Anonymous wrote:Of course, I would love my kid to get into Harvard. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to humble brag - when someone asks what college your kid goes to, look down demurely and murmur they go to college in Cambridge, Mass. Refuse to say the name until asked point blank for the name.

Yes but would you be disappointed if your child didn't make it to Harvard but instead made it -oh god forbid - to Columbia? There is a difference between choosing Harvard over Columbia if faced with the choice and thinking anything below Harvard or HYPS is a disappointment.

Of course, I would love my kid to get into Harvard. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to humble brag - when someone asks what college your kid goes to, look down demurely and murmur they go to college in Cambridge, Mass. Refuse to say the name until asked point blank for the name.

Anonymous wrote:Why do people want the best of something is a life's mystery to you?

Best peers, best resources, best financial aid, best job prospects, best social-dating-networking pool, highest status.

This isn't rocket science.

Do you honestly think the job prospects at HYPS are better than places like Columbia or Penn? To the extent than anything other than HYPS would be a serious decline in a child's prospects? LOL... The difference for HYPS vs other elite schools is prestige not opportunities.

I went to hyps - I have a son and a daughter

I would be more proud if they went pro in their sport at 17/18 than go to hyps and then go to college in their thirties after a pro career.

They’ll probably end up going to my alma mater since they are a legacy and more than good enough to be recruited for their sport but hyps is NOT the goal.

Why do people want the best of something is a life's mystery to you?

Best peers, best resources, best financial aid, best job prospects, best social-dating-networking pool, highest status.

This isn't rocket science.

If you need someone to explain it to you OP, you will never get it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe for one second that the education one receives at an Ivy League school is superior to all other institutions. It is merely the facade of prestige. The only reason they're so hard to get into is because everyone is trying to get in.

My kids to to school with several whose parents are paying $25k plus for hired Ivy League admissions consultants. Will they get in? Probably. But who would want to go to college with all the spoiled brats whose mommies paved their way in?

That is hilarious. You clearly have zero 1st, 2nd or even 3rd hand knowledge of the Ivy League colleges. Have you even MET a person who graduated from one? Clearly not.

Just try reading their websites and you will see the academic opportunities which are open there, the publishing possibilities, the overseas connections. Regardless of what people say about money and social aspects, these are truly 1st class academic institutions with the BEST and brightest teaching and the BEST and brightest fellow students.

If you don't know this then you are just totally ignorant.

Honestly, you are the one who sounds ignorant. I'm not the PP you're attacking, but she's basically right. These schools are hard to get into because demand exceeds the supply. And demand exceeds supply because people who know little or nothing about higher education in the US see these colleges as uniquely prestigious. It's not because the education or the students/faculty/resources are vastly and uniformly superior to other excellent colleges in the US. It's also not the case that every (or maybe even most) students at HYPS get excellent educations -- but that's because an excellent education is not what most college students are looking for.

-- Someone who has degrees (AB, PhD) from two of the four HYPS schools

Why are middle class parents obsessed with travel sportball? At least where you end up for college can change your life. Sportball obsession is far more common and more unbalanced.

23:43 here) I agree with 23:48. In fact, if my son didn't get into his first choice ivy he wasn't sure if his second choice was going to be a different ivy or Williams (if he got into them regular decision).

I have a child at top 5 LAC and the experience is very much the same as you described above, in addition to excellent teaching in the classroom.

It's not just HYPS, it's not just the Ivies, and it's not just the top 5 non-Ivy private universities. There are at least 20 schools which provide comparable experiences. HYPS just benefit from having name brand and massive financial resources, but anyone who ended up at Williams or Rice shouldn't feel like they had to scrape by with any regard.

Anonymous wrote:Recently was speaking with the mom of the top-ranked kid in DC 's class during PTA meeting. She said the following: "I would be rather disappointed if [her son] didn't make it to HYPS. But i guess a lesser ivy would be better than no ivy at all." She is truly an insufferably pompous woman, both her and her husband went to Harvard and she won't shut up about it. Sadly she is not the only one in our private school...

Anyway, she got me thinking. Why is HYPS such a big deal? I m also reading this forum for the first time and HYPS seems to be mentioned a lot.

Husband and I went to public universities and public high schools so we don't really know this stuff. We don't mingle well with the elite prep-school crowd, but have sent our kids there for better opportunities. So why is HYPS such a big deal?

