Since I was in elementary school, I’ve worked hard in school, always getting top of the class, carrying on a few extracurriculars I could expertise in, and helping out the community in many ways (both in and out of school). I’ve carried this same attitude into high school and, though I have gotten lazy at times and am arguing for a huge reform of the educational system, I do my best and work as hard as I can under the current system to ensure the best for myself.
However, this week, people have been getting to me. I’ve had dreams of going to Harvard for a long time now, and though I’m not applying just for the prestige, I knew in my heart that this and other Ivy League schools could help me with their many resources that other schools might not be able to provide. The prestige these colleges bring also isn’t bad, as it usually impresses employers and such, afaik.
Classmates have been coming up to me and telling me, however, that it doesn’t even matter if I go to an Ivy League and make it in. At the end of the day, they could just go to a community college and get into a place like Harvard for grad school and land great jobs like someone could from Harvard undergrad and such.Therefore, me working hard all my schooling has been a waste of time, and I could’ve spent my time being a popular kid and just worked hard later in community college Of course, with my grades and all, I believed my classmates were trying to get a rouse of me out of spite or envy. But it still irks me. And today, when they threw it on me again, it really upset me.
I’m not sure where to go with this issue anymore, and I want it to stop bothering me and end.
Regardless of what college you attend, doing well in high school increases your chance of doing well in college (including graduating on schedule and getting a high enough GPA for whatever post-college plans you may have, including graduate or professional school or employment).
Also, doing well in high school can give you more college options, even if you do not care about college prestige. The better you do in high school, the more options you may have, particularly with good-financial-aid schools and good merit scholarships.
How much college prestige matters depends a lot on your academic and professional goals. In some fields, college prestige (or often major/department prestige at the college) matters highly, while in other fields, it matters much less.
But there are definitely schools other than Harvard and other Ivies who can get you a lot of places. Expand your horizons a little.
Also, don’t see HS as a means to an end (college) but an end in itself. This is a time to learn, develop, grow. Why would you want to try to be the popular kid anyway? What would that get you?
Your happiness & professional success are not contingent upon ivy league schools, any more than wearing a golf shirt w a polo pony on it is going to make u a better golfer.
If med school is your ambition, then what matters is undergraduate GPA & MCAT scores. Similar situation for other grad/professional schools.
All the executive management at my multinational company are engineers who graduated from State U. They probably all earn 7 figures.
Once u let go of the ivy hype, u won’t believe how liberating it is.
I think I gave off the wrong vibe >.< I don’t mean to say that Ivy Leagues are the best colleges and the only ones to pick, nor do I desire to be a popular kid (it was a silly ‘could have’ my classmates threw at me). Honestly, for me, it feels like I could’ve spent my efforts elsewhere, tried not to aim for my dream school or any of the great schools like Northwestern or Colgate, and instead done something else. I just feel… like everything I did was a waste, or at least that’s how my classmates made me feel. Rather, how I felt as a result.
I just hate how just because I’m aiming for a school like Harvard (where the prestige is nice, yes, but I’m in it for the program and the atmosphere), they’re telling me it’s pointless and putting it down. They act as if their plan for life is better and that my wanting to attend a certain school is inferior. Things like this almost never get to me, and this week, I don’t know, it really did hit me hard. And I honestly feel like an idiot for even believing in the prestige of Ivy League schools, to be honest.
I’m not sure how I feel about anything concerning college anymore.
The point of working hard in high school is to get a quality education that will benefit you for the rest of your life, irrespective of where you go to college. Some Ivies have big endowments - so do some non-Ivies - that result in more generous financial aid or more lavish student facilities, or smaller class sizes. Some Ivies have active alumni networks that can be of benefit when you are looking for that first job - but so do lots of non-Ivies, especially in the regions where they are located. The ‘wow’ factor associated with a ‘highly selective prestige’ school generally means you are given the benefit of the doubt but that doesn’t last long on the job, where competence, fit and work ethic matter more. Once you go to grad school or have been in the job market for a few years, the halo effect of your undergrad institution is pretty much gone. (In some fields it last longer than in others.)
So the answer to your friends is that you have worked hard because you care about getting a good education. It may or may not get you a spot at in an Ivy - but a good education will pay benefits for the rest of your life irrespective of what college you end up at. And why are you letting a bunch of people you will probably never see again after your senior year impact how you feel about yourself right now? Why give them so much power?
Having a strong work ethic will serve you well your entire life. No matter where you go to college, you will be prepared for college level work loads. Those are the traits that will lead to success.
As far as having to attend an elite college for undergrad in order to achieve success, there I disagree with you. Motivated students will succeed precisely b/c they are motivated.
Agree with above post that one thing to think about is that you can also leverage your hard work into a high quality, but less expensive college education. If you can come out of college with less debt but a strong education, you don’t need to go to an Ivy. But there is a lot of space between a CC or directional state college and HYPS. And taking advantage of colleges nearer to the top end but that will give you a big discount because of high stats can be a really smart strategy.
Also… your classmates are razzing you because they know they will get a reaction. Ignore them and they will lay off, at least somewhat. I can’t say they are entirely wrong, to be honest, but they are actually probably quite clueless about the nuances (and there are some) to making a decision of what type of undergrad college to attend. The good news is that you worked hard enough to probably give yourself choices all along that scale of options. They didn’t.
