Reply to Yale, Princeton & Columbia for Master's? Good Idea???

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, to answer your question - the master's programs from these schools are not considered as prestigious. As someone said, just look at the acceptance rates BUT, more importantly, it feels like your kid wants to use the master's program to make up for not getting into and experiencing the undergrad life and that is a bad, bad idea.

Can't speak about Columbia, but I got my master's from Yale (forestry) and have colleagues who have gotten their master's from Princeton and Harvard Kennedy. Let me tell you that grad school has nothing to do with undergrad, definitely not at Yale and I am sure at other places. As soon as you step on campus, you feel that Yale College and the undergrads are truly the center and heart of the place. They have their residential college system and have access to all the grad school resources. The whole university is really their playground. As a grad student, you are really in your own bubble, very separate from the undergrad experience. I can relate to the Stanford poster above who said that they didn't really feel like they went to Stanford. Well, I really didn't feel like I went to Yale. So my point is that as a master's student, your daughter will not have access to essential aspects of the undergrad experience which creates that bond between the college alums. It really is a completely different thing.

I also wanted to mention that from my experience a lot of people go for the ivy master's because they think that it will give them access to the WHOLE university alumni network since they have the name on their resume. Based on my experience and that of people I know, it really doesn't work that way. As a master's student at any one of these schools, you have access only to the alumni network from your grad program, definitely not undergrad. I can't tell you how many people I know from my Yale/Princeton/Harvard master programs who have had the following exchange:

A: I went to Yale/Princeton/Harvard.
B: Oh, me too. I was Branford '06/Lowell '06. Which college/house were you in?
A: Oh, I did my master's at HYP, so....(awkward silence)

I hope this really illustrates my point OP - the master's degree is not a substitute for having missed out on undergrad. I think your daughter should either make peace with where she is and make the best of it or look at transferring.

[/quote]

I echo this 100%, although I don't equate acceptance rates with a school's prestige (i.e., UChicago was a very prestigious school despite high acceptance rates when I was in college).  My DC just started at Yale and I can see that the entire university seems to be centered around the Yale college kids.  Having gotten a law degree from a top grad program and my BA from Columbia, I can also say that being an undergrad vs a grad student are such vastly different experiences.  Yes, it would be a nice additional credential but she needs to realize that getting the master's will not be a substitute for going there for college.  One benefit of getting the degree for her would be access to university-wide alumni functions and membership in alumni clubs.  [/quote]

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