I find it annoying when people get on here and say it really doesn't matter where your kid goes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all of us are looking for elite colleges. It is also about fit OP. And I do think fit matters.

Yes exactly, so it matters.

There are many many things to consider outcome, location, fit, majors, overall vibe, etc. etc. so it matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree that this applies to everyone. The assumption that wealth & eduction correlates with Middle class white culture is so off-putting. I'm asian and a child of immigrants- I've seen way too many successful lives destroyed by events that would never be life 'destroyers' for their white peers b/c of a lack of exposure to ideas/UMC ways of doing things and confidence. The difference that going to a top ten law school would make for my kid even though their parents are lawyers will be much much bigger than it is for your kids and there are plenty of immigrants, brown and black people and even first generation college grad white posters here and we know better than you how social mobility works b/c its something we have experienced for ourselves, not just read about in the Atlantic and VOX. I've seen first hand the difference in girls who go to George mason vs. even UVA/George Washington and what they've gone on to do with their lives. Exposure to a wider set of possibilities and the self concept that you are one of the ppl who should be applying to post docs at Magdalen college and MS at LSE and opening businesses with friends you met at NYU Beijing are vastly different than a fed contractor driving to target and their home in Burke with no USAID/FSO posting in sight day after miserable day. Many ppl on here have benefited from their superior merit and work ethic and want make sure that their kids move that one rung up to having even more choices and possibilities when their grandparents struggled and sacrificed. That is what ppl move here for, if I wanted to keep treading water, my father should've stayed home and not left his family and everyone he held dear.

+1
AMEN!!

Thank you. It is nerve wrecking to have discussions on this board because the majority lack basic knowledge about the experiences of immigrants especially brown and black people.

Wait, “even though their parents are lawyers”?! Are you for real?

How much is enough?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

There are a group of employers that for all intents and purposes essentially only recruit from the top 10 schools. I agree there are also plenty of employers that don’t waste their time recruiting from those schools as well.

It’s more than just “bonus” points.

I actually believe there are many employers in tech that don’t care if you go to college at all. My kid interned at an AI company that raised $50MM+ of VC and 1/3 of the company didn’t go to college.

If you are talking about big banks and consulting, I would venture to argue that these are the jobs and institutions that are sucking the wealth from the bottom half of the population and perpetuating the wealth gap. It is all so ironic.

No…VC funds, boutique investment banks…they don’t comprise a significant number of jobs but their hiring is very insular.

And so it is irrelevant to the vast majority of people, and yet so many posts on here act like that is everyone's goal, so it's Ivy or bust.

OP, as for why people who understand this truth are on here, because they want actual information about schools to find a good fit for their kids, not highest possible magazine "rank."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all of us are looking for elite colleges. It is also about fit OP. And I do think fit matters.

Yes exactly, so it matters.

There are many many things to consider outcome, location, fit, majors, overall vibe, etc. etc. so it matters.

When people say "it doens't matter" they mean rank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all of us are looking for elite colleges. It is also about fit OP. And I do think fit matters.

Yes exactly, so it matters.

There are many many things to consider outcome, location, fit, majors, overall vibe, etc. etc. so it matters.

PP here. And also, not reaching for elite but reaching for a solid school that still has standards. I keep reading on the professor subreddit that many students are utterly unprepared for college. I think peers make a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all of us are looking for elite colleges. It is also about fit OP. And I do think fit matters.

Yes exactly, so it matters.

There are many many things to consider outcome, location, fit, majors, overall vibe, etc. etc. so it matters.

When people say "it doens't matter" they mean rank.

rank is also part of the whole formula. No need to be obsessed about it, but it also matters.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s true for a lot of people.

Some people have a good enough network that it doesn’t matter at all. They might not be wealthy but they know enough people to get their kid in the door where they need to go. Sure, the kid still needs a degree, but it doesn’t matter if it’s from Dartmouth or North Dakota state.

Then there are people who can’t get mom or dad to call their buddies to pull strings for an internship or an interview.

