<p>Having read many posts and threads on College Confidential, my advice to many students and parents is to calm down. Most of you seem way overly anxious about whether or not you're going to get into "such and such" school. The school you end up attending is not going to make or break your future. I have friends who went to Ivy League (or similar) schools who didn't do so well post-graduation, and friends who did very well. I have friends who attended State schools who are fabulously successful and others who are not. As an employer, I can honestly say when I interview prospective employees, I hardly look at the specific school someone attended. In fact, some of my best employees are B students from State schools, not A students from Ivy League schools. So ya'll take it easy. If you're a smart student, work hard, and have a good attitude, it doesn't matter where you go to school. You'll be successful no matter Harvard or the University of North Dakota.</p>
<p>This is exactly what I’ve been trying to tell people on CC for the last 2 and a half years. Unfortunately, your ideas are falling on deaf ears. Many people on this forum are whiny and narrow-minded and cannot seem to grasp that college is much more than the name on the diploma.</p>
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With a May 2010 join date…</p>
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He probably pulled off an “Inception”-esque dream and was able to fit 2.5 years in 3 months</p>
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Hmmm… “employer” is a rather broad term. I highly doubt that the majority of employers don’t distinguish between average State schools and Ivies and other top schools.</p>
<p>DCEagle, </p>
<p>You are doing a disservice. You may not care but please don’t try to convince us that the vast majority of graduate schools and employers are like you. The stats show very clearly that undergraduates from the Ivies do much much better at getting into grad schools and make way more in their careers. Our paranoia and concern is very much justified. There may be a few exceptions out there but for most of us where we go to school will make a very large difference in our lives.</p>
<p>^ The school you go to will not make a “large difference” in your life, assuming by this, you’re referring to career prospects. The experience of being in college will make a profound impact in your life, regardless of if you’re at Princeton or Kansas State. Why is it always assumed on CC that people at lesser ranked schools will never a great, fulfilling college experience that turns into a successful career? Why is it always assumed here that they will never have the same opportunities as Ivy League students? Sure there’s a concentration of great students at great schools, but keep in mind it’s the individuals that define a school, not the other way around – it’s impressive if you attend an elite school, but students at such schools are deluded if they think a high USNWR rank and membership in a particular sports conference means they’re poised for success in all walks of life. The name on your diploma is more of an ego-booster than anything else. It may get you an interview, but if you’re a pompous a** in your interview, you’re not going to get the job.</p>
<p>You may not care what school a prospective employee graduated from.</p>
<p>However, the majority of employers hiring for worthwhile jobs (you know, jobs that actually don’t suck) do care.</p>
<p>“The stats show very clearly that undergraduates from the Ivies do much much better at getting into grad schools and make way more in their careers.”</p>
<p>But the stats also show that Ivy-caliber students who went to different schools do equally well.</p>
<p>idk if i feel like this is relevant or not, but don’t some of the ivies have some of the highest suicide rates in the country? i thought college was supposed to be about balance - academically and socially - so that you can ultimately do well AND be happy?</p>
<p>it’s 4:30 in the morning over here. i may be at a complete lack of competency right now, so feel free to completely disregard this if you’d like.</p>
<p>The data and research conclusions are somewhat mixed on the financial payoff from attending a more selective college.</p>
<p>Some posters see in the payscale.com data a strong correlation between college selectivity and alumni earnings. All the top 10 colleges for median mid-career salaries are highly selective. The bottom 10 are all relatively obscure schools. For median starting salaries, a few less selective schools do appear near the top, and engineering majors seem to have the jump on liberal arts majors from more selective schools. Still, highly selective schools are disproportionately represented in the top quarter or so, and almost all the schools at the bottom are relatively obscure.
([Top</a> US Colleges ? Graduate Salary Statistics](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp]Top”>http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp))</p>
<p>Occasionaly, a CC thread will refer to a 1998 paper by Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger. This paper reported on the post-graduation earnings of students who were admitted to highly selective colleges, but who chose to attend less selective colleges. Dale and Krueger observed that attending a less selective college made little or no difference in the earnings of these alumni, with the exception of some students from low-income backgrounds. (<a href=“http://www.irs.princeton.edu/pubs/pdfs/409.pdf[/url]”>www.irs.princeton.edu/pubs/pdfs/409.pdf</a>). Selective colleges may exercise a filtering effect by admitting more talented or more motivated students, but it is the talent and motivation that influences future income, not the college per se.</p>
<p>An older debate concerns the question of whether the knowledge and skills developed in a liberal (not pre-professional or technical) education are transferrable at all to most careers. If it is true that attending a selective college per se does not produce an earnings advantage, this does not necessarily mean there is no significant difference in the quality of the education. It may mean that the liberal arts and sciences, no matter how well taught, have no direct relevance to earnings in most careers. If so, it may be worth asking whether studying those subjects, especially at the schools that seem to teach them best, has significant value other than financial payoff. Or, whether selective schools do confer financial and other advantages in specific careers that best exercise skills associated with these subjects (such as law, medicine, or academia.)</p>
<p>I repeat: Employers don’t care as much as you think they do. In fact, I still maintain it makes a minutia difference. In fact I believe that you may have a better chance getting your first job if your degree is from a large State U, because alumns are plentiful and they like to hire fellow alumns.</p>
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<em>emphasis mine</em></p>
<p>To my knowledge, the stats do not show that attending an Ivy actually causes this differential. The Krueger/Dale study indicates the opposite.</p>
<p>Payscale is hardly data. It is a website where anyone can post anything without verification. Thus=worthless.</p>