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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It seems to be pretty common knowledge that for the vast majority of applicants, getting accepted to a school like Harvard or Yale is pretty much a lottery. So why are these insanely selective schools still considered better than all of the others? Why haven't we let the idea of "prestigious" colleges go? [b]Many students get equal or better educations at their state school[/b].[/quote]

Because they don't get an equal or better education at a state school. As one who started at one then transferred to another...the difference is vast. The middle-50s state school with good engineering was not anywhere close to the pace and depth of classes, and without professor guided research opportunities at the elite private school with amazing engineering. The peers from the better school have gone far and wide, with startups or into academia or high up in industry. The midlevel state peers have midlevel tech-type jobs that are closer to IT jobs than innovative engineering. They make 70-100k in their 40s and hit their ceiling long ago. Their bosses are almost all top engineering program grads. Professors, who are great at both, will be the first to admit they have to dumb down for the state schools, and do not have the resources to take on and pay undergraduates for research. Fast forward 25 yrs and sophomore history kid and peers at a top10 uni had to explain primary sources and tips on keeping up with reading to a junior transfer from a LAC ranked in the 20s. The lac kid was completely unprepared for the transfer. Yet had a 4.0 from the prior school. They said the workload was almost double, in the humanities no less, which dcum often mocks and does not understand is also much more rigorous at elite schools. [/quote]

Cool, here’s my anecdote. I went to a state school and I work with a bunch of people that went to ivies and I keep getting promoted over them. Don’t worry, it’s not because I went to a state school, it’s that no one cares where anyone went to undergrad and undergrad education has such little impact on our work. Life is not a series of exams.[/quote]

Where do you work and what is your job?

Sounds like you are just one of thousands of posters with an unnamed person and unnamed position claiming something.

The verifiable most successful people in the world are heavily concentrated in top schools.

So, I guess you lose the anecdote contest?[/quote]

DP: So are you. [/quote]

One what?  Go look at the Forbes 400 and where they went to school and the concentration in a small group of schools.

Hence, the verifiable successful people.

[/quote]

"So which schools produce the most Forbes 400 members? Altogether, 24% of the college graduates went to Ivy League schools. However, if you count only Ivy League grads who are designated by Forbes as self-made, having earned their fortunes rather than inheriting them, the percentage drops to 14%." - Forbes

"Just over a fifth of Forbes 400 members never graduated from college. Another 243 went to schools that were not Ivies." - also Forbes

If you count fortune 500 CEOs the numbers are even less IVY+ oriented.

IVY+ is pretty important in academia, management consulting, finance (this is where a lot of the Forbes 400 IVY+ folks come from).

Jack Welch (perhaps the best businessman I have ever met) went to Amherst.  A great school but probably not up to your standards.[/quote]

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