Anonymous
03/05/2026 11:49
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
I can’t believe that no one has corrected the error in the title of the post!
Anonymous
03/05/2026 11:23
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?
Some don’t have to work so hard. Some are naturally very intelligent. My kids had top scores and top grades and didn’t struggle. They were this way from the beginning. We never had to do test prep or ever had to be on them to do homework.
They got in unhooked and crushing it.
Ivy
+1 this is it
Many kids that get in handle the HS and college “rigorous” school load much easier than others. My kids didn’t strive to get the grades and scores like others. Many kids just like them. Don’t get me wrong- they take academics seriously but are naturally very curious and learning is fun.
My kid^ also. He signs up for all the great guest lecturers that come to visit the campus (Ivy) throughout the year and applies/joins the special study groups with faculty. Going to an Ivy was the right fit. It wasn’t a status thing. He applied on a whim Dec 31st. We certainly never prepped or gunned for one and never hired a counselor. He’s had 2 really great internships because of the school (current sophomore). He has a big social life and plays a club sport too.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 11:22
Subject: Re:What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Because our in-state flagship is more expensive than the private colleges.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 11:19
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?
Some don’t have to work so hard. Some are naturally very intelligent. My kids had top scores and top grades and didn’t struggle. They were this way from the beginning. We never had to do test prep or ever had to be on them to do homework.
They got in unhooked and crushing it.
Ivy
+1 this is it
Many kids that get in handle the HS and college “rigorous” school load much easier than others. My kids didn’t strive to get the grades and scores like others. Many kids just like them. Don’t get me wrong- they take academics seriously but are naturally very curious and learning is fun.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 10:50
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?
These are teens we’re talking about. They’re working for the approbation of their peers, parents, and teachers. They have very little ability to make long-term plans and next to no idea how the job market works.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 10:40
Subject: Re:What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Anonymous wrote:I attended a flagship state university. Some classes were large or low-quality. Fortunately I found small high-quality STEM honors courses. A provost temporarily blocked some transfer credits to stop me from graduating early, so I switched majors in my third and last year.
Some state university friends went on to business school and Wall Street. Others bounced around before finding direction. I went to a good private graduate school and worked with Nobel prize winners. In graduate school I learned from the galley proofs of the first textbooks in my area.
You take around 40 3-credit semester courses in college. There are standard courses like freshman composition or microeconomics. But one or two professors will make a memorable and potentially life-changing impression. A good school has more of those. Great art and science movements are concentrated in small communities. That is what you want.
Expensive schools also have students with connections. They will be doing internships on Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Their friends know about resumes, cover letters, and job networks. Remember when Lori Loughlin's daughter Olivia Jade was busted as a fake athlete accepted to USC? Olivia Jade had vacationed on the yacht of the Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees! Those are the type of connections I want my kid's friends to have.
The only thing that USC connection got Lori is jail time and public ridicule. Teach your kids to work hard and become something based on their own merits not because of connections.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 10:39
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Same reason some people buy a 80k truck while living in a 50 yo singlewide.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 09:59
Subject: Re:What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
I attended a flagship state university. Some classes were large or low-quality. Fortunately I found small high-quality STEM honors courses. A provost temporarily blocked some transfer credits to stop me from graduating early, so I switched majors in my third and last year.
Some state university friends went on to business school and Wall Street. Others bounced around before finding direction. I went to a good private graduate school and worked with Nobel prize winners. In graduate school I learned from the galley proofs of the first textbooks in my area.
You take around 40 3-credit semester courses in college. There are standard courses like freshman composition or microeconomics. But one or two professors will make a memorable and potentially life-changing impression. A good school has more of those. Great art and science movements are concentrated in small communities. That is what you want.
Expensive schools also have students with connections. They will be doing internships on Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Their friends know about resumes, cover letters, and job networks. Remember when Lori Loughlin's daughter Olivia Jade was busted as a fake athlete accepted to USC? Olivia Jade had vacationed on the yacht of the Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees! Those are the type of connections I want my kid's friends to have.
Some state university friends went on to business school and Wall Street. Others bounced around before finding direction. I went to a good private graduate school and worked with Nobel prize winners. In graduate school I learned from the galley proofs of the first textbooks in my area.
You take around 40 3-credit semester courses in college. There are standard courses like freshman composition or microeconomics. But one or two professors will make a memorable and potentially life-changing impression. A good school has more of those. Great art and science movements are concentrated in small communities. That is what you want.
Expensive schools also have students with connections. They will be doing internships on Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Their friends know about resumes, cover letters, and job networks. Remember when Lori Loughlin's daughter Olivia Jade was busted as a fake athlete accepted to USC? Olivia Jade had vacationed on the yacht of the Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees! Those are the type of connections I want my kid's friends to have.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:56
Subject: Re:What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
This. Some people can get it done in 1/4 of the time it would take the average kid.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:55
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?
Some don’t have to work so hard. Some are naturally very intelligent. My kids had top scores and top grades and didn’t struggle. They were this way from the beginning. We never had to do test prep or ever had to be on them to do homework.
They got in unhooked and crushing it.
Ivy
^ which means they still had lots of time for sports and activities and social life
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:54
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Anonymous wrote:I keep reading that where you go to college doesn’t matter for jobs. If that’s the case why would anyone bend over backwards to get into a good college?
Some don’t have to work so hard. Some are naturally very intelligent. My kids had top scores and top grades and didn’t struggle. They were this way from the beginning. We never had to do test prep or ever had to be on them to do homework.
They got in unhooked and crushing it.
Ivy
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:40
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Why would I have hobbies that challenge me if they don't lead to a better career?
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:40
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Because people tie a prestigious diploma to better quality of life, which doesn't necessarily mean more money, OP, but more stability and protection from downward mobility.
It means an easier time getting, and keeping, jobs, and more choice in jobs. My friends with Ivy League degrees or the foreign equivalent (who all know they might not have gotten in today), have had a much easier time getting job interviews than the ones without fancy degrees. Their careers have by and large been more "prestigious" in their chosen fields, even when those fields are not money-making.
My husband and I are research scientists, which is not a profession you go into to become rich. If you graduate from an Ivy or similar, you get your pick of post-docs and access to the most interesting labs; and you ever want to switch labs, you can more easily get a new job at another successful lab.
It means an easier time getting, and keeping, jobs, and more choice in jobs. My friends with Ivy League degrees or the foreign equivalent (who all know they might not have gotten in today), have had a much easier time getting job interviews than the ones without fancy degrees. Their careers have by and large been more "prestigious" in their chosen fields, even when those fields are not money-making.
My husband and I are research scientists, which is not a profession you go into to become rich. If you graduate from an Ivy or similar, you get your pick of post-docs and access to the most interesting labs; and you ever want to switch labs, you can more easily get a new job at another successful lab.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:36
Subject: Re:What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
There really are kids that feel great joy and fulfillment in “working so hard” and wouldn’t have it any other way, great result or not.
Anonymous
03/05/2026 08:32
Subject: What would anyone work so hard to get into a top college if it doesn’t lead to a better career?
Again, one obvious answer. For 50% of students, school is 100% or nearly 100% free at the top schools.
Seems worth the effort for acceptance regardless of what job you pick when you graduate.
Seems worth the effort for acceptance regardless of what job you pick when you graduate.