Anonymous wrote:With Senior year for HS'ers kicking off, I just want get this spiel off my chest and hopefully ease the stress of a lot of parents (and their DS/DDs). In terms of your future career prospects it matters very little where you go to college. You might say, "But the Ivy Leaguers [or equivalent prestige] get the best jobs, make the most money, advance the most quickly" and so on. There's a lot of truth to this. HOWEVER, it is not because these kids went to Ivy League colleges. It's because they were smart and driven enough to get into them (and graduate from them) in the first place.
Now don't get me wrong, it is definitely important, as far as career prospects go, to GO to college and to work hard and do well there. But other than working as a first-year analyst at an investment bank (which would be terrible for most people) there are few jobs where a going to an Ivy League is going to be a prerequisite.
What I think is much more important - and what no one gives enough thought to - is what their major is going to be. That actually has a much bigger determinant on career prospects than where one attends college. I.e., vastly different outcomes for engineering/economics/social work/English
OP -- I would change your point slightly and then I would agree. It does not have to matter where you go to college. You can launch from anywhere and be a big or small as life takes you. There is no limit to going anywhere.
But . . . at the same time there are more pathways the better the school and certainly in the Ivys and the top schools. There are more ways to launch to get to where you want to be. Doesn't mean you can't get there from somewhere else. Just that there are more routes. May be easier or maybe not. But more paths are better than less.
Agree on majors but just note your better English majors at Ivys and top schools are getting great jobs if they want them. Not true when you go down the food chain so I agree you need to pick carefully when out of the top schools.