Does It Really Matter Where You Go Undergrad?

<p>ive heard that many employers prefer not to have to deal with ivy graduates (mainly HPY) because of the sense of entitlement they usually seem to have about themselves...with that being said, i think going to a good university with a well known name helps, but it is not the most important thing by any means of the imagination -- it really is about making the best of where you are, and while that is too simplistic for some here, i mean all of the things that go into making it the best possible situation...working hard in class, meeting lots of new people, getting involved with extracurriculars, finding your passion, getting real-world experience, etc. etc.</p>

<p>
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Here too (FL)the flagship & local state univ hire locally-- not from Ivys. No one cares about that here. You'd do even better if you stayed in state for many top jobs & grad school spots. Incredible alumni love & pride.

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<p>I agree. Alumni pride is not something to be underestimated. A VP who graduated from UVa may hire a UVa grad over a Princeton grad, assuming two things:
1 - The VP enjoyed his/her experiences at UVa, and
2 - The two candidates are similar in all other respects.</p>

<p>The alumni connection won't give an unqualified applicant a job, but it will give a boost in chances.</p>

<p>lmao...i'm sure an ivy league degree is a disadvantage....lol these people are kidding themselves. Whether these posts result from ivy envy or what not, you people are ridiculous. Go ahead and choose your state university over the nation's most respected institutions of higher learning. Less competition for everyone else. You guys must think it's cool or something to argue for the underdogs.</p>

<p>One little glitch in the whole -
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Students who go to a top school have ALREADY proven that they can work their butt off just by getting into a top school!!! Think about it. You beat John Doe on every test you took in high school, scored 250 points higher on the SAT, attained more extracurricular honors, were more engaged in your community, was more knowledgeable about world events, forged great study habits and time management skills, etc.

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scenario is that now you're surrounded by all the same types - YAY! Except the competition for grades is now much, much tougher, you're now just a proverbial small fish in a big pond. </p>

<p>So, your A++ student from high school (everyone at Harvard was an A+ student right?) is now a B or C student in college (because not everyone can make A's, somebody is at the other end of the curve;)). </p>

<p>Anecdotal, my niece was a stellar highschool student - straight A's, National Merit Finalist, hard worker. Went to Cornell for engineering. Found out that she wasn't the most brilliant among her peers anymore, now she was just average . She graduated with a 2.9 and couldn't get hired in her field, all the jobs were going to people with higher GPA's, didn't matter that her degree was from Cornell. So, she went to work for Countrywide as an entry level loan officer, got laid off last year, and is now unemployed. </p>

<p>BUT, she did meet this rich guy from New Hampshire that she is marrying this year, so the Ivy connections worked out, just not quite the way she had planned.:D</p>

<p>Just saying that Ivy doesn't necessarily mean smooth sailing for all...</p>

<p>Good grades matter.</p>

<p>I know this a bit of a tangent, but in regards to the OP's statement about Harvard costing so much:</p>

<p>I'm a rising senior, applying to college, and I've done the research. If your parents make under about $150k per year, Harvard will be cheaper than just about any state school. Their billions of dollars of endowment allow for ridiculous amounts of FA.</p>

<p>But at most of the other ivies you'll pay 40, maybe even 50k.</p>

<p>Not at Yale, either. Maybe Princeton, I'm not sure.
But yeah, Columbia, Dartmouth, etc. don't have as much cash to throw at you.</p>

<p>

How can you stereotype an entire group of student populations as being "preppy/spoiled"? There are pretentious kids in every school. Ironically, most of my friend in my top school have been down-to-earth and humble. There's no evidence to back up what you are saying. Unless a hiring manager spites the Ivies because of personal hatred, he is going to be impressed with an Ivy League candidate upon first glance because of the assumed level of intelligent and maturity.</p>

<p>

This is not true at all because Ivies don't accept one-dimensional candidates who are just academic grinds. They handselect a group of well-rounded, intelligent, passionate and creative individuals to populate their classes yearly. It's unlikely that these individuals will lack "networking skills" that are critical to success in the professional world. To the contrary, Ivy League students are go-getters who take advantage of the opportunities presented to them and will make plenty of great connections in their clubs, fraternities and other activities. Ivy League students were playing sports and actively participating in club meetings after school in HS when most regular state school kids went home and watched TV or playing videogames. I have met plenty of kids who attend schools like Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell that possess a lot of intelligence, ambition AND social skills. Also, being a Greek in an Ivy further boosts your networking opportunities.</p>

