Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say what you will. It is common knowledge that the networking and job opportunities upon graduation from an Ivy are unparallelled.

I think it's easy for a lot of us whose own kids will not be Ivy candidates to sit here and say in our more self righteous tone that let him choose, it's his life, etc...but come on people getting into an Ivy is big deal. I will be the first to tell you if it was my son, I would do everything in my power to at least encourage him to try it. If after the first year he is miserable then let him go where he wants to.

You see a phenomenal opportunity that COULD mean great things for your child, it is natural to want that for them. Nothing wrong with it whatsoever in my estimation.

PP who has one kid at Stanford and another at Wash U. I respectfully disagree with the bolded part. Also please keep in mind that all Ivies are not the same. But that's fine - we can agree to disagree.

Agree (not op) however if we are taking Harvard Yale or Princeton I DO agree with that statement 100%. Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth not so much. My own D attended one of these and the opportunities afforded to her were simply astounding.

I have a good friend who went to Harvard who says she would be crushed if her DS *wanted* to go to Harvard. She thnks it was not a great good place to go to undergrad and doesnt believe the networking and prestige factors make up for that.

Very hard to believe, sorry. Just don't buy that one bit, in fact it sounds downright ridiculous.

Me neither, and I (not my "good friend") went to Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone and I mean anyone- if your child got into HYP, you would want them to go. Period. I don't believe any of the bs being spewed about in this post. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and afforded to so few, and we all know it.

Nope, I got into Yale and turned it down. Actually I was recruited by them and turned it down to go to a crappy state school. I knew I wouldn't be happy there. I don't regret it. And I'm sure my parents who didn't end up having to pay for it don't regret it either. They never pushed me to say yes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say what you will. It is common knowledge that the networking and job opportunities upon graduation from an Ivy are unparallelled.

I think it's easy for a lot of us whose own kids will not be Ivy candidates to sit here and say in our more self righteous tone that let him choose, it's his life, etc...but come on people getting into an Ivy is big deal. I will be the first to tell you if it was my son, I would do everything in my power to at least encourage him to try it. If after the first year he is miserable then let him go where he wants to.

You see a phenomenal opportunity that COULD mean great things for your child, it is natural to want that for them. Nothing wrong with it whatsoever in my estimation.

PP who has one kid at Stanford and another at Wash U. I respectfully disagree with the bolded part. Also please keep in mind that all Ivies are not the same. But that's fine - we can agree to disagree.

Agree (not op) however if we are taking Harvard Yale or Princeton I DO agree with that statement 100%. Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth not so much. My own D attended one of these and the opportunities afforded to her were simply astounding.

I have a good friend who went to Harvard who says she would be crushed if her DS *wanted* to go to Harvard. She thnks it was not a great good place to go to undergrad and doesnt believe the networking and prestige factors make up for that.

Very hard to believe, sorry. Just don't buy that one bit, in fact it sounds downright ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:To anyone and I mean anyone- if your child got into HYP, you would want them to go. Period. I don't believe any of the bs being spewed about in this post. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and afforded to so few, and we all know it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say what you will. It is common knowledge that the networking and job opportunities upon graduation from an Ivy are unparallelled.

I think it's easy for a lot of us whose own kids will not be Ivy candidates to sit here and say in our more self righteous tone that let him choose, it's his life, etc...but come on people getting into an Ivy is big deal. I will be the first to tell you if it was my son, I would do everything in my power to at least encourage him to try it. If after the first year he is miserable then let him go where he wants to.

You see a phenomenal opportunity that COULD mean great things for your child, it is natural to want that for them. Nothing wrong with it whatsoever in my estimation.

PP who has one kid at Stanford and another at Wash U. I respectfully disagree with the bolded part. Also please keep in mind that all Ivies are not the same. But that's fine - we can agree to disagree.

Agree (not op) however if we are taking Harvard Yale or Princeton I DO agree with that statement 100%. Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth not so much. My own D attended one of these and the opportunities afforded to her were simply astounding.

I have a good friend who went to Harvard who says she would be crushed if her DS *wanted* to go to Harvard. She thnks it was not a great good place to go to undergrad and doesnt believe the networking and prestige factors make up for that.

Very hard to believe, sorry. Just don't buy that one bit, in fact it sounds downright ridiculous.

Did you go to Harvard, PP? If not, you have no idea what you are talking about. I went to a lesser Ivy, but many of my friends went to Harvard. None is hugely successful, probably because they are similar to me. One of my friends hated Harvard and wouldn't let his child apply. He doesn't feel it did anything to him, but his parents LOVE to brag that their son went to Harvard. Another friend went to Harvard and to Yale Law School. He disliked Harvard too. He wished he'd gone to a smaller school, but he's an introvert. The school was too large and impersonal for him. He's done fine, BTW, but no thanks to Harvard.