The older I get the more I realize life is a popularity contest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree that this applies to everyone. The assumption that wealth & eduction correlates with Middle class white culture is so off-putting. I'm asian and a child of immigrants- I've seen way too many successful lives destroyed by events that would never be life 'destroyers' for their white peers b/c of a lack of exposure to ideas/UMC ways of doing things and confidence. The difference that going to a top ten law school would make for my kid even though their parents are lawyers will be much much bigger than it is for your kids and there are plenty of immigrants, brown and black people and even first generation college grad white posters here and we know better than you how social mobility works b/c its something we have experienced for ourselves, not just read about in the Atlantic and VOX. I've seen first hand the difference in girls who go to George mason vs. even UVA/George Washington and what they've gone on to do with their lives. Exposure to a wider set of possibilities and the self concept that you are one of the ppl who should be applying to post docs at Magdalen college and MS at LSE and opening businesses with friends you met at NYU Beijing are vastly different than a fed contractor driving to target and their home in Burke with no USAID/FSO posting in sight day after miserable day. Many ppl on here have benefited from their superior merit and work ethic and want make sure that their kids move that one rung up to having even more choices and possibilities when their grandparents struggled and sacrificed. That is what ppl move here for, if I wanted to keep treading water, my father should've stayed home and not left his family and everyone he held dear.

+1
AMEN!!

Thank you. It is nerve wrecking to have discussions on this board because the majority lack basic knowledge about the experiences of immigrants especially brown and black people.

Wait, “even though their parents are lawyers”?! Are you for real?

How much is enough?!

Reread and try to put your self in the shoes of a POC immigrant lawyer, trying to make it in corporate America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree that this applies to everyone. The assumption that wealth & eduction correlates with Middle class white culture is so off-putting. I'm asian and a child of immigrants- I've seen way too many successful lives destroyed by events that would never be life 'destroyers' for their white peers b/c of a lack of exposure to ideas/UMC ways of doing things and confidence. The difference that going to a top ten law school would make for my kid even though their parents are lawyers will be much much bigger than it is for your kids and there are plenty of immigrants, brown and black people and even first generation college grad white posters here and we know better than you how social mobility works b/c its something we have experienced for ourselves, not just read about in the Atlantic and VOX. I've seen first hand the difference in girls who go to George mason vs. even UVA/George Washington and what they've gone on to do with their lives. Exposure to a wider set of possibilities and the self concept that you are one of the ppl who should be applying to post docs at Magdalen college and MS at LSE and opening businesses with friends you met at NYU Beijing are vastly different than a fed contractor driving to target and their home in Burke with no USAID/FSO posting in sight day after miserable day. Many ppl on here have benefited from their superior merit and work ethic and want make sure that their kids move that one rung up to having even more choices and possibilities when their grandparents struggled and sacrificed. That is what ppl move here for, if I wanted to keep treading water, my father should've stayed home and not left his family and everyone he held dear.

Again, I don't care. The American university system should not be structured to make the lives of "immigrants, brown and black people" better. Everyone should get the exact same opportunity based on their academic merit not their skin color or recent arrival in the country.

And here I thought it didn’t matter which college the kids went to.. /s

And that is the point. The PP thinks school rank does matter, but once you understand that it doesn't, then you realize that everyone does have the same academic opportunity. There is room at the U.S colleges for everyone who wants to attend. How well or poorly you do there is on you and that is what will show when you go to get a job. What PP is actually talking about is socioeconomic, not academic. And yes, it is true that exposure to social classes above your own can be a vehicle to upward mobility -- but you can get that at a lot more colleges than the top 25, and it can happen for the C student as much as the A student.

