Reply to What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?[/quote]

For the peer challenge, for one reason.

Second, for the ivy+ schools (ivies stanford MIT Duke Chicago) it has been shown that attending increases the chances for the top levels of certain career paths, ie topmost med schools, top law, top consulting, quantitative finance.

The next set of schools were not studied specifically but likely provide a next-best boost (WAS, JHU, Northwestern, WashU, Rice, UCB, CMU, 4-5 more)

It matters. [/quote]

This is great.  The next set “we’re not studied” but “likely” provide a “boost” so the conclusion that “it matters” is supported with no actual evidence. [/quote]

"Increasing the chances" is a near meaningless way of looking at data to the point that it's hokum. The Ivy League has a higher percentage of top students across all American universities so is it a chicken or egg situation?

I went to a midlevel Ivy. I work at a F500 in a fairly senior role. Few people of my rank and above have Ivy degrees and those will be mostly MBAs. Most went to state universities, particularly flagships.

I also attended a high performing private school and my class of 80 had 12 matriculate at the Ivy League plus one to Stanford and one to Duke. Plenty more went to the better LACs and Hopkins and Carniege Mellon and Chicago. Others went to nice flagship state universities. Broadly speaking, most of the Ivy grads didn't end up "better" in life. Some of the most successful graduates from my high school went to state universities and were academic dullards but thrived in the real world, usually in sales of some kind while others have also done very well in insurance.

I don't pay any attention to how going to HYP+ jumpstarts your career. It can help but the amount it helps is much more limited than many people want to believe. The average Ivy grad ends up in the same place as a comparable student who went to a different school for whatever reasons.

What really accelerates people's careers is having the right EQ for your industry. Most Ivy students aren't going to have it. Your lackadaisal athlete who barely passes his classes but has a keen EQ from his sports career will advance over an Ivy grinder. Seen it happen plenty of times.

Will say the most formidable species in modern corporate America is ex female college atheletes who were also in sororities. Because that's EQ to the max. [/quote]

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