<p>

There's this false misconception floating around this site that most Ivy League students are just rich, priviledged white students. Especially in this time and day, this is extremely false and insulting. The Ivy outreach/student recruitment programs have expanded significantly over the last decade and are now targeting students of all walks of life all over the world. </p>

<p>The only person I know from my high school that got accepted to Harvard, who coincidentally will be attending this Fall, did not have a priviledged upringing at all. He is a URM who grew up below the poverty line and whose parents gave his education no attention all. So, he learned to be self-motivated and took it upon himself to be successful. He achieved one of the highest SAT scores in our school's history and became the valedictorian and accumulated a number of other accolades, even though he didnt have the resources that other students in our affluent upper-middle class community did. Please don't belittle his hard work and accomplishments.</p>

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Ivy League students were playing sports and actively participating in club meetings after school in HS when most regular state school kids went home and watched TV or playing videogames.

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<p>THIS is what I have a problem with. Utterly, utterly, asinine...</p>

<p>EAD riddle me this. </p>

<p>I have teachers at my school who had degrees and masters degrees from Harvard/Stanford.</p>

<p>Please explain this phenomenon.</p>

<p>It makes no sense to me at all that EAD gets so upset about people making "silly generalizations" and than proceeds to say things like "most ASU students get ***faced every night of the week and skip class" and "most regular state school kids went home and watched TV or playing videogames"--very strange. . .very uneducated.</p>

<p>I honestly beleive it does not matter where you go for undergrad. People who are successful later in life are people who are determined, intelligent, hard-working, etc. They graduate from state schools as often as they graduate from the Ivy League</p>

<p>Uh I have seen what EAD is talking about. My 2 Ivy kids are at another Ivy med school doing research every summer( and how do you think they got this opportunity) while many of their peers are at the beach or working @ the ice cream store here. My kids now see why some people don't do well. Most every Ivy classmate is busy doing internships - unpaid & paid (if you really need it) -or helping in other countries building health clinics & schools, etc. Some friends here don't have any job after college graduation and are scraping by. Haven't heard that about the Ivy graduate friends. Sorry if you don't like what I'm saying but its what I see going on.</p>

<p>^^^ Yeah, but that's their prerogative. Why should people spend all of there time studying/doing research/etc.? Some people have lives, you know...</p>

<p>I know Ivy grads who have done little or nothing with their lives after graduation, and I know state school grads who have done amazing things. If it seems like Ivy grads have easier times getting jobs or internships or grad school acceptances, thats likely atrributable to the type of people they are (how did they get into the Ivy League in the first place?), and not the school they graduated from.</p>

<p>Oreo, the point isn't that Ivy affords you better opportunities, because it does.</p>

<p>But sucking at an IVY doesn't mean you're better than someone who is very good at another school just because you went to that Ivy league school. Getting into the school does say something about you. But if you try to get jobs based solely upon your school's reputation and not your own work, then you aren't going to beat out the hard worker who went to a lesser ranked school.</p>

<p>If you take the same individual, duplicate him, and put him at Arizona State and Princeton, the Princeton version of him will probably be more successful. I think that's what this all sums up to.</p>

<p>Well, that's all things being equal. No one has contended that, or at least I don't think so. People take issue to how much more successful the Princeton grad will be, if success can be quantifiable. Is it worth paying 5k extra, 50k extra, etc?</p>

<p>Your potential next president graduated from the United States Naval Academy and was ranked 894 or 899.</p>

<p>Riddle me this EAD.</p>

<p>I think that's very scary. It shows, in my opinion, a lot about his potential, his performance, and his work ethic. He likely wasn't a good leader or popular either. (Leaders and popular people tend to get "help" to make sure they don't graduate that abysmally) Not to mention that he's a Republican! ;) This however, has nothing to do with the discussion at hand. He went to a well respected school, did horribly, and is apparently pretty successful. If anything, it sorta hurts your argument.</p>