Here's another truth people don't always appreciate: the more academic and high achieving you are, the more likely leadership will keep you in a producer position, because they need the best in that role. Ironically, that means economic upward mobility can be stifled by high academic achievement in many, if not most, cases outside of the professions like law and medicine. Also, the non-professional careers that make big money, don't really require academic achievement (e.g., some high earning sales positions). Similarly the real opportunity often comes to the risk takers who are willing to fail 10 times before they make it big (and again, academic achievement -- not intelligence-- is often low in that risk taker crowd). It's all about so much more than the things people obsess over on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree that this applies to everyone. The assumption that wealth & eduction correlates with Middle class white culture is so off-putting. I'm asian and a child of immigrants- I've seen way too many successful lives destroyed by events that would never be life 'destroyers' for their white peers b/c of a lack of exposure to ideas/UMC ways of doing things and confidence. The difference that going to a top ten law school would make for my kid even though their parents are lawyers will be much much bigger than it is for your kids and there are plenty of immigrants, brown and black people and even first generation college grad white posters here and we know better than you how social mobility works b/c its something we have experienced for ourselves, not just read about in the Atlantic and VOX. I've seen first hand the difference in girls who go to George mason vs. even UVA/George Washington and what they've gone on to do with their lives. Exposure to a wider set of possibilities and the self concept that you are one of the ppl who should be applying to post docs at Magdalen college and MS at LSE and opening businesses with friends you met at NYU Beijing are vastly different than a fed contractor driving to target and their home in Burke with no USAID/FSO posting in sight day after miserable day. Many ppl on here have benefited from their superior merit and work ethic and want make sure that their kids move that one rung up to having even more choices and possibilities when their grandparents struggled and sacrificed. That is what ppl move here for, if I wanted to keep treading water, my father should've stayed home and not left his family and everyone he held dear.

Again, I don't care. The American university system should not be structured to make the lives of "immigrants, brown and black people" better. Everyone should get the exact same opportunity based on their academic merit not their skin color or recent arrival in the country.

And here I thought it didn’t matter which college the kids went to.. /s

And that is the point. The PP thinks school rank does matter, but once you understand that it doesn't, then you realize that everyone does have the same academic opportunity. There is room at the U.S colleges for everyone who wants to attend. How well or poorly you do there is on you and that is what will show when you go to get a job. What PP is actually talking about is socioeconomic, not academic. And yes, it is true that exposure to social classes above your own can be a vehicle to upward mobility -- but you can get that at a lot more colleges than the top 25, and it can happen for the C student as much as the A student.

Here's another truth people don't always appreciate: the more academic and high achieving you are, the more likely leadership will keep you in a producer position, because they need the best in that role. Ironically, that means economic upward mobility can be stifled by high academic achievement in many, if not most, cases outside of the professions like law and medicine. Also, the non-professional careers that make big money, don't really require academic achievement (e.g., some high earning sales positions). Similarly the real opportunity often comes to the risk takers who are willing to fail 10 times before they make it big (and again, academic achievement -- not intelligence-- is often low in that risk taker crowd). It's all about so much more than the things people obsess over on here.

I read all this and my take away is that medical careers are best for immigrant kids because that is where networking might matter least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think when people say it "doesn't matter", there's an unspoken caveat, that it doesn't matter within a larger-than-you-think pool of schools. Yes, there absolutely are schools that I would not want my kid to go to. Poor retention rate, crappy graduation rate. Can't get classes so you have to go for 5 years to get a degree that would be 4 years elsewhere.

At the same time, I believe it doesn't matter if my kid goes to the #30 ranked university vs. the #80.

And people here sweat whether a school is ranked 14 vs. 17. IT DOESN'T MATTER! You can't parse the rankings that closely.

Find a decent school with a good program for what your kid wants to do and where your kid will be happy.

My kid insisted on going to the number 1 ranked school for his engineering degree. Wouldn't listen to me that he would be unhappy there. He freaking hated it. Absolute misery. Struggling in classes. Finally agreed to transfer to a smaller, more laid back lower ranked school. He loves it and is doing very well.

