It’s Time to Tell Your Kids It Doesn’t Matter Where They Go To College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.

^^^

This.
Once you have experience in your field no one cares where you went to school.

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.

^^^

This.
Once you have experience in your field no one cares where you went to school.

Yup.

OP here. I think what the pro-elite school argument would say is that while professional success is certainly possible coming from a big state school, students increase their odds of getting their foot in the door by attending an elite school. This, of course, is debatable, depending on a number of things including career goals, but I think this is what the argument boils down to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The author of the piece posted by OP is by a practicing counselor in Silver Spring, MD. I think it's an advertising plant by someone Stixrud knows or by Stixrud imself.

OP. I'm certainly not the author. I'm in a similar field, but I'd never heard of him before this article, and didn't realize he was local.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.

^^^

This.
Once you have experience in your field no one cares where you went to school.

Yup.

OP here. I think what the pro-elite school argument would say is that while professional success is certainly possible coming from a big state school, students increase their odds of getting their foot in the door by attending an elite school. This, of course, is debatable, depending on a number of things including career goals, but I think this is what the argument boils down to.

+1 Just look at the list of companies that participate in on-campus recruiting at an elite school vs. state schools and it becomes pretty obvious what the differences are. And of course grads of state schools can be successful and grads of elite schools can be total failures but it is all about probability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.

^^^

This.
Once you have experience in your field no one cares where you went to school.

Yup.

OP here. I think what the pro-elite school argument would say is that while professional success is certainly possible coming from a big state school, students increase their odds of getting their foot in the door by attending an elite school. This, of course, is debatable, depending on a number of things including career goals, but I think this is what the argument boils down to.

+1 Just look at the list of companies that participate in on-campus recruiting at an elite school vs. state schools and it becomes pretty obvious what the differences are. And of course grads of state schools can be successful and grads of elite schools can be total failures but it is all about probability.

Well I guess there’s the rub- what are your values and what do you consider success? If you define success as working for a Wall Street firm to help multinational corporations get richer or defending these corporations as a lawyer, then I’ll concede and say yes, the elite school wins. But you don’t realize that many, many students have absolutely no interest in those fields to begin with and don’t need to have some high powered 70 hour week job in a high rise to consider themselves successful and fulfilled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sitting next to two people from Big 4 consulting firm upper level management the other day. One went to Georgetown for both undergrad and grad school. The other went to Maryland has an MBA from University of Phoenix. They're about the same age and have been with the firm for the same amount of time. Guess which one is up for partner this year and which one won't be up for a while.

I see this scenario a lot. I work for a firm that places CEOs/CFOs/Upper management with companies in the DMV area. I have people try to get recruited with MBAs from Univ. Of Phoenix and Strayer Univ. which my clients do not want. I just placed someone with undergrad and a MBA from Slippery Rock Univ. who was picked over a lower Ivy undergrad and Strayer MBA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sitting next to two people from Big 4 consulting firm upper level management the other day. One went to Georgetown for both undergrad and grad school. The other went to Maryland has an MBA from University of Phoenix. They're about the same age and have been with the firm for the same amount of time. Guess which one is up for partner this year and which one won't be up for a while.

Well don't keep us in suspense. Which one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is akin to it's doesn't matter which restaurant you eat at, you'll be full once you've ate. But sometimes you want the best food you can afford, or the best food for your money.

I do believe how a kid turns out has to do with her/his personality and work ethic more than the college s/he attends though.

And you want to enjoy yourself and the surroundings, including the company (like-minded company). Also some things are on offer that may not be elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.

^^^

This.
Once you have experience in your field no one cares where you went to school.

Yup.

OP here. I think what the pro-elite school argument would say is that while professional success is certainly possible coming from a big state school, students increase their odds of getting their foot in the door by attending an elite school. This, of course, is debatable, depending on a number of things including career goals, but I think this is what the argument boils down to.

+1 Just look at the list of companies that participate in on-campus recruiting at an elite school vs. state schools and it becomes pretty obvious what the differences are. And of course grads of state schools can be successful and grads of elite schools can be total failures but it is all about probability.

