<p>Its not what college you go to, its how you apply urself in that college. My dad’s boss for example went to a state university, but then he got a job at a very good place and is now my dads boss driving bmw’s and mercedes. I person with a 4.0 gpa and a bunch of undergraduate research that went to a state school is much better than a person who got a 2.0 and didnt do anything but went to Harvard. Thats my opinion atleast.
Top schools simply just give you more opportunities, but its how you use those opportunities that matters.</p>
<p>There’s more truth to that than you think. Going to a top 20 school and then dropping out means that 1) you are academically and intellectually talented enough to make it into one of these programs 2) you are either lazy enough or have enough initiative to drop out of these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to pursue something else. If you’re one of the latter types…like Bill Gates…</p>
<p>Everyone’s posting examples of rich, “made” people who didn’t go to a Top 20…or sweeping generalizations of “there have to have been Ivy grads who went crying home for somewhere to live..”</p>
<p>Of course there are exceptions (large or small) to everything.</p>
<p>But you’ll find that those who go to a Top 20 ON AVERAGE are more successful in their careers.</p>
<p>Though I agree it’s arguable whether this is because of the quality of the university or the quality of the applicants.</p>
<p>I pick lifetime income over 4 years of happiness/ relative unhappiness.</p>
<p>It’s those two kids from kindergarten, and you ask them, do you want a cookie now..or 2 cookies later…? (biscuits)</p>
<p>The issue is that those “Top 20” schools can only admit an extremely small fraction of the ~1.4 million American students who enter college in any given year (data is a couple years old so it may be a bit off.) If a prospective student is setting themselves up to believe that it’s “Top-20” or nothing, they’re setting themselves up to fail.</p>
<p>Shoot for the moon, by all means, but remember that getting in is a crapshoot, and if you don’t get into a “Top-20,” console yourself by remembering that neither did 1.35 million (or so) other Americans.</p>
<p>In fact, 1.25 million of those Americans probably never even seriously considered a “Top-20” school to begin with. They knew going in that either their grades weren’t <em>perfect</em> enough, they couldn’t afford to, or <em>gasp</em> they wanted to go somewhere else. The “Top-20” is not a realistic option for the vast majority of people who go to college.</p>
<p>Somehow, these poor sods who don’t go to a “Top-20” school manage to get a quality education, enjoy their time in college, graduate, find jobs, raise families and live enjoyable, productive lives despite the fact that they never set foot on Harvard Yard or the Gothic Wonderland.</p>
<p>I know it’s anathema to some people on this forum, but one magazine’s rankings are not the be-all and end-all of higher education.</p>
<p>
Maybe it’s just me, but I think someone with a Chem E degree from NC State may be making a wee bit more than a Folklore graduate from Harvard. </p>
<p>
They’ll always go for the cookie now.</p>
<p>Keshira:</p>
<p>“But you’ll find that those who go to a Top 20 ON AVERAGE are more successful in their careers.”</p>
<p>“Though I agree it’s arguable whether this is because of the quality of the university or the quality of the applicants.”</p>
<p>There are several studies that compare “success rates” on the basis of looking at entire student bodies. The results of these studies seem to vary between a very slight advantage, to a somewhat significant advantage for the elite schools. The glaring problem with such studies, however, as you have hinted at above, is that there are no controls applied in these studies which would account for differences in the characteristics of the students themselves: things like High School GPA, entrance test scores, family education level, family income, etc. The real question should be, how do outcomes compare for GROUPS OF SIMILAR STUDENTS, the answer to which provides the closest answer to, “how would results vary for any given student?”, or even, “how would results differ for YOU?” There appear to be relatively few studies available that look at things this way, but those that have been done seem to suggest virtually no significance associated with school prestige. Of course, you can always question such studies from the point of view of the criteria defining “success”.</p>