<p>Some people say that its not where you get your education...but what you do with it.</p>
<p>If you are truly meant to be successful in life, won't you be no matter what?</p>
<p>Does it really matter who you marry? ...or just what you do with him/her?</p>
<p>Of course it matters, it's just not irreversible. You can always transfer -
or get divorced.</p>
<p>Once again, yes it does matter. Going to an Ivy, for instance, will open and give me favor over lots of other people who are applying for the same job or graduate school. However, please don't think that just because you don't go to an Ivy that your life is going to be miserable or that your chances of gaining great success are slim to none.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Some people say that its not where you get your education...but what you do with it.</p>
<p>If you are truly meant to be successful in life, won't you be no matter what?
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</p>
<p>Let me give you an analogy. If you run a business, can you rely solely on producing competitive products with no marketing? Or do you also need to market your products? I think we all see that the answer is self-evident - businesses spend billions of dollars in toto every year in marketing themselves and their products. Surely they're not just stupidly throwing their money away - they engage in marketing because it works. {If it didn't work, then surely some firms would have figured out by now that they can increase profits by simply not paying for any marketing expenditures). Many times, good products fail because they're not marketed properly. On the other hand, even mediocre products sometimes succeed because of strong marketing. </p>
<p>As a case in point, many car aficionados know that the latest models of Mercedes Benz's have been rather poorly manufactured - scoring conspicuously low on reliability and highly on defects as measured by both JP Powers and Consumer Reports. But most people who don't know much about cars * think * that Mercedes produces well-built cars. Why? Because of the powerful Mercedes brand name for engineering and quality. Hence, Mercedes was still able to garner plenty of sales just on the strength of the brand name even though the product wasn't that good.</p>
<p>An Ivy won't open up any doors for you that the fortune your parents paid to get you there couldn't ;). That said, if you are recieving great finaid, the edge per dollar is worthwhile. </p>
<p>I do not agree with "destiny" or "meaning to be" anything. If you are smart and driven, you will find success as an Ivy student or state university student, however.</p>
<p>People on this board (and myself, I admit) tend to overstate the importance of an Ivy education. The truth is they're a royal rip off unless you're relatively low income or freaking rich.</p>
<p>My mother occassionally does hiring/recruiting for one of the big consulting firms...she says she really thinks relatively little of an Ivy education, and is quite offended whenever somebody she is interviewing thinks they are special because they could afford the price tag.</p>
<p>As the child of Ivy educated parents, I really don't believe that going to an Ivy opens the kind of doors that some people believe it does. Yeah, people will go "Wow!" when they find out that you/your family member went to an Ivy...and that's pretty much it. My parents have certainly done well for themselves, but we aren't rich, and it's not like they didn't have to still work hard to get what they have. The richest, most successful members of society rarely went to an Ivy or similarly prestigious schools--usually, they were to busy being crazy driven/innovative. </p>
<p>There are some professions--Business, Law, Politics--where I would say prestige/networking is more important, but even in those, a prestigious grad school education is really where it's at. My own father, a pretty successful architect, is the Associate Principal at the firm that he works at--and one of the Principals, his good friend, is a UIUC graduate and probably a better architect. Smarter, better educated? Probably not. But more successful--yes, he is. There are other Ivy/similarly prestigious schools grads at his office--along with a whole lot of Illinois Institute of Technology graduates (50% of the architects). </p>
<p>There are definitely good reasons to go to an Ivy or similarly prestigious school--greater academic opportunities/stimulation is nothing to sneeze at. But as a catalyst for success? Nope, that's on you.</p>
<p>In fact, your average person can be quite suspicious of the Ivy educated...it is erroneous to assume that the world is run entirely or even mostly by Ivy grads. </p>
<p>Please don't take this as bashing the Ivies--I can already hear the "You're bitter" accusations--because I would have been happy to go to an Ivy, and do not believe that they are unworthy institutions. I just don't think that the importance of an Ivy education should be overstated.</p>