OP, it's not about prestige or bragging rights for most people today. My wife and I went to public flagship university and loved it. Our DC is at one of those ivies. Granted --all colleges are different today than 30 years ago--but even so, ivies and state schools are quite different. That's probably true of all top 20-30 private universities and LACs too, but at the ivies the differences are on steroids. Yes, there are differences in the classes -- probably less so in the sciences but even there, but very much so in social science and humanities. Then there are the research opportunities. At least at my son's school, many undergrads work in research labs if they want to. And the funding for travel, etc. And the contacts. And the opportunities that arise from just being in that environment. After sophmore year, DS got paid to spend 6 weeks studying something he loved while he was introduced to many influential scholars and met kids with similar interests from other schools --not all ivies, it included kids from Chicago, Hopkins, along with the ivy league crowd, but this is something I doubt most state school profs even know about. At my son's school his prof asked him one day, "Have you heard of this program. I think you'll really like it. I am recommending you for it." At my school, I was always very proud that my advisor studied with a former National Security Advisor at Columbia. At an ivy, you may get former Secretary of State Kerry teaching your class. Whose recommendation to grad school or for most jobs do you think carries more weight? And because you are surrounded by so many motivated driven kids - which is both good and bad in different ways-- your best friends and extended friend network really are people who can help each other professionally too. My State U education got me to a top 20 law school and a good career, income, etc. But the opportunities at an ivy are really beyond what I imagined existed before my son attended one. Certainly, most people who graduated a good state U can have successful fulfilling careers, and some may land side by side with their Harvard counterparts, but to be honest, there is a big difference for those willing to work hard and take advantage of it. And part of the difference is confidence. Four years of hob nobbing with star professors, star guest speakers, etc. Some of my son's older friends who have graduated only applied to Harvard, Yale, Stanford or perhaps one other grad program or law schools --and they got into them. I was in the top 1% of my large state U, but these law schools were always a dream/reach --I applied, but certainly would not have applied only to them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe for one second that the education one receives at an Ivy League school is superior to all other institutions. It is merely the facade of prestige. The only reason they're so hard to get into is because everyone is trying to get in.

My kids to to school with several whose parents are paying $25k plus for hired Ivy League admissions consultants. Will they get in? Probably. But who would want to go to college with all the spoiled brats whose mommies paved their way in?

That is hilarious. You clearly have zero 1st, 2nd or even 3rd hand knowledge of the Ivy League colleges. Have you even MET a person who graduated from one? Clearly not.

Just try reading their websites and you will see the academic opportunities which are open there, the publishing possibilities, the overseas connections. Regardless of what people say about money and social aspects, these are truly 1st class academic institutions with the BEST and brightest teaching and the BEST and brightest fellow students.

If you don't know this then you are just totally ignorant.

Keep on believing that. I wouldn't want your diploma to get rusty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you don't understand and you never will because you're a hick.

So rude. Do you feel better about yourself now? We might not be as sophisticated as most people in that kind of crowd but we come from very humble beginnings and i guess we must be doing rather well if we can afford to send 2 kids to a top prep school.

Money is nothing, especially when it comes with such abject ignorance, as the OP attests.

Get your head out of your rear-end, dear. Not everyone knows the pecking order within the elite schools and what makes HYPS such a huge deal compared to, god forbid, a lesser ivy. Some people on here need to get out of their elite bubble from time to time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you don't understand and you never will because you're a hick.

So rude. Do you feel better about yourself now? We might not be as sophisticated as most people in that kind of crowd but we come from very humble beginnings and i guess we must be doing rather well if we can afford to send 2 kids to a top prep school.

Money is nothing, especially when it comes with such abject ignorance, as the OP attests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe for one second that the education one receives at an Ivy League school is superior to all other institutions. It is merely the facade of prestige. The only reason they're so hard to get into is because everyone is trying to get in.

My kids to to school with several whose parents are paying $25k plus for hired Ivy League admissions consultants. Will they get in? Probably. But who would want to go to college with all the spoiled brats whose mommies paved their way in?

That is hilarious. You clearly have zero 1st, 2nd or even 3rd hand knowledge of the Ivy League colleges. Have you even MET a person who graduated from one? Clearly not.

Just try reading their websites and you will see the academic opportunities which are open there, the publishing possibilities, the overseas connections. Regardless of what people say about money and social aspects, these are truly 1st class academic institutions with the BEST and brightest teaching and the BEST and brightest fellow students.

If you don't know this then you are just totally ignorant.

Nah. At least not for undergrads.

“You’d be stupid if you came to Harvard for the teaching,” said Mr. Billings, who will graduate this spring and then go to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. “You go to a liberal arts college for the teaching. You come to Harvard to be around some of the greatest minds on earth.”

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/education/10harvard.html