Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Duke and this is a pretty accurate (and bitter) summary. I wish I had gone to a cheaper school close to home, and maybe done pre med or something. But I wasn’t really organized enough to take advantage of the opportunities available. Oh well. I did end up going to law school on the cheap with scholarships so I learned my lesson!

Dook, without basketball, is basically Elon.

Anonymous wrote:I went to Duke and this is a pretty accurate (and bitter) summary. I wish I had gone to a cheaper school close to home, and maybe done pre med or something. But I wasn’t really organized enough to take advantage of the opportunities available. Oh well. I did end up going to law school on the cheap with scholarships so I learned my lesson!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

You can send your kids to UVA while my kids attend Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Northwestern.

The Princeton grad I knew worked for one of the SAT prep companies tutoring high school students.

Well golly gee that must mean Princeton is terrible!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

You can send your kids to UVA while my kids attend Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Northwestern.

The Princeton grad I knew worked for one of the SAT prep companies tutoring high school students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does elite mean here?

Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and perhaps Princeton & Yale are elite.

Cornell, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Duke, etc. etc. are not.

And yes, even Harvard/MIT/Stanford/Princeton/Yale won't give your kid a $150k job, wealthy spouse (a 1950's reason to go to a elite school, but okay), and a wealthy, highly-connected friend group off the bat. And thank god for that.

The purpose of top schools is to have top professors and top students to learn from and compete with, and improve oneself in the process. Not a $150k job, wealthy spouse and highly-connected wealthy network.

What these schools do provide beyond the education though is a pedigree that lasts through 40+ years of one's careers, and certainly can come in handy down the line - if you want to use it.

As for the rest - Cornell, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Duke, etc., most people do not view these schools to be more "elite" than top state flagships like Berkeley, Michigan, etc. Most will consider these students to either be wealthy dumb kids (too dumb for HYPSM) or top middle-class kids, the same that attend top flagships.

Cornell, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, Northwestern, and Duke ARE elite, and people recognize them as such. They may not be great economic deals for UMC families who pay full freight and have UVA, Michigan, or Berkeley as an in-state option, but for those who receive substantial grant-based financial aid or have enough money that full-freight doesn’t matter, these are awesome schools with a high-quality lifestyle experience. Yes, they are not HPYSM, but no one thinks these students are dumb rich kids or the equivalent of a Roll Tide graduate.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? You’re citing a money making stress reduction website as authority?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

You can send your kids to UVA while my kids attend Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Northwestern.

The Princeton grad I knew worked for one of the SAT prep companies tutoring high school students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's too early to tell or maybe she just didn't capitalize on all the opportunities (I suspect very few do) but it most certainly has not changed her life. The thing I do notice is overall a higher percentage of deeply committed pre-med students than my son's peers at the state flagship. Other than that there's this laughable idea that an elite college is a golden ticket to a $150,000 job offer and a rich spouse and that's just not accurate. The plum six-figure job offers are scarce and go to the connected and elbowy overachievers with perfect grades. And generally the rich socialize with the rich. If you want your child in that orbit they need to be in that orbit by 9th grade at some ritzy prep or boarding school.

I have a niece at Cornell who is close with my daughter and she has had a similar experience. At Cornell the rich are in the rich kid sororities and fraternities.

A few years back we were caught up in the admissions frenzy but in retrospect it seems so nutty. I'm [now] far more impressed with a parent who tells me their kid is at a less selective school but just got into medical school than some Ivy League parent who tells me their ubiquitous kid is going into "consulting" for $60,000 a year or some second rate grad program.

Dear OP,
Please provide your perceived list of "elite colleges" so we can have context here.
Thanks!

Not the OP but
Carnegie Mellon Computer Engineeingn or UVA McIntire sounds more elite than Princeton gender study, Northwesetrn communicaitons, Yale psychology, Harvard art & film.

