I went to a Top School and I think state schools are the way to go

[Anonymous]

Here is the thing-- after your first job you should never be dealing blindly with an HR person. You should be networking with decision makers and HR should be a formality. No doubt an Ivy education is a plus early on but it can also be a curse later in life. How you might ask? There is nothing that says loser more than a guy stuck in middle mgt at middle age who has a Harvard MBA, Law degree etc. people say things like "WTF is the matter with that guy-- can you believe he went to Harvard." You see this all the time. When it is up to you to "eat what you kill" as they say, degrees matter little and your abilities are what count. Meritocracy is alive and well in corporate America, consulting firms, investment banks etc. Ability to bring in business is what gets you paid the big bucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH and I went to state for undergrad. I went to state also for law school and he went to a so-so priivate MBA School. We've both done fairly well. Our kid went to top Ivy and never had to prove to anyone how smart she was. Even Goldman Sachs CEOs know that they can't even buy their kids way into Havrard, Princeton, or Yale w/o a big donation. So, they know those kids are top brains. It is possible to go to University of Nowhere and end up at great places...but it's more likely to be a "diamond in the rough" star vs. a whole bunch of fellow workers from a class of Princeton or Harvard. And, then, the diamond in the rough may feel excluded and not part of the team.

So, yes, everything is possible...it's just harder to prove oneself coming from Nowheresville U

I find this interesting. I work with people from Ivy Leagues, and people from "Nowheresville U." I cannot say, from years of experience working with people from different universities, that the Ivy League grads clearly demonstrate "top brains." In fact, some of the sharpest and most well-rounded people are not from those schools. So when I meet someone with an Ivy degree, I do not make the assumption that they are smarter, and neither do most people around me. Anyway, workplace success is usually about much more than just 'top brains,' it's ability to communicate, inter-personal skills, ambition, sensitivity, wisdom.

My impression is that getting into an Ivy League isn't so much about being smart, as having some stand-out aspect of your background, the right background, coming from a legacy, and other factors that change with time. It's very arbitrary.

That may be because the person from the state school had to be more impressive and work harder and prove himself more than the person with the ivy degree, who had an easier time getting in and getting promoted because of the ivy degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was look at Carleton, Williams, etc. for my DD, but there's no way we could afford it without going into debt. State it is for us, can't justify it.

'

Know a graduating senior whose offer at a selective liberal arts college was such that it would be much cheaper than the state schools she applied for. It's often the kids who would get the best financial aid packages at private institutions who don't even bother to apply, which is sad. (Not sure if this applies to you, though.)

I agree. For a lot of kids, private schools often turn out to be cheaper than state schools.

Details please? For us UMCP - in state - would be much cheaper than say Pomona, Kenyon, etc.

Are you sure? Did you get accepted at compare the aid packages?

The fanciest institutions, Harvard, yale, Princeton, etc, often have the most money and thus the most aid to give. You see kids apply to random schools thinking they can't afford Harvard when in fact the random school would wind up costing more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once you are in the real world it does not matter where you went to college. It is all about how you present yourself, speak, write, how hard you work, how creative you are, how dependable you are, how much useful information you actually learned at college. It does not matter if you went to Big State U or Private Preppy College, it just matters how you present yourself to the world when you have graduated.

Not true in a lot of fields in stays conscious dc (big law, attorney positions at doj and state etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If two people apply for a job and one went to University of Minnesota and one went to Dartmouth, the only thing that will matter is who nails the job interview.

Where do you live? I'm sorry but this is just not true in DC. School snobbery is alive and well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the top colleges and universities DO NOT offer merit aid. They meet some or all financial need only. And in general most of the well-known colleges and universities in major northeast cities and other desirable locations don't offer merit aid because they don't need to. There are plenty of people willing to pay to pay full-price or take big loans to attend BU, BC, NYU, GWU, UMiami, USC.

When you move out of the northeast/midAtlantic/west coast, and especially if you step down a level in prestige, you find many private colleges and universities that offer merit aid, and some offer lots. Some of these schools don't cost nearly $60k even at full price, making them more "affordable" (cough cough) in the first place.

If you are seeking affordable alternatives to in-state public universities, do not look to schools on the coasts. Look to the mid-west and the south. Lower tuition, less competition for slots, and often merit aid for good students that can make them viable alternatives to in-state publics. These can be great options for a kid who would prefer a small school or who would like to go out of state.

BU, BC, NYU, GWU, USC, etc are not "top schools." Of course it would be better to go to state school. Top school means HYP, top five SLAC, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If two people apply for a job and one went to University of Minnesota and one went to Dartmouth, the only thing that will matter is who nails the job interview.

