Anonymous wrote:I guess it depends on your definition of "everything". DH and I are pretty happy with our lives, but we didn't go to an Ivy. We do alright, probably top 5%er. So for us, everything didn't hang on getting into an ivy.

And didn't they do a study where they found that people who went to Ivies were less happy than others?

So, there you go.. not everything does hang on it.

+100

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that part of the reason grads or undergrads from top tier 1 schools out earn counterparts is because a lot of them land the higher paying jobs at more prestigious firms and such due to connections, alma mater, etc....

I noticed this at the Law firm. There are no non- top 10 laws school grads who are partners. None.

Strange firm then. That is a not at all a universal truth. Sheesh.

Not even kinda at least from my experience.

1st pp, what kind of firm is this? I have yet to come across a firm with ALL top 10 partners.

Yes, please provide this law firm's name.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that part of the reason grads or undergrads from top tier 1 schools out earn counterparts is because a lot of them land the higher paying jobs at more prestigious firms and such due to connections, alma mater, etc....

I noticed this at the Law firm. There are no non- top 10 laws school grads who are partners. None.

Strange firm then. That is a not at all a universal truth. Sheesh.

Not even kinda at least from my experience.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that part of the reason grads or undergrads from top tier 1 schools out earn counterparts is because a lot of them land the higher paying jobs at more prestigious firms and such due to connections, alma mater, etc....

I noticed this at the Law firm. There are no non- top 10 laws school grads who are partners. None.

Strange firm then. That is a not at all a universal truth. Sheesh.

Not even kinda at least from my experience.

1st pp, what kind of firm is this? I have yet to come across a firm with ALL top 10 partners.

I guess it depends on your definition of "everything". DH and I are pretty happy with our lives, but we didn't go to an Ivy. We do alright, probably top 5%er. So for us, everything didn't hang on getting into an ivy.

And didn't they do a study where they found that people who went to Ivies were less happy than others?

So, there you go.. not everything does hang on it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that part of the reason grads or undergrads from top tier 1 schools out earn counterparts is because a lot of them land the higher paying jobs at more prestigious firms and such due to connections, alma mater, etc....

I noticed this at the Law firm. There are no non- top 10 laws school grads who are partners. None.

Strange firm then. That is a not at all a universal truth. Sheesh.

Not even kinda at least from my experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that part of the reason grads or undergrads from top tier 1 schools out earn counterparts is because a lot of them land the higher paying jobs at more prestigious firms and such due to connections, alma mater, etc....

I noticed this at the Law firm. There are no non- top 10 laws school grads who are partners. None.

Strange firm then. That is a not at all a universal truth. Sheesh.

Anonymous wrote:This only matters if you want your kid to make more money than everyone else. Frankly that is not one of my life goals and I certainly hope its not my daughter's goal either. There is so much more to life.

+1

Not at the price you have to pay to get into an Ivy. Getting ready to apply to an Ivy is a full time job that significantly impairs quality of life.

To be Ivy-ready, your kid has to have more than 5-6+ extracurriculars, an A average, and stand out in some way. It's really, really hard work and it's a lot of pressure on some very young people. Even if the bonus in pay is $50,000 per year on average, it's not worth it. They can make the same $50,000 by opening their own business, if they want to put those kind of hours in, and they can make that choice as adults, not high school students.

Anonymous wrote:This only matters if you want your kid to make more money than everyone else. Frankly that is not one of my life goals and I certainly hope its not my daughter's goal either. There is so much more to life.

+ a million 1s.

This is inconsistent with previous research (though it is looking at a somewhat different issue):

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/

"A decade ago, two economists — Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger — published a research paper arguing that elite colleges did not seem to give most graduates an earnings boost. As you might expect, the paper received a ton of attention. Ms. Dale and Mr. Krueger have just finished a new version of the study — with vastly more and better data, covering people into their 40s and 50s, as well as looking at a set of more recent college graduates — and the new version comes to the same conclusion."

Anonymous wrote:"While a male graduate of a Tier 1 college with a graduate degree from a Tier 1 to 3 school earns on average $185,695 a year, a Tier 4 college graduate with a higher-tier graduate degree earns only $133,236. "

Oh no! Only $133,236 per year!

I haven't read the working paper, only the NYT piece, so maybe the author controlled for confounding variables, but based only on the NYT piece, this working paper is social-scientific junk -- unless it's intended to show that kids with affluent, well-educated parents grow up to earn more money. In that case, it's social-scientific obviousness.

Exactly

This only matters if you want your kid to make more money than everyone else. Frankly that is not one of my life goals and I certainly hope its not my daughter's goal either. There is so much more to life.

DCUMers are right about very few things outside of their tiny little DC/NoVA/MOCO bubble. In most of the country no. one. cares.

But where did they go for undergrad?

Anonymous wrote:I would think that part of the reason grads or undergrads from top tier 1 schools out earn counterparts is because a lot of them land the higher paying jobs at more prestigious firms and such due to connections, alma mater, etc....

I noticed this at the Law firm. There are no non- top 10 laws school grads who are partners. None.