I'd rather have a successful graduate of a middling school than a miserable kid who is struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree that this applies to everyone. The assumption that wealth & eduction correlates with Middle class white culture is so off-putting. I'm asian and a child of immigrants- I've seen way too many successful lives destroyed by events that would never be life 'destroyers' for their white peers b/c of a lack of exposure to ideas/UMC ways of doing things and confidence. The difference that going to a top ten law school would make for my kid even though their parents are lawyers will be much much bigger than it is for your kids and there are plenty of immigrants, brown and black people and even first generation college grad white posters here and we know better than you how social mobility works b/c its something we have experienced for ourselves, not just read about in the Atlantic and VOX. I've seen first hand the difference in girls who go to George mason vs. even UVA/George Washington and what they've gone on to do with their lives. Exposure to a wider set of possibilities and the self concept that you are one of the ppl who should be applying to post docs at Magdalen college and MS at LSE and opening businesses with friends you met at NYU Beijing are vastly different than a fed contractor driving to target and their home in Burke with no USAID/FSO posting in sight day after miserable day. Many ppl on here have benefited from their superior merit and work ethic and want make sure that their kids move that one rung up to having even more choices and possibilities when their grandparents struggled and sacrificed. That is what ppl move here for, if I wanted to keep treading water, my father should've stayed home and not left his family and everyone he held dear.

Again, I don't care. The American university system should not be structured to make the lives of "immigrants, brown and black people" better. Everyone should get the exact same opportunity based on their academic merit not their skin color or recent arrival in the country.

And here I thought it didn’t matter which college the kids went to.. /s

If you want to go to an elite college - if that matters to you - it should be the result of your academic preparation, not the color of your skin or immigrant status.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to the the overbearing helicopter parent that wear their kid’s college brand like a designer handbag and that we will be directionless and aimless when DC leaves the nest. But for your kid, their employer will care that they went to school but not where. The exception, of course, is on both extremes. If they go to a top 5-7 school, great, they get bonus points (except for the many employers that specifically don’t want someone with those credentials because they tend to believe that they are entitled to an accelerated journey). On the other extreme, if they went to an online school or a super esoteric school, there better be a good reason.

Other than that, schools #7-150 or so are completely interchangeable in the real world.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree that this applies to everyone. The assumption that wealth & eduction correlates with Middle class white culture is so off-putting. I'm asian and a child of immigrants- I've seen way too many successful lives destroyed by events that would never be life 'destroyers' for their white peers b/c of a lack of exposure to ideas/UMC ways of doing things and confidence. The difference that going to a top ten law school would make for my kid even though their parents are lawyers will be much much bigger than it is for your kids and there are plenty of immigrants, brown and black people and even first generation college grad white posters here and we know better than you how social mobility works b/c its something we have experienced for ourselves, not just read about in the Atlantic and VOX. I've seen first hand the difference in girls who go to George mason vs. even UVA/George Washington and what they've gone on to do with their lives. Exposure to a wider set of possibilities and the self concept that you are one of the ppl who should be applying to post docs at Magdalen college and MS at LSE and opening businesses with friends you met at NYU Beijing are vastly different than a fed contractor driving to target and their home in Burke with no USAID/FSO posting in sight day after miserable day. Many ppl on here have benefited from their superior merit and work ethic and want make sure that their kids move that one rung up to having even more choices and possibilities when their grandparents struggled and sacrificed. That is what ppl move here for, if I wanted to keep treading water, my father should've stayed home and not left his family and everyone he held dear.

+1
AMEN!!

Thank you. It is nerve wrecking to have discussions on this board because the majority lack basic knowledge about the experiences of immigrants especially brown and black people.

Important to remember, we don't care. Black and brown people and immigrants don't care about us (or they hate us) so why should we care about them?

Also, the PP was Asian, and of all the "immigrants and non-whites" for whom what college they attend doesn't matter, they are the ones for whom it matters the least. Asian immigrants will absolutely do fine no matter what college they attend.

[Anonymous]

“The American university system should not be structured to make the lives of "immigrants, brown and black people" better.“

+1000 OMG so so true.

[Anonymous]

My kid went to a school you would scoff at. My kid also works at a place you would want your kid to work at, one of those places that xyz doesn't hire from.