<p>The people who say going to an ivy-caliber school does not matter in the long run are usually those who couldn't get in...</p>
<p>The ivy's and other well known schools give you an edge by their name.</p>
<p>As a business owner, I will pay more attention to a resume of someone who graduated from Harvard or MIT than someone else's resume who graduated from an unknown state university. At the very least, it gets my attention on that resume, and, more often than not, an interview.</p>
<p>Having said that, the next step is up to the applicant. They get an edge by where they went to school, but if they are total idiots, I wouldn't hire them anyways.</p>
<p>Depends on what field and what school. Microsoft jobs and other related work is much easier to get with a Carnegie Mellon or MIT degree in CompSci than a random unknown school's Compsci program but an history degree from Cornell is probably not as big a deal as a history degree from a state college.</p>
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but an history degree from Cornell is probably not as big a deal as a history degree from a state college.
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<p>that is probably very not true. unfortunately I dont have solid evidence to back my assumption.</p>
<p>Cal State Northridge? ::eek::</p>
<p>L.A</a>. Land : Los Angeles Times : Mozilo severance: $110 million and change</p>
<p>ivy league attendees are usually a self-selected crowd. we can say, on AVERAGE, that the people at harvard are smarter and work harder than the people at your state flagship university. therefore, these people seem to on average succeed because intelligence and hard work are two of a few necessary ingredients for success.</p>
<p>in addition, an ivy-league name-brand education would get more consideration from employers, again, on average, because employers know that these schools have the best students and have gotten a great education at these schools. therefore, an ivy league education will probably get you started higher on the corporate ladder (or whatever you field you're going into), and from there, it's pretty much your experience and who you are that keeps you going up the ladder. starting high, is important in that you probably don't need to do as MUCH work (altho still a lot) to climb even higher, but those people who graduate from not-so-famous schools do need a "hook" to get them going and the people with hooks are rarer.</p>
<p>however, this also depends a lot on what field you're going into. if you're going into law, a good graduate law school will help you a lot more than a law degree at just any other college, since now there are way too many lawyers. in addition, business is also a field that having a degree from a good name school will help you at the beginning. contrarily, a degree in something like history does not seem to have as big of a difference in terms of job opportunities, starting salaries, etc, simply because there aren't many in the first place, and how high can salaries go with a history-related job?</p>
<p>keep in mind that this is all on average, there are many exceptions to the rule. people aways point out that with the top CEOs in the country, only about half of them went to top colleges. the truth is, the top CEOs would probably have gotten where they are no matter what education they had, because i'm sure they all had something going for them that would've made what college they went to unimportant. And half of these people did go to state schools and unknown schools. However, of these dozens of people in the world that we know of, there are thousands more that don't succeed.</p>
<p>Posted wrong link. Correct link below:</p>
<p>I think it's mostly about personality. If you're good enough to get into an Ivy, you MOST LIKELY (not always) have one of two personalities. 1) You're a super genius freak who got lots of "perfects", won many awards, nationally ranked in something or 2) You're brilliant, well-rounded, leader, do lots of activities, play varsity sports, excel at instruments, volunteer, etc. So, either way, you've got something going for you before you even step through the gates of an Ivy. You're either super-smart, and going to succeed doing research, saving lives, etc. or you're really bright and well-rounded and will naturally become a leader, CEO, whatever. So those 18 years of experience are what make you who you are, and I feel like regardless of what school they go to, all those "Ivy-quality" people would have suceeded anyway, brand-name diploma or not. It's sort of like one of those naturally-pretty people- yes, they may look prettier with makeup, but makeup or not, they're still beautiful.</p>
<p>The people who are worried about not getting into Ivies and therefore not suceeding are those who don't have the personality/skills to suceed on their own terms and need a brand-name education to get where they want to go. A lot of those people end up not getting into Ivies, anyway.</p>
<p>Do successful CEO's need a presitigious degree?</p>