<p>Agreed on most of the points you mention. However, what many people don’t seem to realize is that many grads of even tippy top colleges end up facing severe underemployment with their B.A. in ‘soft’ non-STEM majors. Living in NYC, I’ve come across a fair share of grads of top schools (including Harvard and Princeton) working true dead end jobs… since they can’t seem to find the right opportunity to get their ‘foot in the door’. One guy I am friends with is a Harvard grad with a degree in Government (my roommate’s brother). That guy was complaining to me the other day that he just got turned down for a non-profit gig paying 35k / yr because they went with someone with ‘more relevant job experience’.</p>
<p>“I’m pretty sure my undergrad credential was instrumental in securing my first investment banking job. The “word” at my MBA program was only those of us with Ivy league undergrad credentials were getting interviews at the top banks. Several of my classmates who were frankly smarter than I am didn’t get interviews at them, while I did.” </p>
<p>I don’t pretend to know how the I-banking recruiting at the MBA level works out and I am sure you’d know more about this topic than I. However, I suspect that many times, getting a top job is not merely a function of one’s smarts and credentials, but one’s networking ability, ability to schmooze with insiders of the company, and having a charismatic personality also play a large role in the hiring decision process. I know that when I was interviewing for biglaw firms, it was not always the guys with the highest grades getting the best firm jobs. The guys who know how to sell themselves, know how to network, and know how to answer “why our firm? why our division? why pick this career?” in the interviews often got the nod. </p>
<p>I wasn’t talking about getting a job, I was talking about merely getting an interview after submitting resumes.
I don’t think the charismatic personality of my resume paper exceeded those of the others who didn’t get interviews.</p>
<p>As for the other, again I think you will have more perspective later on. A lot of those currently-underemployed people aren’t done. Many will eventually stumble upon something that works for them. A good chunk of the rest will slog on for a few years, then give up and go on to graduate and professional schools. From that point their career paths will be completely different. The vast majority of my circle of classmates received graduate degrees. Eventually.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t talking about getting a job, I was talking about merely getting an interview after submitting resumes.”</p>
<p>Even that part of the job search process favors those with strong networking, schmoozing skills. I actually know a couple of lawyers with zero finance experience (working in biglaw for 2 years after law school) who networked extensively with people in IBD, landed interviews, and lateraled into bulge bracket banking from law.</p>
<p>“As for the other, again I think you will have more perspective later on. A lot of those currently-underemployed people aren’t done. Many will eventually stumble upon something that works for them. A good chunk of the rest will slog on for a few years, then give up and go on to graduate and professional schools. From that point their career paths will be completely different. The vast majority of my circle of classmates received graduate degrees. Eventually.”</p>
<p>My original point remains that the potential marginal career benefit of attending a top Ivy college as opposed to attending a State school doesn’t justify 100k+ differential in cost of attendance, unless one’s parents are literally loaded with cash. </p>
<p>It sounds to me that an Ivy degree would open some doors (for example securing an interview to make an impression) in fields that highly value your education credential like in finance/investment banking and engineering.</p>
<p>An Ivy degree doesn’t matter quite much in fields where your work and portfolio matter, like the creative arts: fashion design, graphic design, music, architecture, etc.</p>
<p>“It sounds to me that an Ivy degree would open some doors (for example securing an interview to make an impression) in fields that highly value your education credential like in finance/investment banking and engineering.”</p>
<p>True. But when you consider how few entry level analysts these employers hire each year from each school, you’d realize attending X,Y,Z top school with a ridiculous price tag just to have that slim shot at getting into Goldman IBD or McKinsey is truly a huge gamble.</p>
<p>For example, when I was at Cornell, around 300-350 seniors applied for jobs at a consulting firm named Deloitte. Around 30 of them got first round interviews, and out of that pool, between 2-5 end up getting offers. I was told this by the recruiters on campus. I imagine one’s odds of landing a more elite job (McKinsey, BCG, Goldman IBD, elite hedge funds, etc) are much worse than the figure above. </p>