<p>Talking of twins, does anyone know where the daughter of President Bush who went to Yale ended up?</p>
<p>The one that went to U Texas wrote a book, spent time in Africa and does some stories for NBC (dont know if she still does) but the one who was at Yale disappeared from the grid.</p>
<p>According to all things wiki, Barbara Bush (the Yalie)
</p>
<p>I wonder why people don’t mention her much.</p>
<p>Barbara’s probably just chosen to keep a lower profile. Has not married yet like her sister (a wedding always creates buzz) and is not on TV. Doesn’t seem unusual to me at all. She may be out there just trying to live her life and be productive.</p>
<p>Totally agree with northwesty that swanky degrees open doors in law and banking. There is an unreal credential fetish at work in those environments. </p>
<p>But also agree with TheGFG that the Republic of Texas is kind of a unique place. If you blew the doors off of Baylor or U.T. Law School I wouldn’t count you out in competition with a Stanford, Yale or Harvard Law grad for a spot at a blue chip firm in Dallas or Houston. No way.</p>
<p>D1 studied to be a nurse at our local CC and then went on to a local state school (not our state uni) to complete her BSN. Before she finished her degree (she had her RN but not her BSN at that time), she landed a dream job - Emergency Department nurse in an award-winning hospital. </p>
<p>In our state, very, very few new nurses are hired for this department. In fact, very few nurses can even find work here and many go to other states to find work and then move back to this state when they have some work experience. </p>
<p>She knows others who went to more prestigious colleges (and let’s face it - almost any college is more prestigious than a community college) but landed jobs working in doctor’s offices and the like. </p>
<p>Community college certainly did not hold D1 back at all.</p>
<p>^^^^Nursing is a different animal than most. I am a nurse and know that in most instances, going to an expensive, “prestigious” school would not be any kind of advantage over anyone else. However, there does seem to be a definite shift in certain regions where the BSN is the preferred degree for the best hospital jobs. One need not go to Vanderbilt, but a bachelor’s degree is now “preferred” and in some instances is required. Not in all markets, but it is definitely starting to become an issue for a number of new grads with their associates degree.</p>
<p>I graduated from a 4th tier Podunk State University in California. So far I have out-earned, out-prestiged, and just left my friends who went to Stanford and Berkeley in the dust. Currently I work as a supervisory tax consultant at a national firm in a major city. The only friends I have that out earn me are not the Ivy grads but the state school engineering grads. All I have is a Bachelor’s degree and a CPA license and I work with a few ivy league attorneys in my tax practice group. They couldn’t find jobs in big law so now they work for a national accounting firm earning about 5k more per year than me. Adjusted for student loan repayment and opportunity cost they are considerably poorer than I. </p>
<p>The person matters not the degree. I know a few franchise owning clients that have high school diplomas and earn more than your top 10% ivy leaguers. More McDonald’s franchise owners are millionaires than medical doctors. Just saying…</p>
<p>IMO attitude and work ethic is most important. Some Ivy Leaguers I have interviewed for jobs have rotten entitled attitudes. Communication skills are typically more important in my profession than intellectual acumen. So there is my rant…</p>
<p>Nrdsb4,
I agree with you that nursing is different than many other majors. My daughter got to meet nurses from many different colleges while she had her clinical experiences. Based on what she observed, she felt better prepared for clinical than the students from other colleges.</p>
<p>In our area, a BSN is a must. Her job required that she complete her BSN within 2 years of being hired but this was no a problem for her. She was more than half-way done with her BSN at the time she was hired. All the AS degree-only nurses seem to be from an earlier generation. </p>
<p>Anyway, with just her ‘measly’ community college degree (and her RN - her BSN was still in the works at this time), she got a plum entry job. She did fine without a ‘fancy’ diploma. She is however a hard worker and a motivated individual. That’s what helped her land her job.</p>
<p>ValleyAccountant,
I have to say, that like nursing, accounting is also different from most majors. It seems that anyone who does well in accounting can land a job. When we visited the school where my D2 now attends we discovered that even in this crappy economy, the accounting majors have a much, much higher employment rate (upon graduation) than all other majors at this LAC. </p>
<p>D2 is an accounting major in her junior year and she was able to land a paying internship this summer. And it paid quite well. This is in sharp contrast to many of the internships that college students get that pay very poorly or not at all. </p>
<p>At her college, her grades make her a ‘big fish in a small pond’ and so she got lots of merit aid to attend. She’ll graduate with no debt (as we could afford to send her here on our dime due to the large amount of scholarship money she received) and will likely and a well paying job and a CPA. </p>
<p>So, while I think that you can do well at a non-prestigious college, choosing certain majors (like nursing or accounting instead of philosophy or gender studies) certainly helps!</p>
<p>I’m not sure why this has to be a comparison between two siblings. Sometimes the only similarity between a brother and sister is their parents. How many people do you know with a sibling of a completely demeanor and attitude? </p>
<p>Point being, we can make this comparison between any two graduates, one from an “elite” school and the other from a conventionally “mid-tier” school. I am certain there are thousands of examples where the latter student ends up more successful (based on whatever metric you choose to determine this by). Gladwell once argued that a student who gets in to Penn and chooses to go to Penn State will likely end up as successful as a Penn graduate. His argument is that it’s the determination that gets you to the heights you dream of reaching, not the degree. If you have what it takes to get into the school and remain consistent, you will end up wealthy, wise, and happy.</p>
<p>S1 graduated from a large (not flagship) state u. He knew what his “dream job” was when he was a freshman in h.s. He was driven to accomplish his goal and worked hard for it all the way through college. The training was grueling but he hung in there.
He made it on sheer determination. He’s making more money than any of his friends regardless of what college they attended and more importantly, he loves his job.</p>
<p>I’ll speak for both the adults and the kids. Of the adults who went to top tier universities, one has struggled since the dot.com bust, but in the aggregate has done very well. Everyone who hears where she went to school still oohs and aahs. For another adult who did not go to a top tier university but does hold a doctorate, he has struggled to overcome some of the stigma, but managed to achieve international prominence due to sheer force of will and hard work. If you asked him if he could do it over and go to the more prestigious institution in the first place, he would say, yes. That was the counsel he gave his children. Two of the three went to top tier universities (and one holds a graduate degree from Oxford) and unquestionably, the networking and the prestige landed them in top flight professional opportunities. One that went to mediocre university has still managed to get into his career of choice (criminal justice) and he’s thrilled. My opinion: go to the best institution that is the best fit for you and that has a tight and supportive alumni network that will take care of you for the long haul.</p>
<p>It has to do with the person</p>
<p>my mom went to public university in panama, where she payed 30$ annually for tuition. she greaduated in five years in Law and got a scholarship to the International Maritime Law Institute at Malta. She got her Master in International Maritime Law. We now own a 500,000$ apartment and a 700,000$ house in the city, besides other luxuries we take like traveling and I attend the best private school in the country. So it is definitely about the characteristics of the person, specially perseverance and responsibility. However, if you have the character and you get into an ivy league, getting a better education might give you a heads up over the rest.</p>
<p>Impressive story isn’t it? But entirely true.</p>
<p>Anavic,
Why are you going to “the best private school in the country”?</p>