Anyone else frustrated by the ivy league types in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:17:03: It does matter. I'm 10 years out of residency at Hopkins (which I hated) and have a solid but unexceptional work record. I have NEVER been denied an interview and have been offered jobs I did not apply for, even when I expressed little or no interest and made ridiculous demands. I am quite certain it's because of the John.

you mean The Johns? i always like it when universities are The University.

my ivy has come in handy, too. and no matter what people here say about it not really mattering in the end, which is true, it does still matter in the beginning.

[Anonymous]

no. i went to a private college that compares well to the ivies, so eat me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no college education (dropped out due to too much partying and lack of focus). I sell IT into the federal government and some years make much more than a doctor or lawyer. My best year I made 800K and my worst around 180K.

In sales you are only as good as your last deal. No one cares about what school you went to. You can have a MBA from Harvard and if you can't sell, you are out the door. Sales managers care more about your rolodex than your diploma.

I'm glad I did not waste more time or money in college. I started in sales at 23 and have enjoyed great prosperity ever since. I don't even have to work terrible hours and do most of my work from home unless I'm visit a customer. I consider myself a professional socializer, it's always been my forte. In sales, your best skill set is an ability to connect with a wide breadth of personalities and be persistent, not something an ivy league school teaches.

I was the SGA president, not the valedictorian

What do you sell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:17:03: It does matter. I'm 10 years out of residency at Hopkins (which I hated) and have a solid but unexceptional work record. I have NEVER been denied an interview and have been offered jobs I did not apply for, even when I expressed little or no interest and made ridiculous demands. I am quite certain it's because of the John.

Have to agree. I graduated from an Ivy med school (though my residency was less prestigious) and definitely find that my degree from there has paid off in job offers. Can't say that I wouldn't be where I am today coming from a lesser name med school, but I think the Ivy degree made it easier. It gives one a lot more options. Which is actually really depressing because I was hoping to not stress out about where my kids go to college, and now I think, it probably does matter! Damn!

I got an undergrad degree in the humanities from an Ivy and then went back to do post-bac work in the sciences. Some I did at the same Ivy and some I did at the local community college. What I discovered is that while Ivy science classes were tougher than the community college, science classes at the community college were a thousand times more demanding than humanities at the Ivy. So frankly, anyone with a BS from anywhere worked harder and learned more than I did in college...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I did not waste more time or money in college.

Sounds like it would have been wasted on you, but that's not the case for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no college education (dropped out due to too much partying and lack of focus). I sell IT into the federal government and some years make much more than a doctor or lawyer. My best year I made 800K and my worst around 180K.

In sales you are only as good as your last deal. No one cares about what school you went to. You can have a MBA from Harvard and if you can't sell, you are out the door. Sales managers care more about your rolodex than your diploma.

I'm glad I did not waste more time or money in college. I started in sales at 23 and have enjoyed great prosperity ever since. I don't even have to work terrible hours and do most of my work from home unless I'm visit a customer. I consider myself a professional socializer, it's always been my forte. In sales, your best skill set is an ability to connect with a wide breadth of personalities and be persistent, not something an ivy league school teaches.

I was the SGA president, not the valedictorian

What do you sell?

I sell virtualization SW...real exciting stuff.

To a PP, yes, I do realize that there are many ppl who need degrees, but there is certainly a WHOLE other side to DC that carve out a damn good living for themselves using entrepreneurial skills and good old fashion survival skills, which mainly consist of an ability use interpersonal skills to get ahead.

I will stress the importance with my kids of completing a degree, but I will equally guide them to mowing lawns, setting up lemonade stands, and teach them how to change their perception and view of others to get what they want out of life. This is the beauty of dealing with challenges; a challenge is only as difficult as your own perception of how to conquer it. This applies to the business world and your personal life.

[Anonymous]

The sole or even main point of a college education is not to increase your money-making potential. What about broadening your horizons? Learning about new fields? Opening your mind to other points of view?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no college education (dropped out due to too much partying and lack of focus). I sell IT into the federal government and some years make much more than a doctor or lawyer. My best year I made 800K and my worst around 180K.

In sales you are only as good as your last deal. No one cares about what school you went to. You can have a MBA from Harvard and if you can't sell, you are out the door. Sales managers care more about your rolodex than your diploma.

I'm glad I did not waste more time or money in college. I started in sales at 23 and have enjoyed great prosperity ever since. I don't even have to work terrible hours and do most of my work from home unless I'm visit a customer. I consider myself a professional socializer, it's always been my forte. In sales, your best skill set is an ability to connect with a wide breadth of personalities and be persistent, not something an ivy league school teaches.

I was the SGA president, not the valedictorian

What do you sell?

I sell virtualization SW...real exciting stuff.

To a PP, yes, I do realize that there are many ppl who need degrees, but there is certainly a WHOLE other side to DC that carve out a damn good living for themselves using entrepreneurial skills and good old fashion survival skills, which mainly consist of an ability use interpersonal skills to get ahead.

I will stress the importance with my kids of completing a degree, but I will equally guide them to mowing lawns, setting up lemonade stands, and teach them how to change their perception and view of others to get what they want out of life. This is the beauty of dealing with challenges; a challenge is only as difficult as your own perception of how to conquer it. This applies to the business world and your personal life.

Your posts are interesting to me because I just read an article about how the world's most successful people have overwhelmingly done these things in their childhoods. It's hard to find a major CEO who didn't deliver newspapers or sell lemonade as a child. I think it teaches your children an incredible work ethic - and how to gain satisfaction from getting a job done and getting rewarded for it.

One interesting thing that I read (and have also seen) is that parents who are the first-generation in their families to become really successful tend to hand everything to THEIR children on a silver platter - no after school jobs for them. And this has contributed to the trend of the next generation to become LESS successful than their parents.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Sorry for my semi-literate post. I was typing fast! I'm hoping the grammar police don't attack me.

[Anonymous]

maybe companies should force applicants from ivies to answer whether they got in through a family connection. i bet that would be enlightening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
One interesting thing that I read (and have also seen) is that parents who are the first-generation in their families to become really successful tend to hand everything to THEIR children on a silver platter - no after school jobs for them. And this has contributed to the trend of the next generation to become LESS successful than their parents.

That explains my parents, god love'em!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:maybe companies should force applicants from ivies to answer whether they got in through a family connection. i bet that would be enlightening.

wouldn't that be great! that would upset all the people who rail against affirmative action but cry foul if a school suggests doing away with legacy admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no. i went to a private college that compares well to the ivies, so eat me.

OT but is it eat me or bite me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sole or even main point of a college education is not to increase your money-making potential. What about broadening your horizons? Learning about new fields? Opening your mind to other points of view?

This can only be done in an academic setting? Who would have thought? I guess I learn something new every day.

Non-college grad here. I read voraciously, mainly non-fiction. My latest obsession is Zimbabwe and a writer by the name of Peter Godwin. A few years ago it was Anne Applebaum's Gulag that sent me on a Early 20th century Russian reading frenzy. Before that was Leon Uris's Exodus that lit my interest in fire about the history of Israel.

Just because you are a college graduate has NOTHING to do with having an enlightened POV. I have met many irritating college grads with no awareness that their POV is not the only POV on the planet. I actually find some of the most highly educated individuals have had their common sense schooled out of them.

The most intelligent and well rounded young adults/teens I have encountered are ones who are military brats and have traveled the world their entire lives.

[Anonymous]

No. The point was that the PP seemed to believe that the decision to invest in college was only justified if it delivered a financial return.