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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I haven't read this whole thread, but I got my undergrad at a mid-level state school and my masters from an Ivy, so I thought I'd contribute my own personal experience.

My perspective on it is this: no college of any level will guarantee you a job afterward. All you have when you graduate is academic knowledge and social connections. It's incumbent on the individual to go out and make things happen with the resources they have. Also, academic knowledge often is only vaguely useful in your chosen job field. When hiring new grads at my business, we anticipate at least a year of training them up to be competent.

The smartest people I encountered at the Ivy I went to were no smarter than the smartest people I encountered at my mid-level state school. Practically speaking, there seems to be an upper limit to how intelligent people can be, and you can find people of that level at most universities. However, I did notice that the AVERAGE intelligence and drive at the Ivy was higher than the average at the state school. I.e. there were a greater number of slackers and dummies at the state school (though there were also slackers and dummies at the Ivy!), so you were more likely to find people at state school who didn't really give a flip and were just there to coast and party. (Again, that personality also existed at the Ivy I went to, just in much smaller quantities).

Thus far (about ten years out from my grad degree) the main difference I've noticed is the social network. Probably 15% - 20% people I went to the Ivy with are now in C-level leadership positions at companies. Having remained friendly and in good contact with these people, they are now business colleagues. Conversely, I've also remained friendly and in good contact with the people I went to state school with, and less than 1% of those people are in any positions of leadership, let alone C-level leadership. I only have continuing business interests with one person from the state school.

Obviously this is just a persona anecdotal story, though, so take it with a grain of salt. [/quote]

Worth reading. Thank you.[/quote]

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