"If I don't go to a good college, I won't have a good quality of life."

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>How real is this perception? I personally am really tired of hearing it. Especially from people who don't know the first thing about college admissions/top colleges. Recite HYPSM in your sleep and vent about affirmative action, then we'll talk.</p>

<p>Imo, where you go to school and what you learn there will have little overlap with your career and your life. I believe no matter what you do or where you are, it's important to show that you did your best and excelled with what you had. <em>insert cliche</em></p>

2

<p>I know people who started out at community colleges and are now making 100k+ a year (namely, my Mother and a few of her colleagues) - people think that come senior year, if you aren’t accepted in a top 20 school, life is over from there on out.</p>

3

<p>Not true. Just because you go to a regional college doesn’t mean you can’t have a good life. Look at our presidents, some of them started of at a community college, or just went to their state university.</p>

4

<p>That’s exactly what the top colleges want students to think. The marketing machine is in high gear. College is just a small clog in the building of a good life. I do believe it does lead to a higher quality of life. But it is not the only road. That’s the thing colleges fail to mention.</p>

5

<p>@CE527M</p>

<p>Obama - Harvard, Columbia
Bush - Yale, Harvard
Clinton - Georgetown, Yale
Bush - Yale</p>

<p>It’s been 30 years since a president got elected who wasn’t an Ivy League graduate.</p>

6

<p>I’ve heard horror stories of companies that recruit on certain campuses and only hire people from those schools, but I don’t know how much truth there is to them or how often that happens if it does.</p>

7

<p>@HateBeingSober…still, some presidents have done undergrad work at “regular” non-Ivies. I was just giving an example, though.</p>

8

<p>LBJ - Texas State :)</p>

<p>And didn’t Warren Buffet go to Nebraska for undergrad?</p>

9

<p>I think this perception is only common among people who were really close to getting into those schools but didn’t. From what I’ve seen of real life outside the absurdity of this website, most people go to community colleges and state schools and are pretty happy about it.
I mean, I’ll probably have a pretty bad quality of life if I go anywhere other than an Ohio state school because the debt will kill me.</p>

10

<p>@TheKongo He went to UPenn Wharton his freshman and sophomore years, transferred to Nebraska for the remainder of his undergrad education, then went to Columbia business school.</p>