While what your classmates are saying is sort of true - someone CAN make it into Harvard for grad school after starting in community college, then a lower level school for their final two years first, it certainly doesn’t happen very often. Many who start community college don’t even finish those two years. Many others are happy with just two year degrees. Some go on to do two years elsewhere, then stop. Only a few continue beyond that, and it’s likely not at Harvard.
If you visit colleges you’ll start to get a feel for the academic and social aspect of schools.
I have three boys - all are in or have graduated from college. Two chose small LACs where the academics are decent, but not as top notch as the other son’s school which is a Top 30 Research U. Those two would not have done well at the higher level school (nor did they have the stats to get in). It wasn’t their niche. The lad who chose to go there? He absolutely loves it. It fits his personality and love of learning perfectly. He loves being in a place with academic peers. He could have done well at either of his brother’s schools too, but neither of those schools would have been as good of a fit for him.
All three have had (or are having) a good time at school doing far more than academics. I expect all three will find success in life from their degrees. Oldest already has a job using his degree. But the path to get there is definitely different.
If you enjoy what you have been doing (at least mostly), it hasn’t been a waste of time. Your higher stats put you in as a peer at these higher level schools. It need not be Ivy. My guy had (high) Ivy level stats, but chose not to apply to the actual Ivies. He found actual schools he liked and applied to those. And the merit $$ he earned has been nice too! (And yes, the opportunities he has for research are definitely FAR higher caliber than what his brothers have, except that the school his younger brother goes to outshines his in one target research area.)
Your classmates are just jealous, perhaps, and regardless of their motivation, what they say is nonsense.
As someone who slacked off in high school, went somewhere OK for college and then did go to Harvard for grad school:
First, where you go to college does matter. Going to a “better” school has lots of tangible and intangible benefits that will serve someone well throughout life.
Second, working hard, and learning how to study early on, is important and a good thing. It took me a while in college to figure out how to get good grades; if I had learned how sooner, I’d have been much better off.
Third, while maybe someone goes to community college for a degree and ends up at Harvard for grad school, I’ve never met such a person, either while studying at H or in the many years since. It’s at least much more likely to end up at Harvard if you start off at a decent regular college.
It does happen sometimes. The following describe a student who started at a community college, transferred to a state university to complete a bachelor’s degree, and is now a PhD student at Harvard.
Wanting to learn, to take advantage of your opportunities, to ‘swing for the fences’ is never wrong.
Folks who mock you, or put you down are terrible, short-sighted, mean, ugly trolls.
You’re my hero, and the hero of every member of CC.
Rock on.
There are at least a few dozen colleges and universities in the U.S. capable of providing the same resources as schools in the Ivy league these days. You certainly wouldn’t be in a worse position if you attended one of these schools over an Ivy league school.
Yes, prestige in general isn’t a bad thing and may impress employers. But realize that having one fact about you that impresses employers won’t necessarily be what gets you a job you’re applying for.
Some of those graduate programs have admissions rates which are lower than the rate for Harvard college (which is a single digit rate). I think someone ran the numbers a while back and concluded that most of Harvard’s undergrads don’t have the stats to apply to their business or law schools. You have to be an extremely well rounded candidate to get into some of those graduate programs. And the people that work hard and get accepted into those programs don’t tend to be the people that slacked off in high school.
To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with attending a community college. Some do it for financial reasons; others do it because they didn’t receive a proper education in their high schools; or because they just didn’t take their studies seriously. One of my professors remarked that she liked teaching at a UC because she had the opportunity to teach people who may have made some mistakes but were nevertheless bright people.
I don’t think anyone who knows what they’re talking about would say you wasted your time. Working hard in high school can manifest itself in a lot of different ways. You’ll get access to universities which will give you a lot of different opportunities. And working hard at this stage is important too. But you might also get very good financial aid packages for your efforts. So no, don’t feel bad. You certainly didn’t waste your time.
Sorry, that is not the case. Students who only ‘swing for the fences’ often strike out in college admissions. If the OP is smart, she will put some focus on what school FITS her the best, not the name brand she has been hearing all her life and has fixated on for that reason. Any student who says they want to go to “an Ivy” has a prestige bug in their ear – the Ivy league is actually an athletic conference, and the schools in it vary a whole lot. A student who says they would be happy at any of them is only looking at the superficial branding – very few students could be happy in the atmosphere of every Ivy. When they say that, it is just a sign that they have stars in their eyes and haven’t really done deep research on the schools.
Plus, admissions are very tough at most of them. It is super easy to find reach schools for most students. The hard work is in stepping back, thinking logically about your planned major and finances, and making a solid list of schools that includes reaches, matches, and safeties, all of which you would be happy to attend and some that you KNOW you will get admitted to and are affordable. Students who do THAT are heroes in the college admission process.
It is, however, the case that doing well in high school will open up more options. What may be a barely affordable reach for some other student may be a safety with a big scholarship for a better student, for example.
ya its not really about what you did during your undergraduate years. you can still live a good, happy, prosperous life without going someplace that good. And even if you make into Harvard during your undergraduate, it doesnt mean you will attend their your graduate years. I know one person at my school who went to Dartmouth College her undergraduate years and did her masters at University of Oklahoma. Anywayas the point is its really about neither undergrad or grad. its more about the experience you had to build up your profile(research, internships) rergardless of university
Of course, with my grades and all, I believed my classmates were trying to get a rouse of me out of spite or envy. But it still irks me. And today, when they threw it on me again, it really upset me.