<p>You know how some students (and employers) think that going to certain universities automatically makes them smarter than students at a different university that is less hard to get into or compete in? </p>
<p>If all you know about two students is that one goes to Harvard and the other goes to mid-tier research state university, many people will automatically think that the Harvard is somehow more intelligent based on the non-sequitur alone.</p>
<p>At competitions of academic ability I don't even tell the competition what school I go to anymore, unless I find out they go to a "name" school outside the "prestige" of mine to settle them into a predictable pattern of response.</p>
<p>I derive great pleasure from beating students who think they are smarter than me on the basis of the prestige of their university rather than on the basis of themselves. Entitled underachievers is what their ilk is.</p>
<p>Going to a high-ranked university does not make you intelligent, but it does signal intelligence. Interviewing is costly and thus employers and other people often look at an average intelligence of students at X university. It goes without saying that there are some brilliant people at Louisiana State, but the chances are that randomly selected student from Dartmouth will be smarter than a random one from Louisiana State.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. I went to a state school and had a professor that taught at a “prestigious” school. He told us there are smart and dumb students at every school and that he didn’t see any huge difference in the students at the “prestigious” school and the state school.</p>
<p>There are many students who can get in or got into “prestigious” schools and decide to go to state schools. That is because they choose not to pay the high tuition.</p>
<p>I remember my high school physics teacher telling me about one of his professors who was from some Midwestern university that he’d never heard of and how that person had to be that much smarter compared to colleagues from more prestigious universities. He mentioned how he was able to comprehend the papers from his other professors, but he did not understand the papers of this professor at all.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Given no other information it is far more likely that the Harvard grad is smarter than mid-tier research U grad.</p></li>
<li><p>Employers don’t hire people knowing nothing more about them than the school they’re from.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, it goes without saying that some people at state schools are smarter than people at top schools. But saying that there’s not difference in quality of students between top school and lower-ranked schools is fooling yourself. Getting into a top school requires high SAT scores, high GPA, very good letters of recommendation. Each of those (but especially SAT scores) are proxy for intelligence.</p>
<p>Also, social background is less and less of an issue because of generous financial aid and need-blind admission at more and more top schools. Besides, even if one does not receive a large scholarship at, say, Yale, schools like UT-Dallas are not an alternative. More likely it’s Emory or schools in this range, which try to attract high ability students by offering high financial aid.</p>
<p>That’s nitpicking. Difference, huge difference, significant difference - all are more less the same unless we discuss the difference in some more detail, as in IQ points, SAT scores, productivity or whatnot. </p>
<p>That being said, my point from the above remains unchanged. Average top school graduate (top school being somewhat undefined here as well) is smarter than average non-top school.</p>
<p>I absolutely don’t think that a more prestigious university has smarter people on average than less prestigious schools. Some people who are extremely smart choose to turn down prestigious universities because they either don’t care about prestige, would rather not work harder (some people would rather have a social life than study their butt off - it doesn’t make them stupid) or they can’t afford it. Some people also prefer a slightly more laid back mentality. All these factors DOES NOT necessarily make them less smart.</p>
<p>Also, IQ is a terrible measure of intelligence and social background IS still very much an issue.</p>