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<p>Very interesting. Will HYP be the new top LACs in 10 years? Or will their non-LAC part be the new HYP?</p>
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<p>And Columbia isn’t?? That’s certainly not what I’ve observed firsthand on Columbia U’s campus and heard from HS classmates and friends who went there. Nearly every undergrad I’ve met there wants to break into i-banking, finance, medicine, law, consulting, management at some Fortune 500, etc…</p>
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<p>Umm… UW (U of Washington) is not the same as Wash U (Washington U of St. Louis)</p>
<p>And I wasn’t the one who said “very few people in the Northeast even know where WashU is.” Someone else said that. </p>
<p>Cobrat - with all due respect, your one specialized NYC high school is just that, one high school, and doesn’t really mean much outside that particular world.</p>
<p>Ok, I have been wanting to ask this…Cobrat - why are you on this forum? Not that you are not welcome, but I am just not getting the connection.</p>
<p>I’m flattered that so many parents want my kid to teach their kids. And the kids want it too! ;)</p>
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<p>I originally joined because I was asked by some neighbors to help guide their high school junior/senior kids through the college admissions process. </p>
<p>They weren’t comfortable researching/seeking out information online, didn’t have a network of friends/acquaintances/relatives who went through the US college admissions process, and their kids’ high school GCs are overwhelmed/indifferent.</p>
<p>Cobrat, was the post about “UW” (vs. WashU, a very different place) a joke, or an inadvertent demonstration of the thesis that no one in the East knows anything about Washington University in St. Louis?</p>
<p>I mean, cripes!, WashU has had one of the top medical schools in the country since time immemorial. My college freshman roommate, who saw himself as a future Nobelist and was a very hot property, did his MD/PhD there. In recent decades it has invested enormously in its undergraduate programs, which have become very popular with Eastern preppies, at least. A few years ago, mentioning its name could produce gales of laughter, because the the carpet-bombing direct mail strategy it was using to target anyone capable of scoring 700 or more on any section of any SAT test.</p>
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<p>UW would normally refer to University of Washington or University of Wisconsin, not Washington University in Saint Louis. While all are well regarded by those who know about them, it is certainly possible that some or all may not be very well known in some parts of the country.</p>
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<p>Seems odd that a high population state like New York chose not to make at least some of the SUNY schools desirable destinations for top students, as opposed to places where one goes as a last resort. (Yes, some SUNY schools are well respected in specific subjects, but much less so in general for students outside those specific subjects.)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I grew up in the East, and I sure didn’t think that state schools were anything to be looked down on - and my Dad was a Columbia PhD professor at a Pennsylvania LAC. In my town, Penn State was a respected place to go to college. When I went off to another Pennsylvania LAC that had lots of kids from New Jersey, there were lots of schools they sneered at, but Rutgers wasn’t one of them.</p>
<p>One thing that might be worth doing is to take a look at the alumni magazines for the Ivies, Seven Sisters and other highly ranked schools. I was recently reading the alumni magazine for Wellesley College, which I attended, and I was noticing all the people who appear to have very nice, if regular and ordinary lives. Yes, Hillary Clinton became the Secretary of State, but a lot of people apparently became public elementary school teachers.</p>
<p>Most of the people who attend any college appear to have very nice, if regular and ordinary lives. Really, everyone puts his or her pants legs on one at a time.</p>
<p>I never “got” the Ivy thing either. My D did a joint degree program with Columbia & List College of JTS (Jewish studies) and it didn’t occur to me until she GRADUATED that Columbia is Ivy league. Duh. She just wanted the top-notch Jewish studies program and it happened to be connected to Columbia. She was ok with that. :D</p>
<p>So “ok” with it that at graduation from supplemental Hebrew school (an evening thing–she went to public HS) they had to announce where they were attending college. She said “List College” and sat down. I told her she should also have said Columbia b/c people have HEARD of that! I did not say it was b/c it’s an Ivy…never occurred to me, as I said.</p>
<p>:cool:</p>
<p>Pizzagirl:
