Results sometimes vary more by the person than by the school…. One can find both great successes and big disappointments among graduates from any university.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Graduate schools esp. law & medical schools boast how many different colleges their students come from. Harvard Medical School loves saying how their students come from 200 different colleges. It’s a geographic, religious, ethnic & economy diversity thing.

If you’re at a HYPSM undergrad expect to have to find somewhere else to go for grad school.

Um, not true. I didn't go to Yale Law but had a friend who did and I used to attend parties there. It seemed like most of her classmates went to top schools' (she went to Princeton). The people who went to UMich and the like really felt out of place and were always making comments about it. It's hard to go to parties in your 20s and be one of the few who didn't go to an Ivy or Stanford.

LOL

If you’re a URM it’s a downside because people assume you didn’t get in on your own merits.

Anonymous wrote:Graduate schools esp. law & medical schools boast how many different colleges their students come from. Harvard Medical School loves saying how their students come from 200 different colleges. It’s a geographic, religious, ethnic & economy diversity thing.

If you’re at a HYPSM undergrad expect to have to find somewhere else to go for grad school.

They boast about how many different schools at least one of their students attended...they are never going to broadcast the opposite.

A massive %age of any Yale law class went to...wait for it...Yale undergrad (by far the top feeder). I believe nearly 50% of any Yale Law school class went to an Ivy League school for undergrad based on some recent charts.

That still leaves 80+ slots for other schools.

Anonymous wrote:Graduate schools esp. law & medical schools boast how many different colleges their students come from. Harvard Medical School loves saying how their students come from 200 different colleges. It’s a geographic, religious, ethnic & economy diversity thing.

If you’re at a HYPSM undergrad expect to have to find somewhere else to go for grad school.

Um, not true. I didn't go to Yale Law but had a friend who did and I used to attend parties there. It seemed like most of her classmates went to top schools' (she went to Princeton). The people who went to UMich and the like really felt out of place and were always making comments about it. It's hard to go to parties in your 20s and be one of the few who didn't go to an Ivy or Stanford.

People judge top grads who have middle of the road careers (middle management). Expectations can be a little higher too but people who attended these schools usually have higher expectations of themselves. I know I do!
Looking back, not experiencing much failure or negative feedback as privileged undergrad was a downside. It was initially hard to cope with failure with all the expectations after leaving school.
It is strange how often in DC people end up talking about college and grad school even if they are 30-50. I attended a top college and T14 law school and end up being asked about them more here now than in the decade I lived elsewhere. In DC, there is no downside!

Anonymous wrote:I think sometimes it is a disadvantage for the kids of such alums. My husband is brilliant and an alum of top schools, my son is very bright but very different from him. I do think he feels the pressure to rise up to his dad's standards. Frankly, my husband has no such expectation but I do see it as a negative sometimes. My son was very disappointed when he did not get into his dad's college.

That could be true of any accomplishment, Dad was a state level champion in sports, qualified for USAMO in middle school, started his own successful tech company in 20's, won trophies in body building

I think sometimes it is a disadvantage for the kids of such alums. My husband is brilliant and an alum of top schools, my son is very bright but very different from him. I do think he feels the pressure to rise up to his dad's standards. Frankly, my husband has no such expectation but I do see it as a negative sometimes. My son was very disappointed when he did not get into his dad's college.

Graduate schools esp. law & medical schools boast how many different colleges their students come from. Harvard Medical School loves saying how their students come from 200 different colleges. It’s a geographic, religious, ethnic & economy diversity thing.

If you’re at a HYPSM undergrad expect to have to find somewhere else to go for grad school.

None.

Only downside was during on campus interviews when I would see the prestige admit/student (think actor from nationally recognized extremely popular TV show, now student at HPYSM) walk out of the interview before mine in a $1000 suit.

Needless to say, I did not get that summer job.

Nothing really. I'm 46 - nobody cares where I went to school over 20 years ago.

Anonymous wrote:I do find myself mumbling in social settings about having gone to school "in the Boston area"--a verbal tick that seems common with other Harvard graduates.

Ridiculous. Just say it. Why are you trying to draw more attention to this tiny little fact?
-Harvard graduate

None.

None. There's no downside. Except maybe the fact that DC decided not to apply in order to avoid being seen as a legacy.

The HR managers who forward resumes to the decision makers attended ho-hum state schools themselves and are generally not academic high achievers.