Do Prestigious Schools Matter for Future Success?

[Anonymous]

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

DP. What about JMU vs VT?

[Anonymous]

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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.

Bezos mom was a teen mom that got pregnant at 16, his dad was a alcoholic unicyclist.
They divorced when jeff was 1.
She almost didn't graduate high school.
She moved out of her parent's house and she worked her way through night school (bringing jeff to class with her). Her parents were middle class maybe upper middle class.
It took her 20 years to graduate from college.

His mom remarried cuban refugee named Mike Bezos who adopted jeff.
They didn't "gift" Bezos anything.
They were initial investors in amazon, investing $245,573 for 6% of Amazon.
She's not an heirress. She is billionaire because she bet on her son.

[Anonymous]

Not sure it helps but definitely doesn't hurt. Only upside if you can afford it

[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.

Most of the names on your list have a degree from Harvard

[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.

Most of the names on your list have a degree from Harvard

*Degree or attended

[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.

Gates, Zuckerberg and Obama all went to top private schools. Obama got into Occidental and later transferred to Columbia. Bezos went to River Oaks school for middle school which again is in an expensive part of Houston. So they all came from privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

Define successful.

[Anonymous]

Why is a conversation about success focused on billionaires and presidents? That's all that counts?

[Anonymous]

No.

Motivated and talented people make their own success. Entry into a famous college isn't a goal unto itself, it's just a 4-year stop along the way. The real goal (career, life, etc.) happens after grad school or in your 30s - 50s.

[Anonymous]

Here is a perspective from a specific field: your undergraduate school does not matter very much (or maybe even at all) for private practice at even the most prestigious law firms. Your performance in undergrad and then your law school DO matter, very very much. But not your undergrad school. The top law schools pull from such a wide range of undergrads, but a narrower range of law schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is a conversation about success focused on billionaires and presidents? That's all that counts?

No, you must be both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is a perspective from a specific field: your undergraduate school does not matter very much (or maybe even at all) for private practice at even the most prestigious law firms. Your performance in undergrad and then your law school DO matter, very very much. But not your undergrad school. The top law schools pull from such a wide range of undergrads, but a narrower range of law schools.

Typo above: Top law FIRMS pull from a wide range of undergrads and a narrower range of law schools.

[Anonymous]

My oldest attended Ivies, and they were both jobless after graduation, and worked at Starbucks. My youngest DS was a D1 recruited athlete at UNC Chapel Hill, and he got a job in IB after graduation because the EVP was an alum at UNC. My DS was able to secure jobs for his older brother and sister because he contacted the EVP to help his siblings. Going to Ivies is not going to help you if you do not have the "right" connections. Therefore, in my children situation, it is a resounding NO. It is not how much you know but who you know, or who knows you.

[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.

Gates, Zuckerberg and Obama all went to top private schools. Obama got into Occidental and later transferred to Columbia. Bezos went to River Oaks school for middle school which again is in an expensive part of Houston. So they all came from privilege.

People need to distinguish between privilege like Larry Ellison's kid who received several hundred million of investment from Larry for Skydance...and Mark Zuckerberg who's dad was/is a dentist and had little to nothing to do with the creation or success of Facebook.

I don't think Mark Zuckerberg or really anyone believes Facebook would exist if he had decided to attend a SUNY school as an example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attended Ivies, and they were both jobless after graduation, and worked at Starbucks. My youngest DS was a D1 recruited athlete at UNC Chapel Hill, and he got a job in IB after graduation because the EVP was an alum at UNC. My DS was able to secure jobs for his older brother and sister because he contacted the EVP to help his siblings. Going to Ivies is not going to help you if you do not have the "right" connections. Therefore, in my children situation, it is a resounding NO. It is not how much you know but who you know, or who knows you.

UNC is ranked in the top 30...and with Duke, UVA, Stanford, and Vanderbilt it has a unique combination of top D1 athletics and prestige.

Something also tells me that the siblings wouldn't have been considered at all if they had attended say VCU.