Does it seem like all anti-elite college folks never actually attended an elite?

[Anonymous]

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Graduates of elite colleges DO make more money over time than their counterparts at less elite schools. By itself, this statistic would lead you to believe that it was the college that gave them the earnings boost. But if you control for the colleges students apply to and were accepted to, the differences in compensation disappear. For example, a student who attends Penn State, but who also had applied and been accepted to the more prestigious University of Pennsylvania earns as much over time, on average, as a student who attended U Penn.

Nobody that gets into Penn ends up at Penn State. These absurd hypotheticals you anti-elite folks try to pitch are absurd.

Not Penn State, but my sister got into U of Penn and ended up going to one of our state colleges because she wanted to be a nurse and my parents said no way they would pay for a Penn degree for a nursing career. She's done very well, ultimately got a masters in nursing and is now managing all training for the nursing staff for a large hospital while also teaching a nursing program. U of Penn would have given her a lot of debt but likely not impacted her career. Going to the affordable in-state college was a good choice.

I have an intern right now who turned down Yale to go to U. of Alabama for free. He's great and I'm sure will have a great career.

There are a lot of reasons people would choose a public university over an Ivy but for the most part it will come down to the cost.

Too bad about your sister! University of Pennsylvania has the #1 nursing program in the country! I think it well could have impacted her career - you can't know one way or the other.

Hey - congrats - you were trying to sound like an asshole and you succeeded. Way to go schmuck...

Not only an asshole, but someone with really stupid financial sense.

[Anonymous]

Ah look, the anti-elites have shown up with their "$300K in debt" talking point. So stale.

Elites have the best financial aid and no loan policies. Please stop spewing your insecure ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Attended Dartmouth and think my DS got a much better education at his small Midwest Colleges that Change Lives College from which he just graduated phi beta kappa and summa cum laude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah look, the anti-elites have shown up with their "$300K in debt" talking point. So stale.

Elites have the best financial aid and no loan policies. Please stop spewing your insecure ignorance.

What a weird comment. I got into Chicago and chose to go to Illinois. It was absolutely a purely financial decision and one I do not regret. I don't speak from a place of ignorance, but from one of having actually been there and done that. If you can afford it, go ahead and go to an elite. I could not.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I dunno. I wish I hadn't taken out so much money in loans to go to Ivy. Ten years later and I have a menial job that I dislike.

Hah like me I was a working class striver who went to an ivy. Without the network and family connections, career wise an ivy degree isn't worth THAT much. It will help for applying to jobs, but won't get you into the masters of the universe club -- you have to born into that.

Yup. Me too. I have a respectable career but those degrees didn't have any sort of magical effect on my life. The people who have that much faith in ivies to change your life or your child's life usually didn't go there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I didn't go to an Ivy. I went to state school, and BU for law school. I'm a partner in a law firm. The partner in the office next to me went to Harvard and Duke. Yet we both wound up at the same place at the same age. Tell me again about how it matters?

You must have better critical reasoning skills to be a successful attorney. On the whole, alumni of elite schools have more prestigious and lucrative careers than alumni of less prestigious schools. There are exceptions to every general trend.

Well, yes. But that doesn't mean it's the school that did that.

The research is very clear that students who get into elite schools but don't attend do just as well as those who DO attend. Which, again, shows that it's not really the school, it's the students themselves.

+1

This.

Graduates of elite colleges DO make more money over time than their counterparts at less elite schools. By itself, this statistic would lead you to believe that it was the college that gave them the earnings boost. But if you control for the colleges students apply to and were accepted to, the differences in compensation disappear. For example, a student who attends Penn State, but who also had applied and been accepted to the more prestigious University of Pennsylvania earns as much over time, on average, as a student who attended U Penn.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah look, the anti-elites have shown up with their "$300K in debt" talking point. So stale.

Elites have the best financial aid and no loan policies. Please stop spewing your insecure ignorance.

I'm a nurse practitioner with 25+ years of experience in the field, I've worked with, hired, and trained nurses who graduated from schools ranging from University of Pennsylvania to nurses who have AA degrees from trade schools, and I can say with confidence that unless money is not really a barrier (i.e. no major sacrifices like putting off retirement or taking out a second mortgage) or you get significant financial aid, it is NOT, under any circumstances, worth it to spend upwards of $250K for a nursing degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

And that makes me stale, insecure, and ignorant? Whatever.

