<p>I heard this story and don’t personally know them. </p>
<p>Twins - both were presidential scholars coming out of high school, both got into prestigious colleges. One decided to go to a current top 5 school at full pay and the other told parents let me save you some money by taking a full ride at a state honors college where they sent her to year abroad etc. The state college person went to a top 5 school for a PhD and the top 5 person ended up at a state school for phd.</p>
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<p>I know what you are trying to imply, but school overall rankings do not matter much for PhD programs, as it is the strength of the department in the major subject that matters most for PhD students. Also, for the undergraduate level, some state schools are highly respectable in their own right, and strength of one’s major department may also be a factor here. Sometimes, the bargain in your back yard may be one of the top choices even without considering price.</p>
<p>I think money is used far too much and often as an indicator of success.</p>
<p>I could have made far more money selling hamburgers than as an academic, but, well, I didn’t and don’t want to sell hamburgers. Some rich hamburger guys who may own many hamburger franchises by now, never had the ability to pursue an academic career even if they had wanted to.</p>
<p>In many cases high financial rewards are a compensation for the low intrinsic interest or sometimes unpleasantness of the work being rewarded.</p>
<p>UCB - not sure what you think I am implying. I am only responding to Sally’s original post with an example. Where you go to school does not detemrine your future success.</p>
<p>one more tidbit. the undergrad state school is unranked.</p>
<p>Was chatting with a guy sitting next to me on a plane a few years ago. He had three sons. The oldest two went to Wharton and both now work for the youngest, who couldn’t get in to Wharton. Instead he went to Babson and started a hedge fund a couple of years after graduating.</p>
<p>this is a great question, because I’ve seen (from the outside) my friends who went to some of the more elite upper crust schools seem to rely more on the network versus their ability. It seems “us” state and small private school grads having better coping mechanisms that have lead many of us to doing things on our own versus waiting for some help…I can say this in hiring it seems that their(elite bias) always comes out and the perception that an elite name on the degree means that they received a superior education is one that has not held up.</p>
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sorghum, I agree. It’s a more quantifiable measure of success than job satisfaction or a happy family life, but I’m not comfortable saying that someone has “outpaced” someone else merely on financial grounds, unless the specific question is “who’s doing better financially?” The OP asks about our kids’ trajectories, but don’t most of us have kids whose trajectories have only begun?</p>
<p>Two of my kids graduated from the same top 50 school. One is always going to make more money than the other, based on their career choices. I don’t think this means that one has outpaced the other. The third kid went to a more highly-ranked school for undergrad and is now in professional school, so who knows? Again, based on her career choice, she has the potential to earn more - but she might just decide to take a lower-paying job in public service and be blissfully happy doing that.</p>
<p>All I ask is that my kids be blissfully happy. 
The stress of paying for their educations was part of raising them. Now that we’ve done it, we don’t really need to see who winds up with the highest income to be satisfied.</p>
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<p>This is true but I think an important second part was left out. If managed correctly, the higher financial reward can be used to follow ones passions while still having the benefits of a safety net. Certain well paying positions also allow for time flexibility and are geographically flexible. If a young persons’ passion requires them to live hand to mouth…(or on the parents couch)…then I’d question how much happiness is derived from fusing a passion with financial health.</p>
<p>I think there is a demonstrable benefit in attending an Ivy League school. Poets & Quants reported in August of 2011 that one-third of Wharton’s MBA class of 2013 came from the eight Ivy League colleges. State schools are notably underrepresented in the same class.</p>
<p>My son went to a nonivy (for business), but nevertheless, a school considered elite in PA. My daughter went to our state school, and as far as opening doors…our state has a much better career services and monsterous alum base which in my opinion our private elite…no matter how good people here think it is…just could not compete…Yes our state flagship has much better connections in terms of business and its sticker price is $29,000 less per year…wish I knew then what I know now…just think of how much money we could have saved or invested for the future.</p>
<p>Getting great grades in college (regardless of which one) is no guarantee of succes in your chosen career after college. Most you work with won’t know and probably don’t care where you went to college. Have worked with some really intelligent individuals who have no common sense and/or no people skills. Those things matter far more in having a successful career then what your GPA was or where you got your degree, some of which aren’t things you learn at college. Clever marketing by colleges tends to imply something different.</p>
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<p>All that says is that Wharton favors graduates from the conference it is part of. Although I would agree that Ivy grads have an edge overall in recruitment by Wall Street firms. Fortunately, a lot of kids do not aspire to be hedge fund managers or venture capitalists, and find equally good options elsewhere.</p>
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<p>It appeared that you were implying that the state school was generally considered inferior to the top 5 school at both the undergraduate and PhD level, even though (without naming the schools and majors), it is not necessarily true (especially in-major for PhD students).</p>
<p>It is like the student who chose Florida A&M, a non-flagship state school of no great prestige, over Harvard, a few years ago. It may seem surprising to some, but it made sense, given his stated criteria: Florida A&M gave him a free ride (Harvard did not), Florida A&M had better engineering (his major), and Florida A&M was closer to home (he was only 16 when he entered college). (What might not have made as much sense was applying to Harvard at all, or applying to at least 45(!) schools.)</p>
<p>I think there are many variables that an open-ended question like this may be unable to address. I know of several people who turned down top (aka those “prestigious”) schools for incredible scholarships that opened many doors for them. While this may reflect a small # of people, it does affect the answer to the question posed.</p>
<p>this simply isn’t true. I have plenty of friends from home who go to high level state schools, waltz through their undergraduate education but still graduate with high GPAs, and then rely on alumni networks or university/business relationships for jobs. And I can guarantee you that the academic rigor of their coursework is nowhere near the level of mine. it is catty to suggest that ivy leaguers/the like generally rely more on their network for jobs, work less hard, and are less prepared for post-graduate work. this type of behavior depends much more heavily on personality type than this apparent self-righteous complex that is imposed upon students at elite schools. </p>
<p>on a side note, the suggestion that students at top tier schools are less socially adept than other college students is ridiculous. l can’t stand this stereotype</p>
<p>My experience has been that the person and their drive determine success and NOT the cache of their school’s name.</p>
<p>The only noticeable difference was that in the top schools, people met spouses who came from amazingly wealthy families that aren’t as prevalent in state schools. Let’s face it: all of Trump’s kids went to an ivy school as does many of the scion of the rich and powerful. However, as to career success, I haven’t noticed any difference between State U grads and IVY/ MIT grads.</p>
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<p>Eric Trump went to Georgetown
Donald Trump Jr.- Penn
Ivanka Trump- Georgetown, Transferred to Wharton
But they all did go to work for their father, which many students do not have the luxury of doing</p>
<p>ucb - it is definitely inferior since within texas it would have been 4th or 5th choice for graduating students in the top quadrant.</p>
<p>Please, we are looking at the Trumps as a representative family? OF COURSE they could go wherever they wanted. If someone disagrees, post some evidence of “amazingly wealthy” students being rejected from top-tier schools.</p>
<p>My dh went to a tier 1, and actually, top 10 university for one degree. He later got his computer science degree from a tier 2 university. He has done extremely well. He would not be in a better job even if he graduated from a bigger name school. Ironically, my cousin went to Wash U in the same degree. He currently is employed where my husband used to work in basically the position my husband was in almost right out of college.</p>