I didn't go to Harvard but dh did. I have read the Red book though (book compiled ever 5 years for reunions). I went to another prestigious top 20 and there is no question that what Harvard alums are doing, as a whole, is substantially more impressive than from my school. And it isn't all in finance, medicine or fortune 500. Plenty of actors, published writers, journalists on 60 minutes, etc . .

I don't know if my children would be admitted. However, if they did well enough academically to get in, I would really want them to go. Same goes for Stanford. They are really unique schools.

Anonymous wrote:OP, as a former professor, I can tell you a) that the job market is so bad that there are fabulous professors even at less-distinguished schools and b) that the "world-class" profs at Ivies may have been hired for their brilliant research and still suck at teaching and mentoring undergrads.

Anonymous wrote:

To anyone and I mean anyone- if your child got into HYP, you would want them to go. Period. I don't believe any of the bs being spewed about in this post. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and afforded to so few, and we all know it.

No, I would not. DS wants to be an electrical engineer like DH. Those would definitely not be the best school choices for what he is interested in studying.

To anyone and I mean anyone- if your child got into HYP, you would want them to go. Period. I don't believe any of the bs being spewed about in this post. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and afforded to so few, and we all know it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone and I mean anyone- if your child got into HYP, you would want them to go. Period. I don't believe any of the bs being spewed about in this post. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and afforded to so few, and we all know it.

Not me, we can't afford it and we won't qualify for financial aid. DS won't even be applying.

I don't think college admission is ever the "opportunity of a lifetime" for upper/upper middle class kids of highly educated parents. First generation college students, kids from poor families, sure.

Anonymous wrote:To anyone and I mean anyone- if your child got into HYP, you would want them to go. Period. I don't believe any of the bs being spewed about in this post. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and afforded to so few, and we all know it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say what you will. It is common knowledge that the networking and job opportunities upon graduation from an Ivy are unparallelled.

I think it's easy for a lot of us whose own kids will not be Ivy candidates to sit here and say in our more self righteous tone that let him choose, it's his life, etc...but come on people getting into an Ivy is big deal. I will be the first to tell you if it was my son, I would do everything in my power to at least encourage him to try it. If after the first year he is miserable then let him go where he wants to.

You see a phenomenal opportunity that COULD mean great things for your child, it is natural to want that for them. Nothing wrong with it whatsoever in my estimation.

PP who has one kid at Stanford and another at Wash U. I respectfully disagree with the bolded part. Also please keep in mind that all Ivies are not the same. But that's fine - we can agree to disagree.

Agree (not op) however if we are taking Harvard Yale or Princeton I DO agree with that statement 100%. Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth not so much. My own D attended one of these and the opportunities afforded to her were simply astounding.

I have a good friend who went to Harvard who says she would be crushed if her DS *wanted* to go to Harvard. She thnks it was not a great good place to go to undergrad and doesnt believe the networking and prestige factors make up for that.

Very hard to believe, sorry. Just don't buy that one bit, in fact it sounds downright ridiculous.

Did you go to Harvard, PP? If not, you have no idea what you are talking about. I went to a lesser Ivy, but many of my friends went to Harvard. None is hugely successful, probably because they are similar to me. One of my friends hated Harvard and wouldn't let his child apply. He doesn't feel it did anything to him, but his parents LOVE to brag that their son went to Harvard. Another friend went to Harvard and to Yale Law School. He disliked Harvard too. He wished he'd gone to a smaller school, but he's an introvert. The school was too large and impersonal for him. He's done fine, BTW, but no thanks to Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People need to calm down, OP did not say that she thought all other schools are beneath the others. She sited her reasons (legit to me, but maybe not fair or democratic as they are) that she feels the ivy would be a better choice.

I have 3 kids and will be the first to admit IF they were ivy material (they are not) I would jump thorough fire for them to attend. I personally don't believe anyone who says otherwise. Come on we all want the best for our kids, and like it or not Ivies are still at the top of the heap and produce more CEO's, presidents, chairmen and leaders of industry than any other collegiate group. Heck yea I would want my son in that environment!

Statistics, please.

I think you are 100% totally, completely wrong about that.

http://www.businessinsider.com/where-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college-2015-3?op=1

Only one Ivy League grad running a top 10 Fortune 500 company. One.

Anonymous wrote:People need to calm down, OP did not say that she thought all other schools are beneath the others. She sited her reasons (legit to me, but maybe not fair or democratic as they are) that she feels the ivy would be a better choice.

I have 3 kids and will be the first to admit IF they were ivy material (they are not) I would jump thorough fire for them to attend. I personally don't believe anyone who says otherwise. Come on we all want the best for our kids, and like it or not Ivies are still at the top of the heap and produce more CEO's, presidents, chairmen and leaders of industry than any other collegiate group. Heck yea I would want my son in that environment!