A lot of people in my area, besides their general curiosity in learning, are actually looking at colleges which can provide them the best chance of getting a job with good salaries. Lets face it the majority of us wont be staying around 25 years as a professor and researcher, most will eventually look for jobs. So this got be thinking schools like JHU, Harvard, Stanford, Yale… who have a lot of prestige, do they actually pay out in the long run?? Im not trying to be all about the money, but can you become the best at your profession and really be sought after. If someone went to Wharton over Harvard Biz, will they have a better chance of landing a better job. Some state schools have excellent career programs, like U Maryland College Park they have a 4 year Pharmacy Program ( at least 3 AP classes passed req.)(masters) that has an internship every summer and gurantees that at least 85% or more of the accepted class (150 students) will get a job offer from one of the major sponsers Dupont,… I mean a 4 year program that costs like under 30,000 total for an average 3.5/1300 student is pretty good. The alternative is 6 years at JHU for like 100,000 + for the same kid, without any gurantees at job openings.
So my main point is should most people focus on getting into “Programs” and looking toward careers at bargain places and uncovered diamonds
or
should they look for that Prestigious school that doesnt accept any AP credits, but offers them that well rounded intellectual touch.
For me, I got accepted to one of the HYPS, but i was really eyeing some really really good <em>less prestigious</em> schools who had killer programs. WUSL is an example, Berkely, UMD CP, UMBC, Howard Dentisry, Pomona, UChicago
Should everyone look towards career opportunites or quality well rounded prestigous trips (where your mom and dad can brag all day long to the neighbors)???
<p>Going to a prestigious college will help you get your first job. The top companies recruit at the top colleges. After you have been working for a year or two, a prestigious undergraduate degree doesn't help that much if at all. On the job performance is what matters. Imagine that you are going in for your performance review after the first couple of years, are you going to get a raise because of where you went to school or because you did a great job on your last project? Are they going to fire you for screwing up, or will they keep you on because you graduated from Harvard?</p>
<p>Sometimes the prestige of a degree means something, but this is always when it is a post-undergrad degree. Where you graduated is very important when you have a PhD or are a doctor or lawyer or have one of the prestigious MBA's.</p>
<p>There may be some advantage when applying to grad school if you graduated from a prestigious undergraduate school, but maybe not. It is certain that being in the top 10% of a lesser college is better than being in the lower 50% of a prestigious college. At any rate, getting into any grad school is not nearly as insane as what is involved in trying to get into HYP as an undergrad. </p>
<p>There have been studies showing that people who graduate from Ivies make more money over their lifetimes. More recent studies have shown that there is no statistical difference in income between people who graduated from Ivies and people who were accepted to Ivies and decided to go somewhere else. The type of person who can be accepted to an Ivy is going to be more successful, but they don't actually have to attend.</p>
<p>I would say that attending a prestigious school is a better experience than going to State U. If the price tag were the same (because of financial aid), then go to the more prestigious school. If not, you may still want to attend because it is a better experience, but after the initial bump of getting the first job, don't expect it to help that much in your career.</p>
<p>I got in to one of the HYPS and i sent in my card, but now that i think of it i wanna go into medicine (pharmacology, and/or immunology) seeing as state schools give good perks i am really thinking of transferring after a year. Also if i am in the top 10% of say UMD CP will that set me up to go to HYPS for grad school better than being top 40% at Harvard or Stanford. Also where will i have the best chances of getting a good job, if i am the top student at maryland i will be able to use all of their resources but if i am one of 1000 at harvard or stanford i cant say the same/</p>
<p>Will being in the top decile of UMD CP REALLY set you up to go to HYPS for grad school?</p>
<p>I mean like top 1 or 2 out of the class, rather than number 994 out of 1900.</p>
<p>Everyone accepts that colleges want diversity for undergraduates, but no one realizes that they also want diversity for grad programs. They can no more have grad schools full of only graduates from HYPSM than they can have undergraduate classes full of white guys from rich families.</p>
<p>But do you believe that going to a HYP for undergrad will help you get into one of the good grad programs. And wouldnt some of the lesser prestigious schools offer some better programs. For example wouldnt going to Wharton give you a better shot at business than say Harv Biz, or doing the engineering program at WUSL rather than trying to study Engineering at Yale. Also do the prestigious schools really have better employment opportunties</p>
<p>Going to Harvard and doing extremely well (in a gpa/rank sense) would give you a better shot at the most prestigious grad schools than going to State U and doing extremely well. The trick is that doing extremely well at Harvard may be a bit harder than doing extremely well at State U due to the competition from your peers.</p>
<p>I will not say that being accepted to Stanford's grad school is not hard, but the competition for grad schools is not as tough as for undergraduate schools. For one thing, there is no USNWR list for grad schools. It would be impossible to have one since people going to grad school are very specialized in what they are looking for. They talk to their professors and find out which school has the best program in plasma physics or military history. Not everybody is rushing to apply to the same ten schools.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about the competition for post-undergrad programs at all unless you are going for a PhD, MD, Law degree, or a prestigious MBA program. The majority of people who go to grad school go in part-time night school programs and get Masters or MBA's. For example, Johns Hopkins has a part-time masters program where you pretty much just have to be a warm body with an undergrad degree in order to be accepted. You take ten courses at $2100 each. Most people who do this have tuition reimbursement as a benefit at work.</p>
<p>If you get a job with the undergrad degree, going to a prestigious college will definitely give you a big bump in landing your first job. The top companies recruit at the top colleges. After the first job, though, the benefit falls out. The degree that that it drops off depends on your field. For example, engineers don't benefit much monetarily by going to MIT instead of State U. As I said, it does matter a lot where you got your grad degree for PhD's, MD's, lawyers, and the top MBA's.</p>
<p>If I had my choice between going to Harvard or UM College Park and they were the same price due to Financial Aid, I would probably go to Harvard. I'm sure that Harvard would be a better education experience if for no other reason than it is Harvard and not College Park (I live nearby). However, I would not go into heavy debt thinking that I would recoup my money by getting a much better job with only an undergraduate degree. Also, I would not think that I would necessarily have a better shot at getting into grad school.</p>
<p>You mentioned a Pharmacy degree. This is pre-professional program that I'm not really familar with. As I understand it, you don't have to get a BS degree before going into Pharmacy school and that Pharmacy school is extremely hard to get into. I believe that you apply to Pharmacy school after two years of undergrad school, and that there are programs where you can be guaranteed a slot in Pharmacy school even before you start freshman year. Having a guaranteed slot in Pharmacy school would be very important. (I am really not sure about what I just said.) The hardest post-undergrad program to get into is Veterinarian Medicine. It is way harder than becoming a MD.</p>