One thing is that the OP made a bad example.
Consulting or Finance postions after graduation from highly repected business programs or Econ/Math/Stem majors from top colleges(Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Northeastern) will get you 6 figure immediately.
OP should have said something like 'an Ivy kid getting a HR job for $5000 with a liberal art degree'.

You can send your kids to UVA while my kids attend Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Northwestern.

Anonymous wrote:I love bottom rung morons who repeat that “college only matters for your first job” nonsense. Your college remains on your resume for 40 to 50 years. Yale is going to pop off your resume when you’re job hopping in your 30s and 40s and the selection committee internally refers to you as the “Yale guy.” Only folks who went to bottom rung colleges think credential prestige doesn’t matter past age 22 — and you all don’t really even believe it, you just wish it was true.

Anonymous wrote:Elite universities provide opportunities that non-elite universities don't. That's a simply fact. If the students cannot take advantage of those opportunities during or after college, then it is on the student.

Elite universities meaning HYPSM. Not Northwestern, Hopkins, Duke, Cornell, Vanderbilt, etc.

A history major from Harvard can easily get interviews to the cream of the crop investment and consulting firms - McKinsey, Lazard, etc. GPA and extracurricular is not even taken into account.

That same student at UVa would need to be a finance major in McIntire with a 3.7 GPA and multiple industry-focused extracurriculars with leadership positions. Probably leadership positions in certain well-connected frats as well. For an interview.

That same student at Virginia Tech would not even get an interview, regardless of whether they have a 4.0 GPA and president of every industry-focused club. Top investment banking and consulting firms simply do not recruit at Virginia Tech.

The interview may itself be more meritocratic given both students perform similarly, but interviewers are biased towards elite universities and having employees from elite universities is a selling point for the firm to the clients.

Beyond the first job - which itself can be very important as it snowballs into better future opportunities and networks - having an elite university helps in both climbing the career ladder as higher positions are occupied by those from elite universities - regardless of whether it's due to nepotism, inherent drive or most likely both - and graduate school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bottom rung morons who repeat that “college only matters for your first job” nonsense. Your college remains on your resume for 40 to 50 years. Yale is going to pop off your resume when you’re job hopping in your 30s and 40s and the selection committee internally refers to you as the “Yale guy.” Only folks who went to bottom rung colleges think credential prestige doesn’t matter past age 22 — and you all don’t really even believe it, you just wish it was true.

It's certanly a plus in general, but there are many other important factors as well.
It can also negatively impact if your performance is not at the level.
That guy went to 'mit'? scoff

It also sets a high bar. I'm always concerned when I see a "drop" between undergrad and graduate school in terms of prestige. It someone did undergrad at Yale but some podunk graduate program, I tend to assume they were coached into the undergraduate program with parental support but weren't actually able to perform once they arrived.

Sometimes they get scholarships at less prestigious colleges for graduate schools.
I personally know this.

Bullsh*t. This is spin and you know it. Prestige whores don't value shop graduate school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bottom rung morons who repeat that “college only matters for your first job” nonsense. Your college remains on your resume for 40 to 50 years. Yale is going to pop off your resume when you’re job hopping in your 30s and 40s and the selection committee internally refers to you as the “Yale guy.” Only folks who went to bottom rung colleges think credential prestige doesn’t matter past age 22 — and you all don’t really even believe it, you just wish it was true.

It's certanly a plus in general, but there are many other important factors as well.
It can also negatively impact if your performance is not at the level.
That guy went to 'mit'? scoff

It also sets a high bar. I'm always concerned when I see a "drop" between undergrad and graduate school in terms of prestige. It someone did undergrad at Yale but some podunk graduate program, I tend to assume they were coached into the undergraduate program with parental support but weren't actually able to perform once they arrived.

Sometimes they get scholarships at less prestigious colleges for graduate schools.
I personally know this.

Bullsh*t. This is spin and you know it. Prestige whores don't value shop graduate school.