Jobs and elite colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The advantages to a top college are many. First there is the education. Is an Ivy so much better or different that UVA? Maybe not. But it is so much better than other schools. The course work is not the same at Yale and Towson -- and Towson is a good school. More in depth, more thinking. Second, it is the connections and relationships you can make. Third it is what a PP said -- understanding what jobs or paths are out there. You many never know at your local state school. Next is the school's network. Next is the cache you get from the school that continues far into your career.

Does that mean a Yale kid will have a better outcome than someone else? No. There are more pathways open to the Yale kid. Yale kid may not take the right one or any of them. Yale kid might not have taken advantage of any of the above and is has the same number of potential paths that a State U kid does. Yale kid could just be a screw up or lazy.

And this is still America. State U kid can do anything. Kid can take paths open and be whatever.

But what cannot be denied is that the potential for the experience is better and the number of pathways open is greater coming from Yale and the like.

Best reply. Add to this that elite schools benefit first generation and blue collar, working class folk the most. I know; I was one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The advantages to a top college are many. First there is the education. Is an Ivy so much better or different that UVA? Maybe not. But it is so much better than other schools. The course work is not the same at Yale and Towson -- and Towson is a good school. More in depth, more thinking. Second, it is the connections and relationships you can make. Third it is what a PP said -- understanding what jobs or paths are out there. You many never know at your local state school. Next is the school's network. Next is the cache you get from the school that continues far into your career.

Does that mean a Yale kid will have a better outcome than someone else? No. There are more pathways open to the Yale kid. Yale kid may not take the right one or any of them. Yale kid might not have taken advantage of any of the above and is has the same number of potential paths that a State U kid does. Yale kid could just be a screw up or lazy.

And this is still America. State U kid can do anything. Kid can take paths open and be whatever.

But what cannot be denied is that the potential for the experience is better and the number of pathways open is greater coming from Yale and the like.

Best reply. Add to this that elite schools benefit first generation and blue collar, working class folk the most. I know; I was one of them.

Completely agree, I was one of them too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should hire from the top half of any college.

The lower half of a Harvard class will not be better than the top half of most other schools. This is discussed by Malcolm Gladwell in case you want to google the talk.

Judging based on school’s brand is a bit silly. But maybe firms like to have schools with good branding listed in the corporate bios?

I’ve never hired based on school and focus on skills and culture fit.

The bottom half is not equally distributed across majors.

Right. Much less grade inflation with science and engineering majors.

At reputable engineering schools, 1/3 of starting freshman don't graduate in engineering. So most of the bottom half have dropped out or changed majors.

I was going to say this. I went to Berkeley and the average gpa at graduation isn’t that low in engineering or in premed because the bottom of those majors change majors.