<p>Meaning, if you are a harvard economics major with a 4.0, then you're a king of kings, if you're an MIT aerospace engineer with a 2.5 you're pretty awesome, but not that awesome, if you're a business major at a state school with a 3.0 you're decently cool, if you're a community college student studying culinary practices with a 2.5 you're pretty low, and if you don't go to college you're an animal available for exploitation?</p>
<p>No.
Especially not this.</p>
<p>I think our society does categorize people into those levels. Society tries to make students feel bad for choosing a cheaper state school or going to community college. Not everyone is made for Harvard, nor can they pay for it.</p>
<p>Eh, “society” is a tricky term. Populism is big, so politicians from Ivy League schools face the “elitism” charge. But yes, there is unnecessary stigma for those going to community colleges (“especially on this website”, as is often said). The worst at looking down on people for their educational institutions seem to be the rich, from my personal experience.</p>
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<p>Most people do not fit into the latter category, however (i.e., most people can pay for it once given financial aid).</p>
<p>I agree sally , and a lot of times colleges play the biggest role in separating people into their respective socioeconomic categories.</p>
<p>Someone had to iterate for a paragraph just to explain the simple question that was written in his subject line; I wonder how much he is worth?</p>
<p>I don’t know where all you people live, but I never hear people here mention prestigious schools or the people who go to them. People could care less if you’re going to the state school down the road with a 30% 4-year graduation rate or Yale. People could also honestly care less if you even go to college. If college is part of your life plan then good for you. If not and you’ve found success elsewhere then that’s fantastic too. Maybe all this makes a difference if you’re going for a really competitive job, but society in general?? That’s a different story.</p>
<p>No. I attribute my self-worth to being a good person and learning/growing each day.</p>
<p>I think what matters is what you do after college. I know a few “prestigious” grads working at retail stores, who don’t volunteer, socialize, or do anything to further themselves when its quite obvious they could if they so chose. I believe everyone should try to reach their potential whether that be a neurosurgeon or manager at a fast food place.</p>
<p>Nobody ever asks about my grades (except grad. schools I am applying to). People do always ask what I want to do after college and I hope that my answer reflects how much I enjoy helping others and animals.</p>
<p>Why does the term “self worth” even exist. People live and die they have no value.</p>
<p>^We could say someone’s worth is equal to their future production minus their future consumption.</p>
<p>^Responding to ■■■■■■ aside, does this mean that if I kill a bunch of retired old people that I am really valuable?</p>
<p>I spent my first 3 years at community college. Cost me a paycheck at my retail store job to pay for that every semester. Now I’m finishing at a state university with practically no debt. Take that Harvard grads…</p>
<p>I think most that jump straight to an expensive 4 year university are either:
- Rich, so money is of little concern
- Or not rich, and money is of concern but they blow it anyways.</p>
<p>So take that… “society”…</p>
<p>Personally, I ‘grade’ myself not based upon the expectations of “society”, but based on what my family has already achieved. No one in my family has anything beyond a 1 year technical degree. So with my bachelors, I’m doing pretty darn good for myself.</p>
<p>Woofles - congratulations on your fiscal prudence. I took on subsidised loans only to use them for living expenses, which freed up the same amount of money to play the markets ;)</p>
<p>Not all Harvard grads graduate with debt.</p>
<p>"I don’t know where all you people live, but I never hear people here mention prestigious schools or the people who go to them. People could care less if you’re going to the state school down the road with a 30% 4-year graduation rate or Yale. People could also honestly care less if you even go to college. If college is part of your life plan then good for you. If not and you’ve found success elsewhere then that’s fantastic too. Maybe all this makes a difference if you’re going for a really competitive job, but society in general?? That’s a different story. "</p>
<p>Seconded. People around here think you’re brilliant if you go to one of the two major state schools (granted one of them is umich, I don’t know anything about the national rankings of the other one) and I think I know maybe one person that applied to an Ivy and he didn’t end up going.</p>
<p>Yeah considering like 30% of Americans have a four-year degree, getting one from any accredited school puts you a step above the majority of people.</p>
<p>Don’t buy into the hype. A person working their tail off at Bunker Hill Community College is just as worthwhile, if not more so, than the person drinking their way thru Harvard (no offense). It’s all about the work ethic of the person.</p>
<p>Not so much the college. I’m not going to say where I go, but will say that I took a summer school class at another college and felt the same way I did at my regular college. Grades… especially on exams… If I don’t do as well as I wanted with all the effort I put into studying for them, I feel I’m not worth the professors’, GSIs’, TAs’, etc time, and they probably assume that I didn’t study that much. I feel like these results slowly predict a bleak future.</p>
<p>My school has a lot of pride and I guess part of my identity now is related to being a Badger. Not a huge part, but I guess I do take some pride in going to Madison. My major doesn’t have anything to do with how I view myself, but I’m not part of the school of thought that says you should only be a science/math/engineering major if you have any intelligence whatsoever. I’m more about doing what genuinely interests you. My grades don’t have anything to do with my identity either. They never have. To me, my grades are more like something I have to deal with, not something that defines me as a person. (Maybe it’s because I’m kind of a slacker and I usually get lower grades than I’m capable of, but I’m okay with that.)</p>