<p>zoid, I concur. S, who attends an Ivy, is currently doing an internship with a company on Wall Street--an opportunity made available through the career office. He reports that he has not met a single employee of the company who is not an Ivy grad. Of the interns, only one is not an Ivy student. That intern is a SUNY graduate, but is doing the same level tasks as the Ivy sophomore and junior students.</p>
<p>Lets not confuse personal geographic preference with 'opportunities'. For example, the top kids at Haas or Stanford don't necessarily dream of NYC -- if they did, they would apply to east coast schools -- instead, they go the VC route, which, in today's world, can be much more lucrative. (Check out Bear Stearns alumni.)</p>
<p>Of course, Wall Street & NY I-banks are packed full of kids who attend private, NE colleges. According to Stat 101, that is a correlation, not a causation.</p>
<p>blue, you argue from exception. Haas is a top school. Stanford GSB and UCSF is a top medical school. In general, the Ivies and little Ivies place more of their undergrads in renowned prof/grad programs. A few other non-Ivies do well, some better than the Ivies, example Duke. Yes, some top schools were not included the study, example Stanford. But the overall point is the same.</p>
<p>Same goes for job placement and Haas. NY Stern may also have a placement akin to Ivies. But the general point is the Ivies will do better, much better than UConn or UArkansas, etc.</p>
<p>I did not assume or argue that the greatest number of the highest SAT scorers go to Ivies. It may be that a no name college lures more of the 2400s with scholarships than any one Ivy but the interquartile range says they have more high scorers.</p>
<p>I also wrote prestige was important due to signaling effects.</p>
<p>bluebayou: Silicon Valley is chock full of Harvard and Yale BAs, MBAs, and JDs. And there are plenty of Stanford grads on Wall Street. There is some regional bias, but it's nowhere near as strong as you imply. The top five graduates in my Stanford law school class went: Penn professor, NY law firm then Silicon Valley, clerkship then NY law firm, LA law firm, clerkships then NY US atty's office.</p>
<p>I think a lot of this is due the dynamics of the process. D ended up applying to 5 ivys and Stfrd because of an esoteric Div I sport. Recruited by all initially, Harvard and Yale coaches waffled after the initial contact (probably found better fits). When Yale waffled, did Stfrd EA and got in. Received likely letter from P, so you still have to protect yourself. Brown never responded to inquiries, and Columbia was out for personal reasons. So we ended up doing the three recruited for P, Penn, C, and both H, and Y in case something happened and she moved up on the coaching lists. Is going to P by the way.</p>
<p>Bear Sterns alumni? I rest my case.</p>
<p>Just kidding...</p>
<p>Companies will take Ivy kids with less than 3.0 over State U kids with over 3.6. It's brand name appeal for them. We are a consumer society that is driven by such a notion.</p>
<p>GFG asks (I don't know how to quote) : Would there be a type of student that you as parents would not encourage to attend any or most of the Ivy League schools? For example, if a child was a good but not brilliant student who probably got an admissions boost for athletics, would you send him or her anyway? Or would you worry a kid like this would feel intellectually out-of-place? Or if the student were not particularly self-confident, would you recommend an Ivy? Or would all the Type A achievers and go-getters be too intimidating? In other words, if we assume certain commonalities among these schools, would there be a type of kid for whom these elite schools would be ill-advised?</p>
<p>GFG what does the student want to do after visiting the Ivies? Did he or she feel comfortable interacting with the kids? Did s/he have a chance to go to some classes? </p>
<p>I think you might be assuming all are Type A's. My husband is an Ivy alumni and I often say I have to check to see if he has a pulse.</p>
<p>We live in a small town and my son thought Cornell was just too big for him. He was accepted at UVA and I thought that would be too large a class for him. Georgetown was about half the class size (4000 give or take) freshmen.
He is winding up at Princeton with a class of (expected 1250) which is probably where he belongs re class size. We go up next week for a preview and I can report back on his impressions of the other students.</p>
<p>momofnewP:</p>
<p>I guess one question I have is whether being admitted to an Ivy in part because of being a legacy, or being a recruited athlete is a good way to be admitted. Plenty of folks envy these admissions advantages. But despite the fact that an elite school may choose the student and deemed him worthy of admission in light of institutional goals, are there times when the student is being "used" and admission is not in their best interest? For example, is it really a good idea for a football player with 1200 SAT's (old scale) to go to an Ivy when almost all of the other students around him are at or close to 1600?</p>
<p>The answer is yes when the motto is go to the most prestigious school you can. But in a case like the above, should "fit" be more important?</p>
<p>GFG, you raise an interesting question. If my son's scores were not too low, meaning if he could handle the work load, it would be OK to go as a legacy or athlete, etc for the brand's sake. if he was going to be insecure, no. In this situation, fit would be very important.</p>