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

[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.

It's "once you've eaten", pp not "once you've ate."

[Anonymous]

Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Yes, but my undergrad is a Top 10 school, while my grad degree is from a school that has a great department for my field but doesn't elicit the "Ooo, you must be smart."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Yes, but my undergrad is a Top 10 school, while my grad degree is from a school that has a great department for my field but doesn't elicit the "Ooo, you must be smart."

Wouldn’t a prospective employer in your field know that?
A great example of one who can’t let go of undergrad and is embarrassed about the name of his/her grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Stupid question.... of course they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Stupid question.... of course they do.

agreed. Indeed, why would you leave it off? Trying to hide something?

[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.

So true. Have met many unsuccessful overeducated people, they can't overcome their bad personality or mental problems in spite of a degree from a respected school. In the real world, your people skills are more important than what you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Among my circle of friends, this is the farthest thing from success. Most of us work to help people less fortunate than us (public health, non profits helping spread the word on vaccines, etc.)
I'll stick with my poorer, less "successful", graduated from "your diploma is worth less than the paper it's printed on" school friends any day.

[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 the author is a bit off base. He fails to ask where will the kid get the best education? Isn't that why you go to college?

The other stuff, income, job satisfaction, happiness those are driven by personal qualities - and while the author is probably right about these things those are ancilliary at best to getting a good efucation.

[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.

Love this response. Well said.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, rubes it doesn't matter where your kids go!

...so please stop applying, so it's easier for the international jet set trash and media elite's kids to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, rubes it doesn't matter where your kids go!

...so please stop applying, so it's easier for the international jet set trash and media elite's kids to get in.

Well, actually maybe you're onto something there....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Stupid question.... of course they do.

agreed. Indeed, why would you leave it off? Trying to hide something?

I hire lots of people and most with grad degrees don't list undergrad institution. I didn't know this was unusual; if you're applying for a job where a grad degree is required why does undergrad degree matter? So no, it's not a "stupid question."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Stupid question.... of course they do.

agreed. Indeed, why would you leave it off? Trying to hide something?

I hire lots of people and most with grad degrees don't list undergrad institution. I didn't know this was unusual; if you're applying for a job where a grad degree is required why does undergrad degree matter? So no, it's not a "stupid question."

I list my undergrad. My PhD is from an Ivy, my undergrad is from UNC. I think including both offers some support to my claims that I am able to work in diverse (which includes more than race) environments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: does anyone above the age of 30 put their undergrad institution on their resume if they have an advanced degree?

Stupid question.... of course they do.

agreed. Indeed, why would you leave it off? Trying to hide something?

I hire lots of people and most with grad degrees don't list undergrad institution. I didn't know this was unusual; if you're applying for a job where a grad degree is required why does undergrad degree matter? So no, it's not a "stupid question."

I list my undergrad. My PhD is from an Ivy, my undergrad is from UNC. I think including both offers some support to my claims that I am able to work in diverse (which includes more than race) environments.

I went to Harvard Law School and would absolutely list my public state univ undergrad. It’s part of my history. I would think it was weird for someone to leave it off if I was hiring.