DS may be able to ace most of his tests. But I think he may not be good at “parting and schmoozing with the right crowd.” My guess (but not sure) is that he did not drink during college years, but started to do it in grad school.
He’s probably right about all the rich kids though. An average of 45% of ivy league students don’t qualify/apply for financial aid. They gotta have bank lol
I think the author has some good message: Students at the Ivies work hard. It’s not like going there to party, get a degree, then get a good job. His message is applicable to other serious colleges too. I went to an UC school and had to work very hard too.
“Certainly, there are some amazing people, but you also have kids who would attend an Ivy no matter what—the children of Fortune 500 CEOs, movie stars, Middle Eastern royalty”
I had no idea "movie stars," "Middle Eastern royalty," and "the children of Fortune 500 CEOs" couldn't also be amazing people.
“Sure, they might have lived in four different countries and traveled to 20 more, but those experiences were bought.”
Does that make these experiences any less valid?
“I’m still appalled at how shallow some of my classmates are.”
Welcome to human nature. Reminder: shallowness is not a trait exclusive to students in the Ivy League.
“I thought I was going to drop out. People ask me why I went back. It’s because, at the end of the day, an Ivy League degree opens doors.”
He says this after dedicating an entire article to criticizing his fellow students for being hollow inside because they are doing things only for the potential economic gain and prestige. I can taste the hypocrisy.
http://www.math.harvard.edu/courses/index.html indicates that Harvard offers various entry level math courses. While Math 55a-55b is the famous super-hard one, it is not like every frosh takes a course of equivalent difficulty. Indeed, frosh entry level math courses cover a wide range of high school math preparation:
Ma-Mb: slow paced calculus with precalculus review (equivalent to 1a)
1a-1b: normal single variable calculus
21a-21b: normal sophomore level math
23a-23b: honors sophomore level math
25a-25b: second level honors sophomore level math
55a-55b: third level honors sophomore level math
So it is not like a Harvard student must take courses that “cram an unreasonable amount of info” or find that “even AP classes aren’t enough” preparation (Ma and 1a are suitable for frosh with no AP credit).
I agree with others who have pointed out that this article says more about the author than the school. He has self-admittedly been using drugs since high school, he applied to the school for the wrong reasons to begin with, and SURPRISE he continues to be unhappy. This outcome would likely have happened not matter what school he went to. Interestingly enough, though, he is planning to finish his Ivy League degree despite his litany of complaints.
@lostaccount, source please for everything you’ve said? Is it conjecture or speculation? Have you attended a SUNY? Having attended both a SUNY and an Ivy, I honestly cannot connect to a single thing you just wrote.
Rebeccar, no need to connect to it. If you don’t agree, that is fine. You are a graduate student at Penn and were an undergrad at Binghamton, I believe you’ve said. You were not an undergrad at Penn. It’s a whole different ball game. Do you connect with the article “Going to an Ivy League School Sucks”? If you didn’t find the students at SUNY focused on grades to an obsessive level, that is great for you.
This article really drives home the point that no one school is right for everybody. You can talk to one student and hear one story, then talk to another one and wonder if this is even the same school they’re talking about. I bet if this kid had met a crowd of friends he liked, or if he was enjoying his classes more (did he even mention what his major was? I’d hope that he’d at least be studying something he found interesting), his entire take would be different.
I went to a school (U of Chicago) that had the highest dropout and transfer rate in the country. I knew one girl who was totally depressed her freshman year, then transferred to UW-Madison and when she came back to visit, she looked like a totally different person, she was so cheerful and happy. For me, on the other hand, it was wonderful – the people, the city, the atmosphere – it was exactly where I wanted to be. That was the truth of that school for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s a fantastic school for everyone.
My husband went to MIT and hated every minute of it but stuck it out because he was stubborn and refused to quit. Yes, that MIT degree has been useful in his career as an IP attorney, but I am sure he would have been just as successful if he’d transferred to Cal Poly, because success depends on who you are as a person, not the name on your degree. The name helps, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t make the difference in the end. MIT will not grant you success if you can’t do it by yourself, and lack of the MIT name will not hold you back.
Any kid who.wants to pretend he speaks with authority but only makes raging pronouncements as if they are truths, loses me pretty fast. Self indulgent.
And using “sucks” in the title and body disconnects me even faster. Juvenile. Save it for casual disses. At best, this is a late night rant he should have had the savvy to squelch. Danger, Will Robinson.