[Anonymous]

I was agnostic about elite colleges until I moved to DC and started working alongside Ivy graduates. Lots of ego and nothing to back it up.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I went to a state university for undergrad and an elite school for my PhD.

My take is the graduates of the state school are every bit as good as those who graduate from the elite school.

There's no way you really believe this.

PP here. I absolutely believe this. There is nothing inherently superior to a Harvard Education compared with A good state school. Except, you are exposed to more people with more resources.

[Anonymous]

I went to a state school.

I now have more than a dozen Ivy and similar grads working for me as well as many from other good schools

Generalizations are tough but I can tell you that when we discuss reviews, comp and performance, nobody says that Jimmy should get the bump or the promotion because he went to Harvard.

Just my perspective but grit and determination get you farther in business than your educational pedigree. You live your life forward, not backward. Getting into an Ivy is about how well you did in high school. I care about that about as much as I do about the car you drove in high school

A lot happens after you turn 22 and most of that impacts your career more than your degree. If you hang your hat on where you went to college you are right there with the high school jock in my eyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah look, the anti-elites have shown up with their "$300K in debt" talking point. So stale.

Elites have the best financial aid and no loan policies. Please stop spewing your insecure ignorance.

What a weird comment. I got into Chicago and chose to go to Illinois. It was absolutely a purely financial decision and one I do not regret. I don't speak from a place of ignorance, but from one of having actually been there and done that. If you can afford it, go ahead and go to an elite. I could not.

So true. What is worse, I went to an Ivy and they reduced my financial aid substantially the second year, despite the fact my dad suffered an injury that year that meant he will never work again/is fully disabled. He is on Ssa disability now and has been since then. Hope you feel good about that, Harvard assholes. When you send me emails constantly about my "last chance" to donate to the HLS fund, Just know I enjoy median with your donation numbers. I will never give you a red cent.

[Anonymous]

Messing, not median.

[Anonymous]

I am a hiring manager. The name of the school you attended tells me who you were at the ages of 18 to 22. A few years past that, it really doesn't matter whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't go to an Ivy. I went to state school, and BU for law school. I'm a partner in a law firm. The partner in the office next to me went to Harvard and Duke. Yet we both wound up at the same place at the same age. Tell me again about how it matters?

You must have better critical reasoning skills to be a successful attorney. On the whole, alumni of elite schools have more prestigious and lucrative careers than alumni of less prestigious schools. There are exceptions to every general trend.

Well, yes. But that doesn't mean it's the school that did that.

The research is very clear that students who get into elite schools but don't attend do just as well as those who DO attend. Which, again, shows that it's not really the school, it's the students themselves.

+1

This.

Graduates of elite colleges DO make more money over time than their counterparts at less elite schools. By itself, this statistic would lead you to believe that it was the college that gave them the earnings boost. But if you control for the colleges students apply to and were accepted to, the differences in compensation disappear. For example, a student who attends Penn State, but who also had applied and been accepted to the more prestigious University of Pennsylvania earns as much over time, on average, as a student who attended U Penn.

Yep.

From what I recall from this research, it is true for middle to upper middle class white kids. For people of color, first generation students, and students from economically disadvantaged families, there is still a measurable impact on earnings from attending an elite school, even controlling for whether a student could get into the elite school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah look, the anti-elites have shown up with their "$300K in debt" talking point. So stale.

Elites have the best financial aid and no loan policies. Please stop spewing your insecure ignorance.

I'm a nurse practitioner with 25+ years of experience in the field, I've worked with, hired, and trained nurses who graduated from schools ranging from University of Pennsylvania to nurses who have AA degrees from trade schools, and I can say with confidence that unless money is not really a barrier (i.e. no major sacrifices like putting off retirement or taking out a second mortgage) or you get significant financial aid, it is NOT, under any circumstances, worth it to spend upwards of $250K for a nursing degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

And that makes me stale, insecure, and ignorant? Whatever.

Straw man. How many nurses at Penn are 100% full pay? Probably none.