What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?

[Anonymous]

better peer group

[Anonymous]

My wife and I graduated from JMU in 1990, and we are both federal government employees. We have a very typical DMV middle-class lifestyle. We fly coach and stay in low-budget motels whenever we are on vacation. We were passed over for promotions many times because we did not have the right “connections.” My DS graduated from an Ivy League university in 2024 as a student-athlete. One of the perks of being an outstanding athlete is that he gets to know many powerful people who are in positions to help and guide him in his professional career. Two of his best friends come from families worth $200M+, one whose parent is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and the other whose parent is the CFO of a Fortune 100 company. DS travels many times with these two friends on private NetJets to many places during spring break and in the summer. These friends go out of their way to help DS with internship opportunities and jobs after graduation. DS received multiple job offers through “connections” with these two friends, and he is doing extremely well financially.

Would DS have done as well if he had attended JMU instead of an Ivy League university? It is certainly possible, but it would have been extremely difficult without those “connections.” Going to an Ivy League school is like being selected in the first round of the NFL draft, while going to JMU is like being drafted last or signing as an undrafted free agent. Tom Brady and Brock Purdy were both picked near the end of the draft but still succeeded; however, they are the exception rather than the norm.

[Anonymous]

To make themselves more important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I graduated from JMU in 1990, and we are both federal government employees. We have a very typical DMV middle-class lifestyle. We fly coach and stay in low-budget motels whenever we are on vacation. We were passed over for promotions many times because we did not have the right “connections.” My DS graduated from an Ivy League university in 2024 as a student-athlete. One of the perks of being an outstanding athlete is that he gets to know many powerful people who are in positions to help and guide him in his professional career. Two of his best friends come from families worth $200M+, one whose parent is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and the other whose parent is the CFO of a Fortune 100 company. DS travels many times with these two friends on private NetJets to many places during spring break and in the summer. These friends go out of their way to help DS with internship opportunities and jobs after graduation. DS received multiple job offers through “connections” with these two friends, and he is doing extremely well financially.

Would DS have done as well if he had attended JMU instead of an Ivy League university? It is certainly possible, but it would have been extremely difficult without those “connections.” Going to an Ivy League school is like being selected in the first round of the NFL draft, while going to JMU is like being drafted last or signing as an undrafted free agent. Tom Brady and Brock Purdy were both picked near the end of the draft but still succeeded; however, they are the exception rather than the norm.

Were they fellow athletes?

[Anonymous]

Status and prestige make the world go round, especially in DCUM land.

Imagine you meet two social workers.

One attended Princeton, the other attended Frostburg.

Do you judge them the same? Be honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Status and prestige make the world go round, especially in DCUM land.

Imagine you meet two social workers.

One attended Princeton, the other attended Frostburg.

Do you judge them the same? Be honest.

Why is what I think more important than what their bosses think? I have no power over either of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

Not to beat a dead horse, but same. We have been amazed at the outreach and active recruiting for internships directly to our college sophomore. We debated the $- as full pay, but it’s already been worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

I don't stalk my student's job portal, but I find this mostly bs. They are applying for the same national positions as everyone else. Hell, their job portal is open to the public, so there aren't that many secrets to share.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

I don't stalk my student's job portal, but I find this mostly bs. They are applying for the same national positions as everyone else. Hell, their job portal is open to the public, so there aren't that many secrets to share.

DP. Network. And many of the opportunities my kid has been presented our told to him by a professor and given the info to apply (not jobs yet- only a sophomore), but internships, paid research opportunities abroad in summer, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

Where are these jobs being advertised? My son is at HYP and if you’re not in finance, the jobs are all study-abroad types.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I graduated from JMU in 1990, and we are both federal government employees. We have a very typical DMV middle-class lifestyle. We fly coach and stay in low-budget motels whenever we are on vacation. We were passed over for promotions many times because we did not have the right “connections.” My DS graduated from an Ivy League university in 2024 as a student-athlete. One of the perks of being an outstanding athlete is that he gets to know many powerful people who are in positions to help and guide him in his professional career. Two of his best friends come from families worth $200M+, one whose parent is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and the other whose parent is the CFO of a Fortune 100 company. DS travels many times with these two friends on private NetJets to many places during spring break and in the summer. These friends go out of their way to help DS with internship opportunities and jobs after graduation. DS received multiple job offers through “connections” with these two friends, and he is doing extremely well financially.

Would DS have done as well if he had attended JMU instead of an Ivy League university? It is certainly possible, but it would have been extremely difficult without those “connections.” Going to an Ivy League school is like being selected in the first round of the NFL draft, while going to JMU is like being drafted last or signing as an undrafted free agent. Tom Brady and Brock Purdy were both picked near the end of the draft but still succeeded; however, they are the exception rather than the norm.

Were they fellow athletes?

PP here. They were not fellow athletes. One of the things about being an athlete is that kids from wealthy families want to hang out with you because they think it’s cool. The athlete is just being nice to them, and he can get away with just about anything. DS was invited multiple times to the Hamptons and Beverly Hills with his friends and their families. He even dated one of his wealthy friends’ cousins. He made himself visible to people who are decision-makers who can influence his future career.

[Anonymous]

If you had to choose between saving a stranger who graduated from a top college and a stranger who graduated from a no-name college, who would you save?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

In the case of my DC's Ivy in the student access portal and from the employers who come on campus. Definity a lot are in finance/consulting but there are others in media, arts and biotech as well.

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

Where are these jobs being advertised? My son is at HYP and if you’re not in finance, the jobs are all study-abroad types.

[Anonymous]

Why do you think that Stanford swimmer got such a lenient sentence? Do you think he would’ve got off so easy if he’d attended a no-name state university, even if he’d been just as good a swimmer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, no one is getting jobs now…

No. Only top school students are getting the good jobs. The unemployment rate for ivies is much lower than for T30s, and the salary of first job has stayed roughly the same or slight drop at ivy/stanford while it is down at T30 and below.
Companies are going to their target schools for job hires more than ever. School reputation and rigor is more important than ever.

Data for this please. Or are you pulling it out of your a$$?

Not PP, who probably chose not to respond based on how crudely you posed your query. But this has been the subject of multiple articles lately, so it's been in everyone's news feed in some form.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/06/recruiting-college-isnt-dead-top-schools-not-talent-is-everywhere/

+1
It is frustrating in some sense as three to four years ago companies were looking far outside of the targets. Now that TO is gone at almost all top schools, plus the poor economy, top schools carry more weight the next 5-10 yrs

True. When it is easier to hire, i.e. hundreds to thousands applying for every job, hiring managers use easy signifiers to winnow down the field and college name/rank is chief among the factors. They will also revert to network hiring to avoid getting inundated with applications. My kid is at an Ivy and the outreach/jobs only advertised to these students is a bit shocking.

Yes. Same. It is jaw dropping sometimes.

I don't stalk my student's job portal, but I find this mostly bs. They are applying for the same national positions as everyone else. Hell, their job portal is open to the public, so there aren't that many secrets to share.

When McKinsey, Bain, SpaceX, N-G and the like come to campus to hold recruiting events for the (ivy) students, it is clear there is a difference. Startups come too. Additionally. phD programs reach out to departments offering Q and A sessions. TOP PHD programs, ivy/elite or T10 in the field.