Reply to Does it seem like all anti-elite college folks never actually attended an elite?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Had some family yesterday calling Ivies overrated, it doesn't matter where you go to undergrad, going overboard about how fantastic their children's state school or unranked private college is. I've never encountered anyone with a credential from an elite who talks like that.[/quote]

Uh, have you ever encountered someone from a state school? Have you ever hired multiple people from varying schools and noticed how the 'elite education' employees can be insufferably full of themselves and not necessarily great employees?[/quote]

We have a Cornell grad and a Dartmouth grad - both wonderful and humble people and the opposite of "full of themselves".

You sound jealous, PP.  [/quote]

NP here -- but are Cornell and Dartmouth really top Ivies?

Just kidding.

I went to Stanford and Harvard Law, and while I got a great education at both places and feel like the names have opened doors for me, I also know it's no golden ticket.  We all know jerks who went to "elite" schools and ended up drinking Woolite in the gutter.  And we all know state school grads who are fabulously successful, yet salt-of-the-earth folks.  Anecdotes will only get you so far, but the research yields murkier and more nuanced data.  Here's an interesting summary of some results:   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/weekinreview/19steinberg.html

My take:  the obsession with "elite" colleges -- whether reverential or dismissive -- is unhealthy, short-sighted, and based on specious reasoning.  Where you went to college says a lot about who you were when you were 18.  I'm closing in on 60, and I know that what you do after that is what really makes a difference in terms of both personal and professional success in the long-run.

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