<p>“3) even with your elite degree, you are going to be spending your time making powerpoint presentations”</p>
<p>Is the complaint that they are starting from the bottom? Well everyone’s got to pay their dues, no? </p>
<p>PG, I didn’t say Ivy grads were insecure. The article did. I agree with you that both sides know what they are doing, and what the tradeoffs are.</p>
<p>Re powerpoint: I’d like to think that being a graduate of an elite university might confer some early advantages in the workplace. Isn’t that what everyone says here? I am just gently challenging some of the assumptions many posters have about the immediate and tangible benefits of a prestigious degree.</p>
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<p>This summer, as an intern for a very well known tech company, my son had to make several powerpoint presentations using algorithms that he created using company specific data as it related to some of their internal procedures and practices. The data and presentations “wowed” his group so much that he ended making the same presentation to division heads in New York, California and London, including the CFO and CEO of the company. Because of his ability to wow with powerpoint, much of which he learned through comp sci classes at his “elite university,” he was offered a job upon graduation. Bottom Line: don’t underestimate the power of a good presentation using powerpoint – especially if you get to make the presentation yourself using data no one else at the company realized was so valuable!</p>
<p>Yeah. Powerpoint is a tool, like a typewriter. You don’t need a college degree to use it. What you need an education for is deciding what to say and how best to use Powerpoint to say it. That’s thought work, not grunt work. And gibby’s story gives a great example of how substantive it can be.</p>
<p>PowerPoints are a huge part of my business…I develop new relationships by offering free seminars on college admissions topics. I’ve got one coming up in Chicago a week from Wednesday!</p>
<p>“somehow having the confidence sapped out of them by the time they graduate”</p>
<p>This is the first time I’ve ever heard the criticism that HYP graduates aren’t confident enough. I agree that some of them seek a lot of reaffirmation of their specialness in their professional careers.</p>
<p>“Re powerpoint: I’d like to think that being a graduate of an elite university might confer some early advantages in the workplace. Isn’t that what everyone says here? I am just gently challenging some of the assumptions many posters have about the immediate and tangible benefits of a prestigious degree.”</p>
<p>Every 22 year old wet behind the ears is “starting at the bottom,” slaving over Excel and PowerPoint for the big guys til they figure out what the heck they’re doing. The tangible benefit isn’t that elite grads get to leapfrog over that; the tangible benefit is that they get paid $x more. Which you may not find worth the hours tradeoff (I don’t), but that’s their tangible benefit. </p>