What is this.media rag and why are we wasting brain cells on it? It just shows how the media pushes whatever and folks jump. Blech.
The general consensus here seems to be that the author really said more about himself than about the school. There is certainly a lot of truth to that, and most of the people I know who went to top schools did well for themselves.
A bigger lesson I’d take from it is this: these schools have their advantages, but they are not such a prize to be sought after that it is worth acting like the article author did:
“Many students, especially children of immigrants (like me), conflate the American dream with going to an Ivy. At 17, I was averaging two all-nighters a week, kept alive on a depraved cocktail of Adderall, Percocet, and coffee.”
I can say that out of the most impressive HS students I knew, most went in-state for economic reasons. A few went to Ivy schools or other top schools. I would say that each more or less accomplished what their capabilities allowed them to. There are opportunities available at Ivy schools that aren’t available elsewhere, but there are opportunities at state schools that Ivies don’t have as well. The point is that working off your high school years in hopes that an Ivy will offer you admission and sacrificing your own well-being to do it isn’t worth the prize itself. You will just end up disappointing yourself the same as this author did.
No it’s not fine, because you are making unsubstantiated claims and then just brushing off any request to explain where you’re getting them from. I am actually asking you right now: What is your evidence that there is a large scale obsession with grades at SUNY schools? And yup, I was a grad student at Penn, but because of personal reasons I was very connected to the undergrad community here in a few different domains - but why are you bringing that up? I haven’t made any claims about Penn.
Welp, even Columbia admissions dept. makes mistakes. Too bad this bozo took a spot from someone who’d have made something of it.
Rebuttal all you want but all of this stuff is 100% factual. One of my best friends went to an Ivy League before. When he told me about his experience, he kept on talking about how life there was hell. For example, one time he told me that as time passed on, he felt lonely because more and more of his friends kept on leaving him behind. He told me, “Smarter people do not wish to hang out with those who aren’t on the same level as them.” In an Ivy League, you are a competitor, and to those around you, they are your sworn enemies, not your rivals and not your friends. As a word of advice, only go to an Ivy League if you know that you have the mentality to handle it and also even if you go, please don’t jump off the window like the girl in the article or suicide in some other less/more brutal manner. Live your life, enjoy it, and if you don’t fully succeed, feel accomplished that you made it into an Ivy League school because you already are part of the top 8 percentile in the nation.
Sigh. “Someone told me.” If the article was 100% factual, why are some live and present posters here saying their own experience was different? It’s not boot camp or a gulag or being thrown to the lions.
Cept you’re going to be big big in debt! I like taking a stab at those that go out of their way just for the prestige. Attending a low tier as a top student has a few contrasts:
You pay significantly less – I can finish my entire degree with the cost of one semester at an Ivy League and walk away with no debt.
Instead of having people step on you all of the time, you easily become one of the top students that everyone looks up to.
Try your hands at the Ivy League, but know that you can be several steps ahead if you graduate with no debt, a year early because of AP credit, and already landing an engineering job upon graduation.
Most students in the US would pay significantly less had they attended ivies, with far less debt. Harvard’s website at https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/choosing-harvard/affordability claims,
The approach to financial aid is minimize loans by using a sliding scale with low/no cost for families with incomes near the US median (and typical assets/…) and heavily discounted price for most middle class families. Other ivies use a similar approach. For example, Yale reports the following average parental cost by income at http://admissions.yale.edu/financial-aid-prospective-students .
<$65k – 100% who applied for FA qualified, ~$0 average net cost
$65k to 100k – 100% who applied for FA qualified, ~$4k average net cost
$100k to 150k – 99% who applied for FA qualified, ~$12k average net cost
Logically, smart people would want a bunch of dummies for friends, because they are not the competitors.
Interesting, though, I had a lot of very smart friends.
Guess I’d be curious to know what colleges he turned down to go to Columbia? I’m willing to bet there were one or two better matches.
D. mentioned yet again during her graduation from the Med. School yesterday that some students in her Med. School class that included many from Ivy / Elite regret attending at Ivy /Elite as they did not have any advantage over others ( from state publics) but on average have higher student loans.
All I know is D’s experience at in-state public college. Her experience was amazing with opportunities that went well beoynd our expectations, she broadened her horizons, participated in many events/activities that were not planned at all, had great LORs at the end and a great selection of Med. Schools to attend, had very hard time choosing. She attended her state public college on full tuition Merit award and graduated debt free from Med. School as we could afford paying for it instead of UG.