfort, etc. So many people are so simplistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is facing such a choice. The non-ivy is their first choice and a better fit. But it’s just difficult to ignore the prestige of an ivy.

Seems like a no-brainer. Pick the 1st choice/best fit. (Who cares what sports conference they belong to.) Always pick the best fit. Congrats OP!

New money always choose Ivy names over fit. Old money would choose fit over Ivy. It’s not unlike when you see old rich wear high-quality, non-flashy exquisite clothes while newer rich are more likely to make sure you see the label of how much they spent. Same for who tend to wear Rolex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is facing such a choice. The non-ivy is their first choice and a better fit. But it’s just difficult to ignore the prestige of an ivy.

Seems like a no-brainer. Pick the 1st choice/best fit. (Who cares what sports conference they belong to.) Always pick the best fit. Congrats OP!

New money always choose Ivy names over fit. Old money would choose fit over Ivy. It’s not unlike when you see old rich wear high-quality, non-flashy exquisite clothes while newer rich are more likely to make sure you see the label of how much they spent. Same for who tend to wear Rolex.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa!!!!

My god, you can believe how many old $$$, IVs and Vth generation our at my kids’ two Ivies. But, yeah, sure …lmaof.

[Anonymous]

Totally depends on the options but I would go with fit assuming other school is reasonably strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is facing such a choice. The non-ivy is their first choice and a better fit. But it’s just difficult to ignore the prestige of an ivy.

Seems like a no-brainer. Pick the 1st choice/best fit. (Who cares what sports conference they belong to.) Always pick the best fit. Congrats OP!

New money always choose Ivy names over fit. Old money would choose fit over Ivy. It’s not unlike when you see old rich wear high-quality, non-flashy exquisite clothes while newer rich are more likely to make sure you see the label of how much they spent. Same for who tend to wear Rolex.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa!!!!

My god, you can believe how many old $$$, IVs and Vth generation our at my kids’ two Ivies. But, yeah, sure …lmaof.

This may be because they have connections to that one Ivy and without those connections they didn’t have great other options. My friend with a kid at Princeton said her kid was surprised that the younger siblings of her Princeton friends often got into Princeton and no other top schools.

[Anonymous]

For the most part, our kids didn't apply to Ivies because we generally feel the Ivy culture is toxic and focuses on the wrong things. Prestige is blinding, as we so often find out from the front pages of newspapers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not crazy if the non-ivy is still a good school with good outcomes and:
- you'll save a lot of money
- it costs less you couldn't help with grad school costs without paying less for undergrad
- the kid aims to go to competitive grad school and needs to stay on top of undergrad and the non-ivy environment makes that easier or more pleasant
- the fit feels better

I very much appreciate this. We’re looking at an HYP full pay versus a full merit scholarship at a LAC. The cost difference is so significant, and I’d like to help with grad school. Many thanks for the thoughts!