<p>There are many, many places where one can receive a fantastic education in this country. There are only so many that are actually prestigious. It's obvious that prestige means something to many CCers...hence our obsession with HYPSM, other Ivies, and other top universities like Duke and Northwestern...but it would be interesting if you could all share how much prestige means to YOU.</p>
<p>I'll go first. I can't stand the thought of going to a college that is not prestigious. Think whatever you want of that, but I'm pretty much EXPECTED to go to a prestigious college, or else all the money spent on my hs education will be viewed as "wasted".</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter. Where you go to college cannot reflect who you are as a person, and how special you truly are. College is only a small part of life and prestige will not automatically guarantee you success in life. In fact, there are many people who graduated from Ivies and are not that well off today. You should not be concerned with prestige, but rather the quality and scope of the education you will receive that will better you as an individual allowing you to contribute in the best possible way to society.</p>
<p>But really, prestige has its importance even though my post above is not completley sarcastic. It is a fact that people all around you in your life will judge you by what college you are attending. This includes relatives, classmates, teachers, and friends. In my school newspaper all the senior’s college plans are put up, and seeing my Stat teacher look through them and making remarks such as “Ian’s going to Elon?!?” or “Wow, she made it to Boston College?” really made me think about how a student’s high school academics are judged by their college. Now when entering the real world prestige is just as important, whether it is for a job or for graduate school. Prestige, in the sense of how strong the school is, is very important to me.</p>
<p>Prestige is definitely important for me because it is one of the deciding factors to feed into investment banking, my career choice at the moment.</p>
<p>It’s important because I plan on returning to East Asia, where prestige is VERY important (borderline ridiculous, if you ask me). </p>
<p>Prestige, even though it has been bashed again and again as a non-factor in college choice, can be a legitimate concern for students choosing colleges.</p>
<p>It’s not that important to me considering the career I want doesn’t even care what school you go to and the program is specialized to a limited number of schools but I guess I do care about the ranking of the specialized schools. It really depends on your career route.</p>
<p>Prestige and school location were the two most important things when I applied to colleges. I mostly care about prestige because I know that having a prestigious name on your degree will open up more doors, at least for business jobs. Plus, having a prestigious degree on your resume will signal to employers that you’re probably smart and hard-working, therefore you don’t have to sell these attributes as much as those who attended less prestigious schools.</p>
<p>I got into almost all of the colleges I applied to, and chose arguably the least prestigious one. It was the best fit and it will get me where I want to go career wise. You don’t need prestige to get a good job.</p>
<p>Well… It’s not that simple. What usually builds up a sense of “prestige” is a bunch of intrinsic and tangible factors that whether you believe it or not, actually adds to your personal value of that education. If the school makes you happy for whatever reason, and if others regard it highly for the same reason, then that’s “prestige”. </p>
<p>And besides, if you’re going to shell out fifty thousand a year to go to college, you want to go to a place that makes you happy.</p>
<p>probably one of the most important things to me, but once you reach a certain threshold (for me, probably the top 20), i’d say it’s about even. so from there i’d pick best fit.</p>
<p>^^^ I’d agree that there probably aren’t more than 20 schools in the U.S. that are “prestigious” as in drawing approving comments when others ask where you’re going to college.</p>
<p>Do you actually work in banking?
Because I have (for over 25 years), and I can tell you this is a myth. The industry is a pure meritocracy, if you are an idiot, coming from a “prestige” school will get you nowhere. If you are a quality candidate, you will be successful regardless of where you were educated.</p>
<p>I’m not talking about work performance. I’m talking about just getting your foot in the door, in which going to a more prestigious school will definitely help you, especially for an industry like investment banking.</p>
<p>I’d say it’s important, but given the choice of a really great but somewhat less prestigious college like WUSTL over an Ivy such as Princeton, would I go with the more prestigious Princeton or stick with WUSTL? I think I would have to go with WUSTL.</p>
<p>Fit is over-stressed. There’s not much one can gain by staying over a weekend, sitting in on a few classes, and talking to students. Impressions and hearsay.</p>
<p>Picking one school over another is reasonable as long as the schools are more or less in the same peer group.</p>