<p>It depends...if you have want to have a job that is dependent on grad school (like a lawyer, a nurse or physician/doctor) then undergraduate is not nearly as important as grad school.</p>
<p>If you are like me, however, and have no intention of going to Grad School, then try to go to the best undergraduate school that accepts you!</p>
<p>It's simply a matter of narcissism.</p>
<p>Where you go to does matter.</p>
<p>If you're sad and miserable with no friends at the college, then you probably won't be successful in learning. If the college is the wrong fit, then it's probably not a great one.</p>
<p>advantagious and thisyearfashion are correct. "An Ivy won't open up any doors for you that the fortune your parents paid to get you there couldn't" sums it up pretty well.</p>
<p>My employer this past summer paid me $8 an hour instead of $7 because I went to Duke. I mean, who doesn't want to go to an elite college and make this kind of $$? ;)</p>
<p>lol...well I get jobs all the time even if I am not qualified because I go to Wharton.</p>
<p>In certain fields, name does matter. Those professions that are well known for sticking to their "formula" are going to be hard to get into if you don't go to right schools. </p>
<p>However for most fields, particularly if you aren't planning on moving across the country (essentially staying regional) the name isn't that important. </p>
<p>However, where you go, as it relates to be a great place for you as individual does matter a lot. Some people thrive on having a lot of equals around, they depend on that competition. Other people find their niche when they can be a big fish in a little pond. Some people love the fact that they can slip into the crowd at a big school when they want to, others slip into the crowd never to reemerge and thus need a smaller school.</p>
<p>It does matter. Try getting into Harvard MBA program after graduating with A's from an easy 4 year school. Its quite hard. u dont have to go to a top 20 school but try going to a nationally ranked school. It puts u in an excellent postion for grad school. Also starting salaries due vary according to where u get ur undergrad degree assuming u work right after u graduate with a bachelors.</p>
<p>On salaries...is there data out there that shows it's really the school that is the cause of the salary differences? Can you show me a study that controls for things like SAT scores, geographical location, career field and any of the numerous other factors that could affect a person's initial salary?</p>
<p>The fact is that people who go to Harvard or another Ivy league school have a number of characteristics that place them at an inherent advantage even if they had gone somewhere else. The skills and talents that get one accepted to such an institution transfer well to getting into grad school or finding a great job - intelligence, standardized test taking ability, work ethic, time management, writing skill, and so on - and so it's hard to say that the differences in salary are entirely due to the school. Geography matters too, as recent grades are likely to stay local. Considering the Ivies (and Stanford) are located in or are near cities in which the cost of living is significantly higher than the rest of the country - local salaries will reflect that. Third, the Ivies and other schools of that caliber likely will have a significantly higher proportion of students looking to go onto graduate/professional school, or high paying jobs than your average state public university. Like I said, there are fields where being an Ivy Leaguer helps tremendously (like i-banking) but I doubt many (at least in terms of %) people at Harvard are their to be elementary school teachers simply because they don't need to go there to be that and the way licensing works in teaching further muddle the picture and alter the dynamics. But it ends up altering the salary stats.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone above who states that it depends on what fieldyou want to go into. Many state colleges started as teachers college and would provide an excellent education for K-12 teachers. Do really need to pay for an ivy league education to be successful at this job. Do you have to go to MIT to be a good engineer when you can go to Penn State . Do you have to go to Harvard School to be a good doctor. Many excellent doctors I know went to SUNY Downstate or Temple Med School.</p>
<p>I could go on forever with examples.</p>
<p>It helps tremendously. I gives you an edge that's your to lose. It comes up much more often than you would ever imagine, and it always helps.</p>
<p>People at the "top" (however you define them) colleges will lean to "yes", and everyone else will lean to "no".</p>
<p>^^^ Word.</p>
<p>I agree with Murasaki as well.</p>
<p>It matters to the ego, and that matters a lot.</p>
<p>That settled it pretty damn well I must say =P</p>