Well I guess there’s the rub- what are your values and what do you consider success? If you define success as working for a Wall Street firm to help multinational corporations get richer or defending these corporations as a lawyer, then I’ll concede and say yes, the elite school wins. But you don’t realize that many, many students have absolutely no interest in those fields to begin with and don’t need to have some high powered 70 hour week job in a high rise to consider themselves successful and fulfilled.

Sure, the world will always need ditch diggers and garbage men......if that's your desired career path more power to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do people think of this article--baloney, or does the author have a good point? He cites some research and essentially states that going to an elite college has little bearing on one's income, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction, and so we're focusing on the wrong thing when we push our kids towards attending an elite school as an end goal.

"We’ve all heard the familiar anxiety-inducing nostrums: That a screw-up in high school will follow you for the rest of your life. That if you don’t get into Harvard or Yale, you’ll never reach the c-suite. That the path to success is narrow and you’d better not take one false step. I have come to think of this unfounded belief system as what we psychologists call a “shared delusion.”

http://time.com/5210848/prestigious-college-doesnt-matter/

My kids are much younger, and so I'm interested in what parents who are facing these decisions currently or who have BTDT think.

I think it’s time for you to go to college and learn basic skills. Not every word in your title gets capitalized

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a halfway house for snowflake helicoptered kids to learn how to live without mom for a bit before they move back into moms basement.

Says the loser who never graduated HS and STILL lives with his mom...

Nope , I'm a multimillionaire who rents houses to college students and empty their parents ever inflating college savings into my bank account .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do people think of this article--baloney, or does the author have a good point? He cites some research and essentially states that going to an elite college has little bearing on one's income, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction, and so we're focusing on the wrong thing when we push our kids towards attending an elite school as an end goal.

"We’ve all heard the familiar anxiety-inducing nostrums: That a screw-up in high school will follow you for the rest of your life. That if you don’t get into Harvard or Yale, you’ll never reach the c-suite. That the path to success is narrow and you’d better not take one false step. I have come to think of this unfounded belief system as what we psychologists call a “shared delusion.”

http://time.com/5210848/prestigious-college-doesnt-matter/

My kids are much younger, and so I'm interested in what parents who are facing these decisions currently or who have BTDT think.

I think it’s time for you to go to college and learn basic skills. Not every word in your title gets capitalized

OP here. I have a Ph.D. (and while I didn't attend an elite school for undergrad, such schools were definitely overrepresented in my selective grad program). As for the title, I agree that the habit of capitalizing every word in a sentence is annoying, but that's not what I did here--I literally just copied and pasted the title from the article.

[Anonymous]

The quality of the school matters the most for an mrs degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.

^^^

This.
Once you have experience in your field no one cares where you went to school.

Yup.

OP here. I think what the pro-elite school argument would say is that while professional success is certainly possible coming from a big state school, students increase their odds of getting their foot in the door by attending an elite school. This, of course, is debatable, depending on a number of things including career goals, but I think this is what the argument boils down to.

+1 Just look at the list of companies that participate in on-campus recruiting at an elite school vs. state schools and it becomes pretty obvious what the differences are. And of course grads of state schools can be successful and grads of elite schools can be total failures but it is all about probability.

Well I guess there’s the rub- what are your values and what do you consider success? If you define success as working for a Wall Street firm to help multinational corporations get richer or defending these corporations as a lawyer, then I’ll concede and say yes, the elite school wins. But you don’t realize that many, many students have absolutely no interest in those fields to begin with and don’t need to have some high powered 70 hour week job in a high rise to consider themselves successful and fulfilled.

Sure, the world will always need ditch diggers and garbage men......if that's your desired career path more power to you.

If you don’t think there is any in between between digging ditches and being a garbage man and working 70 hours a week as an investment banker or big law associate, or that everyone except the .1% of the population that graduates from an elite school is destined to manual labor, you are too ridiculous for me to engage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sitting next to two people from Big 4 consulting firm upper level management the other day. One went to Georgetown for both undergrad and grad school. The other went to Maryland has an MBA from University of Phoenix. They're about the same age and have been with the firm for the same amount of time. Guess which one is up for partner this year and which one won't be up for a while.

you mean thunderbird mba of the now bankrupt online for profit phoenix?