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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I wonder why so many buy into this idea that the only ticket to a successful future is the Ivy league.  Its no wonder that so many kids feel so much pressure.  Why do you want to raise your children with that?  And if they don't go to an ivy league school, will they feel like a failure?  I have seen too many kids burn out with this kind of pressure and it seems so pointless.[/quote]

I agree that I don't want to raise my children with the pressure that if you don't go to a top 10 school, you'll be a failure; I want them to be healthy, happy, successful no matter where they end up. But I'm also not blind to the fact that children who go to elite colleges, ON AVERAGE, get more opportunities than those who don't. It doesn't mean that all of us don't have the story of the guy who went to Penn State or U.Del or wherever, and ended up a CEO or a multi-millionaire. It just means that, ON AVERAGE, kids that go to the most elite schools tend to get the most impressive opportunities post-school, which then feeds on itself - one impressive opportunity opens the door to others, and then, like others have said, it's not so much about where you started out, but the fact that you got into Door #1, which led you to Door #2 and so on. Why wouldn't I want that for my kids IF they can get it? And obviously lots of parents think like me because the applications to the top 10 schools on the USNWR are *staggering*. The acceptance rates are ridiculously low. The yield rates are ridiculously high. Of course if my kids don't make it to those schools, I will be happy for them and hope for the best. But if there are doors that can be opened through the phenomenal connections that these schools yield, then of course I'd want those connections for them. It's not rocket science.[/quote]

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