<p>im glad things turned out great for ur dad, he must have been a very strong and smart person. But had he gone to harvard he would have had an easier time rite out of graduation and more opportunities. Really its not what u make of college but what u make of the opportunities post graduation, however some colleges do offer more opportunities</p>
<p>going to harvard/an ivy doesn't guarantee success.</p>
<p>saying the ivy league is better than other schools is like saying the SEC is better than all the other NCAA teams. it's just plain silly.</p>
<p>skibob "im glad things turned out great for ur dad, he must have been a very strong and smart person. But had he gone to harvard he would have had an easier time rite out of graduation and more opportunities. Really its not what u make of college but what u make of the opportunities post graduation, however some colleges do offer more opportunities"</p>
<p>first of all harvard DOES NOT equal success....and it wasnt my dad it was a friend's dad. Anyways...one of my friends graduated from NYU then Harvard Grad. she currently makes less than 40,000 a yr. and is sitting on ****loads of loans...go figure.</p>
<p>nice...no where did i say a graduate is guaranteed success what i did say is he will have more opportunities of success. ur anecdotal evidence proves nothing...im curious as to what this harvard grads profession is that she is making only 40k and how much she works and how old she is</p>
<p>when i applied to schools last year, i chose not to apply to ivies because I didn't like the labeleld prestige automatically associated with those institutions. looking back though, if i had actually taken the time to look at some of those schools more closely, i know i would've applied to at least 3 or 4, I know i'll be happy in the fall at the school i'm going to already know i'll be applying to some ivies for med school, but simply put, attending an "ivy" or more prestigous school does open up more doors for you and allows you to establish a network of people with your peers, who are likely to do greater things than graduates of state schools (before anyone becomes offended, how many presidents attended state schools?)</p>
<p>The "oppertunities" skibob is talking about are based on the simple factor that the Ivy Leagues are in fact the most prestigious schools in the country. If oppertunity in the business sector is your primary goal in life, than yeah, the Ivy League is the place for you.</p>
<p>However, prestige doesn't neccesarily translate to "best." As other posters have stated, many of the Ivys don't have a strong undergraduate program. Additionally, many of the other schools in the country have equal, and even better, programs than the Ivys do, albeit maybe "fewer" oppertunities.</p>
<p>The other pro-Ivy argument I am often keen to subscribe to is the idea that the "intellectual" environment at the Ivys is higher than elsewhere. This is possible as the Ivys are selective enough that you know everyone there is really brilliant. However, I would like to point out that most people at the Ivys are there for the same reason that skibob is fan, they are there entirely for the oppertunity. In my opinion this makes the intellectual environment not favorable, but UNfavorable.</p>
<p>In all honesty, I would much rather attend a University where the people who are there are there because they want the best education they can get, not the people who want the most oppertunities. That is the sort of intellectual environment I want.</p>
<ol>
<li>Wharton (UPenn) is the only ivy that has finance.</li>
<li>My stats aren't good enough for Wharton.</li>
<li>I already have a dream school (Stern-NYU) lined up.</li>
<li>I'm saving ivies for my MBA.</li>
</ol>
<p>Good post, Just_Browsing.</p>
<p>In all honesty, I would much rather attend a University where the people who are there are there because they want the best education they can get, not the people who want the most oppertunities. That is the sort of intellectual environment I want.</p>
<p>I agree.</p>
<p>Thanks cameliasinensis.</p>
<p>This is such an interesting topic. What defines success to you? Does going to an Ivy League school guarantee (or even hasten) success? Will being successful necessarily make you happy? These are all things to consider. I will submit that your definition of success will change over time, but you can't worry about that now.</p>
<p>For those of you who feel that attending an Ivy defines success, go for it! That is what you need at this point in your life. Just keep in mind that many disagree, for various reasons. </p>
<p>OK, which school would you choose if you wanted to major in Meteorology, Penn State or Harvard? What about Horticulture, UC Davis or Yale? So, icekiss, follow your passion and you will be just fine!</p>
<ul>
<li>I want to go to medical school for my grad school, so Ivy's undergrad will kill my GPA.</li>
<li>I cannot stand the pressure inside the campus. I love to be "superior", at least, in front of some less intelligent people.</li>
<li>I don't think I will be able to get into Ivy with SAT less than 2000.</li>
</ul>
<p>incidentally the people intelligent people are usually looking for the best opportunities and they can usually be found at ivies and ivy like schools. the question is not whether ivies are the road to success its whether or not ivies will open more roads to success for u to take and the answer to that is yes they will and no one can dispute that. Even for things like farming and meteorology there are ivy schools (cornell). Also the whole strategy of going to a worser college to get a higher gpa and then go to med school is very stupid. I come from a family of doctors, whose friends are all doctors and they all say that med schools 1. know that certain schools are tougher than others and 2 know that good GPA in a tough schools mean much more than the same thing at a regular school. Also its stupid to think i will do great in a worser university. Y dont u go to a hard school and succeed there. If that strategy were to work everyone would be doing it</p>
<p>the harvard grad i was refuring to gradutaed in 2004 and she is 26/27 i think. she majored in public affairs and communication.</p>
<p>keep posting..i love u guy's imput. I really appreciate eduacted arguments and disagreements. Thanks!!!</p>
<p>At risk of sounding like a dick, I'm afraind I honestly don't follow skibob's arguments... they aren't well formed and the spelling/grammar is rather painful to follow. Ivys probably have hire standards than that.</p>
<p>That is besides the point though of course. The one thing I did manage to pick up for his argument though is that he says that the most intelligent people are the ones looking for the best oppertunities.
I disagree. There certainly are a lot of intelligent people who have know what sort of oppertunities they are looking for; however, I feel that it truely shows a deep sense of intellect to want to do a bit of "sampling" of ideas before one knows what oppertunities they are hunting for.</p>
<p>As a result, the true intellectuals will seek out the place that they feel will give them the best possible education for them. This might be an Ivy League school, it might not be. Generally I'd say its more often than not that these people will not opt for the Ivys for the same reason that I'm not.
Though I'll confess that this is circular reasoning along the lines of "Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore, its too crowded."</p>
<p>But, its a reason.</p>
<p>That's very interesting. That's exactly how i feel. I found this quote that represents perfectly why i'm not into brand names like "Ivy League."</p>
<p>Do not go where the path may lead. Go where there is no path and leave a track.</p>
<p>Please feel free to disagree...educated disagreement please.</p>
<p>Places like collegeconfidential have a nasty tendency to promote the idea that prestige is the most important factor. I believe that most people here would not hold this belief were it not for CC.</p>
<p>I also believe that all the arguments about why prestige is that crucial are simply self-internalized justifications over why they have become Ivy obssesed.</p>
<p>
[quote]
where the people who are there are there because they want the best education they can get, not the people who want the most oppertunities.
[/quote]
aren't those the same things? Are you saying that ivies don't offer strong undergraduate programs?</p>
<p>No, I'm not saying that. Yes the Ivys are good schools. They aren't neccesarily the schools that provide the best education for everyone. </p>
<p>Skibob was stating how the reason why Ivys were the kind of schools you wanted to go to was because the prestige provided oppertunities. I was simply saying that's not the right reason to want to go to them.</p>