Where do you live? I'm sorry but this is just not true in DC. School snobbery is alive and well.

I have lived in DC, Boston, LA, and the Midwest. What I have seen in the real world is that everyone recognizes a star at work when you see them and work with them. By the time you are 30, 40, no one cares what it says in a dusty file cabinet where you went to college. Companies just want the best proven people working for them.

[Anonymous]

Talking about aid, here's a cut-n-paste from a recent thread on CC

Our income is very low $60's and we were only offered $2400 in an institutional grant and a Stafford loan. This is with only one child in college. Lehigh said that we were denied getting more because we have equity built up in our house.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/lehigh-university/1502832-how-good-lehighs-financial-aid.html?highlight=scholarship

[Anonymous]

another example...

Lehigh's financial aid left a lot to be desired. There is basically no merit aid. My son got merit aid from other schools, but nothing form Lehigh. We got priced out as they only offered $12k need based. We would have ended up paying $45k, and with two other kids coming up behind our oldest that was completely unaffordable. I talked with both FA office and Admissions counselor, but got nowhere. Your situation would be better than ours as our income is higher and we don't have anyone else in college, but are paying for private school which Lehigh did take into consideration

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If two people apply for a job and one went to University of Minnesota and one went to Dartmouth, the only thing that will matter is who nails the job interview.

Where do you live? I'm sorry but this is just not true in DC. School snobbery is alive and well.

I am not the PP.
I live in MoCo. I work in IT and it would not matter if somebody went to Dartmouth but I only hire high level architects.

I have a large family and my UMCP brother is doing much better than my Duke brother. (That is if you mean $$$$)

I can really look at a gazillion people and if you look at "doing well" as $$$ (many of my friends/family do not value $$$... many are in service jobs) but it is all over the board when it comes to success and where you went to school.

I think the people that I know that went to Ivy believe that is why there are so successful and my friends/family that went to UMCP and are equally successful would say it's about working hard. So it is perspective.

I would say that most the people I know own their own businesses though are not necessarily lawyers. So maybe that is the difference, though we have 3 lawyers in my immediate family. (And 2 hate being lawyers.) Maybe you would say they are not as successful as the Ivy lawyers because they make $500K instead of $800+, what is your definition of "success".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If two people apply for a job and one went to University of Minnesota and one went to Dartmouth, the only thing that will matter is who nails the job interview.

Where do you live? I'm sorry but this is just not true in DC. School snobbery is alive and well.

It is like dating. Would really pass up the opportunity to go out with someone if they were smart, funny, kind, good looking, physically fit if they went to a state school? Would you continue dating someone if they just didn't do it for you but they went to a top private college. Well companies are the same way. They evaluate the whole package. I am not down on the top private colleges, just on how much they cost. I think because of this you are going to see more and more outstanding people graduating from solid state colleges and being just as competitive in the job market.

[Anonymous]

IT is some what of a different animal. There are people in my dept making over $200k with no degree. They come up through the ranks back in the day.

[Anonymous]

Prospective students need to look at what kind of education they'll actually get at whatever schools they are considering. Are they just going to sit in big lectures the whole time? Or are there opportunities for engaged, hands-on learning? Does the school do a good job of placing students in internships or giving them other opportunities to apply their learning? Employers are much more interested in what graduates can actually do, than what their major was or what institution they attended. Obviously, that's only true to a degree - an institution's reputation has an influence. But a graduate from UPenn can easily blow an interview while a grad from Drexel can point to exactly what practical experiences they've had and how they've learned how to apply what they know.

Having interviewed a lot of people, I definitely no longer make assumptions based on what institution they attended.

[Anonymous]

I have two male cousins both in their early 40's. One cousin grew up on the east coast, went to Harvard, now lives in the Midwest. He is doing great. He is married, two kids, has a great career, and is well off financially. I have another cousin who is in his early 40's, grew up in the Midwest, went to the University of Iowa, and now lives in DC. He is married, has three kids, has a fantastic career and is very well off financially. No one cares where they went to college now. They both did well for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IT is some what of a different animal. There are people in my dept making over $200k with no degree. They come up through the ranks back in the day.

I agree and I also think owning your own business is a different animal. But... what are we talking about laywers, right. Maybe financial managers.

What degrees really matter and then there are so many more degress/paths to "success".

Most paths don't need a "top school" but I am biased, I think UMCP is a "top school" but then again I am in IT.

It seems this website has so much tunnel vision.