What is with the obsession with Ivies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

Williams College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

See how that works. Plug in any top 20 college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

Williams College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

See how that works. Plug in any top 20 college.

What's Williams College? Never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

Williams College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

See how that works. Plug in any top 20 college.

What's Williams College? Never heard of it.

It's the Carleton of New England.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

Williams College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

See how that works. Plug in any top 20 college.

University of Wisconsin-Madison was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different party of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or subs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're old -- the world has changed. The elites are not only a status badge, they're a ticket to a high-paying gig for even history majors, working in the best cities, they give the best financial aid, and it's a leg up in graduate admissions.

What kind of high paying fields are history majors working in?

Liberal Arts degrees are a breeze compared to majors like engineering. What do employers value about these graduates? Are they just enthralled with the Ivys?

Um, I'm a history major who graduated in 2012 and got my first job at an investment bank out of Amherst. Now work in private equity in New York making well over $200k. Female.

Employers value the ability to think critically and communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing. How many engineering majors can crank out a coherently written and well-supported 150-page thesis built from primary sources found in archives around the country? Honestly, anyone can learn Excel and other modeling software programs these days- that's the easy part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're old -- the world has changed. The elites are not only a status badge, they're a ticket to a high-paying gig for even history majors, working in the best cities, they give the best financial aid, and it's a leg up in graduate admissions.

What kind of high paying fields are history majors working in?

Liberal Arts degrees are a breeze compared to majors like engineering. What do employers value about these graduates? Are they just enthralled with the Ivys?

Um, I'm a history major who graduated in 2012 and got my first job at an investment bank out of Amherst. Now work in private equity in New York making well over $200k. Female.

Employers value the ability to think critically and communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing. How many engineering majors can crank out a coherently written and well-supported 150-page thesis built from primary sources found in archives around the country? Honestly, anyone can learn Excel and other modeling software programs these days- that's the easy part.

Um, you’re an investment banker in NYC earning well over $200k, yet here you are on a DC mom’s website starting your posts with “um.”

Um, I don’t think so.

[Anonymous]

My stepson is a Harvard grad and a Wall Street banker. Also one of the biggest jerks you could ever hope to meet. He has no interest in family, community or anything but money and status symbols.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

Williams College was a life-changing experience for me. Ended up in a different profession, married someone I wouldn’t otherwise have met, moved to a different part of the country, and have a much higher SES than my parents or sibs do. Already seeing second gen effects as well. True for DH as well.

See how that works. Plug in any top 20 college.

Not necessarily — 3 of our sibs went to top 20 colleges and none of them were upwardly mobile. One did marry a classmate.

That said, whether you’re going to be upwardly mobile depends on where you start out (held constant wrt sibs, which is why I mentioned those outcomes). Harvard College wouldn’t be life-changing for our kid, for example. I’m not Ivy-obsessed, but I do think that Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are game changers for many (especially non-UMC and/or URM) undergrads in a way that other schools are not. So I get why some parents covet them.

[Anonymous]

^ Very true and that is why you see Harvard, Stanford, MIT having the highest yields of all colleges. It is rather hard to turn down an acceptance from one or more of those three for any other school, even if the other school is Yale or Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Economic insecurity. The belief that a $250K education is going to guarantee success.

[Anonymous]

This is true of ivies and other top twenty schools: They have so much Money to support their students it's sort of overwhelming. Every summer since her freshman year my kid has had paid internships, fellowships travel grants etc. every program has paid housing. If you are rich this may
Not matter but for middle class families it means
Kids can travel, study and participate in programs that otherwise we could not afford. Each opportunity involves making contacts and gaining experience that leads to other opportunities. Her cousins go to state flagships and there is. I comparison in terms of paid opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're old -- the world has changed. The elites are not only a status badge, they're a ticket to a high-paying gig for even history majors, working in the best cities, they give the best financial aid, and it's a leg up in graduate admissions.

What kind of high paying fields are history majors working in?

Liberal Arts degrees are a breeze compared to majors like engineering. What do employers value about these graduates? Are they just enthralled with the Ivys?

Are you trolling? Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Wall Street, K Street, MBB consulting.

Why would Silicon Valley or Hollywood hire an Ivy educated History major over someone with a more relevant degree either from the same school or a tier below? And how does a 22 year old History major get the schools that these industries would find attractive?

Dude, snl only hires hasty pudding writers. For decades.