I agree with you completely. The reason I mention this, however, is that I worry that my son and his ultracompetitive friends all seem to think that winning admission to an Ivy League school is some sort of insurance policy against ever ending up ordinary or, apparently, encountering adversity of any kind. It’s a college. It’s not magic. But I think that a number of kids and parents are a bit confused about that. I think they really do think that if you get into the right school you will from then on regularly be asked to appear on CNN to give your opinion on the debt crisis, be issued a yacht upon graduation, never, ever, ever be unemployed, etc. </p>
<p>I’m also worried about the scenario where a kid is miserable in high school (often because the particular high school actually is a terrible environment where administrators are anti-intellectual, teachers dislike being challenged by bright kids, most of the money and emphasis seems to go to sports, etc.) and somehow or other the kid (or the parent) gets it into their head that it’s OK to be miserable (or even bullied) now because at some point in the future, the kid will go to Harvard and there will be some vast, cosmic form of “evening of the score.” YOu know, like the lawn will open up in front of the school and all the bullies will fall into some sort of pit like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, while your child dances around at the edges of the pit wielding his Harvard acceptance. In such a situation, I’d like to think there’s a way to actually engage with and maybe even fix the toxic high school academic environment rather than engaging in Ivy League revenge fantasies.</p>
<p>OP,
There are many who feel the same as you do (including my D.). However, they are not bothered with others feeling differently. So, I do not get it why “this overarching Ivy Love I see on this site” bothers you so much. People want to be brainwashed, let them if it makes them feel happy. Whatever makes people happy works for the better of whole society. We do not want misearable people, people who worry about things that are out of their control. Stick to your own business and be happy!!</p>
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<p>I guess maybe it’s my Myers-Briggs T operating here, but I don’t really “worry” about that kind of thing. If other people want to be stupid and think that an Ivy League (or other elite school) diploma = the key to unending happiness and a degree from a not-as-elite school = a miserable life, then they are really too stupid to bother with, and they aren’t worthy of my time or thought. Lots of people think lots of dumb things – but those things are their problem, not mine. </p>
<p>Anyway, if you’re worried your son is going to equate Ivy League (etc) with ultimate happiness – isn’t that something you can influence by how you talk about things? Don’t worry about his friends – they’re not your problem – but I don’t know, I found it pretty darn easy to send the signal that education is great, top schools are awesome and worth shooting for – but what you do with your life is up to you and there are no guarantees in life, and plenty of jerks go to Harvard and plenty of life successes go to Average State U, so do your best, work hard, and that’s all you can reasonably expect. </p>
<p>We had my H’s office party at our house, and my son (a freshman at a top 20) sat and chatted with the boyfriend of one of H’s employees who had just graduated from a unimpressive-by-CC-standards, not-very-selective directional state university. And this kid had a great job at a major real estate firm … a job that plenty of fancy-schmancy grads would love to have! – and spoke enthusiastically about all the lessons he had learned in his few months of working so far. Another boyfriend of one of H’s employees moved furniture for a living, and it was evident he was a bit embarrassed to say so – but everyone made him feel comfortable, and at one point he walked over to our piano and played absolutely beautifully, and when we complimented him he indicated he had n training, it just came to him. I guess the point is … nothing guarantees anything. I’m a bit of an elite-college snob myself, I won’t pretend I’m not. But people and their abilities and talents and aspirations come in all flavors.</p>
<p>My D. is surrounded by " plenty of fancy-schmancy grads " at her med. School. She loves her classmates, but does not feel inferior or initmidated by anybody, including PhD from Harvard and lawers in her 1st year Med. School class. She also done well in couple exams. She graduted from state UG where she was on full tuition Merit scholarship. However, D. never was bothered with others’ burning desire to go to Ivy UG either. She simply is way too busy with her own life.</p>
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<p>Instead of “stupid,” how about, “taken in by the cultural hype that promotes that view?” Especially when we’re talking about 16-year-olds who are still a bit damp behind the ears.</p>
<p>I say let people do whatever they want, stupid or not, why is it our business?</p>
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<p>I am not bothered, I am puzzled.</p>