<p>I am a parent who stumbled upon this website. What I would like to understand is the reason kids today are so obsessed with going to an Ivy level school. Is it because these schools are perceived as exclusive windows to a certain echelon of the job market? Is getting into the school of their choice just a step on the road toward getting rich? Is it about prestige? Is it about competing with their peers? Based on the tone of what I am reading on this website it does not appear to be about love of learning.</p>
<p>One thing I am sure students will discover is that, wherever you go to school, you get out of an education what you put into it. Furthermore, academia is probably the only field in which an "elite" degree is a prerequisite to being a leader in your chosen field.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago we all cared very much about which schools we would be accepted to. Top students today, however, seem so obsessed with the issue that their
feelings on the subject differ not just in degree but in type. There is something going on that I just don't understand. Is it just that it has become so "FASHIONABLE" to attend these schools or is it something else. How much is it the parents pushing or are the kids just so driven? I would love to hear the feelings of others on the subject</p>
<p>"How much is it the parents pushing or are the kids just so driven?"</p>
<p>I all depends on individual cases, but coming from a competitive school, it seems like it's a combination of both. Some parents and kids are ridiculous. However, to me, it seems to be that if a parent is pushy, the kid is just responding to the pushiness, without any self-motivation and vice versa. Just my two cents! </p>
<p>*FYI- I would have a TON more to say about this intriguing topic..but I must run off to the college apps. that await me, how ironic. ;)</p>
<p>It's sometimes because they will feel they are a failure if they don't get in. Why they actually want to go there? Who knows. I for one want to, because of a smarter student body, compared to some state schools. </p>
<p>A lot of my friends really want to get into an ivy, and their parents never even talked to them about college. In my example, my parents simply said to go wherever I want to. They never even implied they would rather me go to a "good" school.</p>
<p>EDIT: Seriously, I have NO IDEA why everyone wants to go to an IVY or any top school for that matter, especially for undergrad.</p>
<p>Well, only reason I'm applying to some of my Ivy League colleges is to satiate my mother. -_- I have ZERO chance at all of getting into Yale or Dartmouth, but my mother INSISTS that I have no chance if I don't apply, blahblahblah.</p>
<p>My dream school is Wellesley or Pomona. Though a lot of my other school are right up there. :) I like most of my schools.</p>
<p>I want to go to an ivy school because I want to have the greatest possible education that would also allow me the best opportunity to be successful in life. I don't know about you, but I learn more from talking and competing with the smartest of my peers than I do from teachers. Ivy league schools happen to have the smartest people in the nation, and I think that I could learn the most from those genius people.</p>
<p>My parents never influenced my decision. They want me to go somewhere very inexpensive and small.</p>
<p>Eh. Personally, I don't believe in Tainter's statement. I mean, sure, it helps to be around smart people, rather than low-motivated community college slackers (not to say that community college is bad, but c'mon, you know there are some bad slackers in community college).
But "genius IQ" isn't something learned and absorbed by hanging out with those people. I'd rather go to a school where I really can thrive than about going to the most competitive college. And thrive include atmosphere, location, weather, blahblahblah.
Just my own opinion.</p>
<p>Actually, SAT score rise can be partly attributed to the rise of SAT prep academies, and I've heard something about a more generous curve nowadays than in the past?</p>
<p>I didn't mean to sound like I wanted other people's IQ to rub off on me. I was tryin to say that I learn best when I can discus and argue topics with other really smart people. The only reservations I have about applying to Princeton, is that I might end up being completely surrounded by snobby rich people. But one of my best friends got in ED, and he's not like that so I think it will be alright.</p>
<p>Neither of my parents could care less. They went to state schools. My mom has her own law firm, and my dad is a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Their arguement is that the name on the degree is worthless, what you do with it is what has meaning. They have never pushed me to do anything in my life. My grades/SAT/Stats are mine, and mine alone. I am going to go where that work will have meant something, not some place where another kid that ****ed up throughout highschool is. Sorry that was a little incoherent.</p>
<p>Consider me shallow in this area, but I will kill myself before going to ASU.</p>
<p>I am one of the students on here that is not obsessed with going to an Ivy league school. I don't need to go to one to get the best education I can. As long as I put in hard work wherever I go, then I will get a good education. On top of that, I can't understand the reasoning of going into debt to pay the outrageous cost. And they are also too far away. I could never go that far from home.</p>
<p>If that's your thing, then more power to you, but I don't think it is every student's goal to go to an Ivy.</p>
<p>to the person who doubts that today's kids are smarter than 20 years ago, there has been a study by a neuroscientist, who found that in fact, the avg IQ score of america's youth has been steadily increasing for the last 30 years. I forget the rate at which he said it was increasing.</p>
<p>I'm not going to deny the fact that part of the reason that I want to go to an Ivy League school is so that I can tell people "oh, I went to Princeton," but I think that going to any of the top schools makes it easier to take advantage of the oppurtunities. Example: At the University of Michigan, you might have an incredible professor, but so will the hundreds of other kids in the class. At a smaller institution, you can really get to know your professors. Also, I'm fed up with stupid people and need to get away from them for a while.</p>
<p>With everything in life, there are high school seniors with a wide range of positions on such issues...the notion of having an Ivy League education as an objective is just one. There are definitely kids I know whose parents are the ones driving them, and it's really quite unfortunate to witness the amount of pressure they exert on their kids. But that's a whole other topic. And then my parents happen to basically let me do as I like, all my parents want for me is to be happy. That's all. And there are clearly parents in between. </p>
<p>I think it may be easy to gain the impression high schoolers are making themselves crazy from a board such as this, but I think it's safe to say, that this cross-section of the high school populace is one inherently quite bright and hard working. But I think a place like this is important in learning more about the wide spectrum of schools out there. What matters most is how a school FITS a student, regardless of its rank or prestige...are you entering into the best possible place for YOU over the course of the next four years? Is this college the best place for you to grow, advance yourself academically and socially, to lay the foundation for your career? There is undoubtedly a fixation on the Ivies on the part of top students, but I think most of us are also so involved in this process because we want to ensure we're choosing the right place, for us. Hence using this board as a research device of sorts. An Ivy League education, while it may involve sharing the company of a highly-qualified and smart peer group, is not the end-all be-all. Ivies are not necessarily the holding bins of the smartest kids in the country, and they don't fit for everyone, even those undeniably qualified for matriculation. There are a plethora of excellent schools for super qualified kids, each unique to their personality and interests, and an Ivy League school may not be one of them. Like many said above, including the OP, it's what you do that matters most.</p>