<p>Some of my friends and other people I know who went to Ivy league schools just completely changed. They used to be so down to earth and now they are just way to into themselves. They think they are superior than everybody who goes to Community College or a state school. I was considering going to a Community College for my first two years and this dude I knew just laughed hysterically. Basically, they have become senseless snobs who think they are so intelligent, but I don't think so. And I don't think its right to look down on people because they just don't learn as quickly.</p>
<p>Too broad of a subject to generalize. Some people might change the way you mentioned. Others might become humbled after they realize they’re average among their new peers. Geography might have a lot to do with it as well. No doubt people in the Northeast are a different breed than people from the West or South, so people who live outside the Northeast might pick up on some traits after being around east coasters. People might turn into dicks upon entering college and feeling complacent in their position at an elite school, become entitled…until they graduate and realize they’re ****ed by the job market and are humbled once again.</p>
<p>Just curious, what Ivies did they attend?</p>
<p>Here is an interesting article you might want to read: [The</a> Disadvantages of an Elite Education: an article by William Deresiewicz about how universities should exist to make minds, not careers | The American Scholar](<a href=“http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/]The”>http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/)</p>
<p>The man who wrote it went to all Ivies and he’s detailing the disadvantages of an elite education, as opposed to the oft-publicized advantages. These are the most relevant quotes:</p>
<p>“We were “the best and the brightest,” as these places love to say, and everyone else was, well, something else: less good, less bright. I learned to give that little nod of understanding, that slightly sympathetic “Oh,” when people told me they went to a less prestigious college.”</p>
<p>“The second disadvantage, implicit in what I’ve been saying, is that an elite education inculcates a false sense of self-worth…academic excellence becomes excellence in some absolute sense, when “better at X” becomes simply “better.””</p>
<p>“From orientation to graduation, the message is implicit in every tone of voice and tilt of the head, every old-school tradition, every article in the student paper, every speech from the dean. The message is: You have arrived. Welcome to the club. And the corollary is equally clear: You deserve everything your presence here is going to enable you to get. When people say that students at elite schools have a strong sense of entitlement, they mean that those students think they deserve more than other people because their SAT scores are higher.”</p>
<p>(This quote is about grade inflation, if you don’t get the gist.) “Getting through the gate is very difficult, but once you’re in, there’s almost nothing you can do to get kicked out. Not the most abject academic failure, not the most heinous act of plagiarism, not even threatening a fellow student with bodily harm—I’ve heard of all three—will get you expelled. The feeling is that, by gosh, it just wouldn’t be fair—in other words, the self-protectiveness of the old-boy network, even if it now includes girls. Elite schools nurture excellence, but they also nurture what a former Yale graduate student I know calls “entitled mediocrity.” A is the mark of excellence; A- is the mark of entitled mediocrity.”</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m not knocking the Ivies - I’ve never been a student at one, I’ve don’t know anyone who goes to one. I just thought the article was very interesting and that its given explanations would interest the OP.</p>
<p>We’ve discussed the article at length-- some people find it reflective of their experiences, many felt it was taking the worst things you could seek out at any school and amplifying it quite a bit.</p>
<p>I know that I am a better person now, a more thoughtful person, and in my own way, a more complete person because of my education. My friends and family have commented on the growth, though I felt it immediately at college. Now with each year I feel like I am growing faster than the previous, in a way that really was accelerated at an alarming rate at the start of college.</p>
<p>I’m sure that most non-elitist students who enter the Ivies don’t become elitist just as a result of attending an Ivy. I work with someone from a middle class background who attended Cornell, who never mentions his degree. He’s an absolute gentleman, good at his job and not arrogant. If it were not for the framed diplomas in his office, no one would know that he attended Cornell.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I also worked with a Harvard grad (undergrad) who was a jerk. We used to make bets on how long it would be before he brought up his Harvard degree when he met someone. His Harvard degree was dropped in conversations over and over and over again, as if it should guarantee him respect or promotions. This individual was recently laid off, in part due to personality defects and in part due to substandard work. A degree may open doors, but it won’t guarantee success. After all, it’s not as if we all go around asking each other where we earned our degrees in the corporate world or in our neighborhoods. (The people who announce their degree to all and sundry even when it’s irrelevant tend to earn eye-rolls behind their backs, not respect. There are more non-Ivy grads in most workplaces than Ivy grads, after all.) </p>
<p>Whether someone is an elitist snob or not doesn’t mean that their Ivy degree made them that way. These are the people who probably felt that they were smarter and better than everyone else going into their Ivy. (In fact, they may actually be smarter than than most according to a simple bell curve population analysis.) My S recently attended a session for law students from various schools. He said that the Ivy students made no effort to mingle with the non-Ivy students, to the point of rudeness. Let’s hope that they outgrow this! Otherwise, their future professional network will be smaller than it should be.</p>
<p>If someone believes that a HYP degree means that they’re better than others, they haven’t had enough life experiences yet. When you’re in the real world, there are countless brilliant, talented, interesting people. Some of those people may not have gone to college at all, may have dropped out, or may have graduated from fourth tier schools. They may be the ones hiring the HYP grads.</p>
<p>keentimothy, maybe you have changed. Or, maybe the issue is that you’ve not changed. Maybe you are expecting the same relationships you had with people in HS after 2 or 3 years have past.</p>
<p>One of the most important changes that happened to me in college was that I became more aware of, and humbled by, all the things I do not know. Though I probably was about as self-centered both before and immediately after college. It took marriage, kids, setbacks, etc., to rock that little throne. Now I’ve been knocked off it time and again, but it’s such a comfortable seat it’s hard not to keep fumbling your way back onto it.</p>