People who hate ivy leauges? I don't get them...

College Confidential Community
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<p>There are far more talented, intelligent, and interesting young people in the country than there are room for in the top colleges, let alone just the Ivy League.</p>

<p>I just graduated from an Ivy League school, and the most interesting person I met here was a transfer from UT-Austin. Sometimes I wonder if there were more interesting people at a place like that than at my school. Maybe it was just the crowd that I was in, but I found most of my Ivy League peers to be perfectly normal and gifted people, as opposed to brilliant wunderkinds whom you could only find at an Ivy League school.</p>

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<p>Interestingly enough, in terms of graduates’ salaries, Ivy league colleges don’t even come first in either the starting median salary or the mid-career median salary. </p>

<p>[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>

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<p>This is an example of why I can’t stand many in Ivy-Leagues</p>

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<p>Pick of the crop? Please…</p>

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<p>nbachris2788,</p>

<p>I absolutley agree with your statement, but please allow me clarify my last point. It is not that the rest of schools don’t offer an excellent academic experience as well as the opportunity to meet very smart and interesting people. Instead, what does seperate them is that the top schools offer unique and powerful business connections and alumni networks. </p>

<p>Let me know what you think. If anybody else would like to add to our discussion, please feel free to do so.</p>

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<p>guest12345:</p>

<p>I agree entirely. The education at the Ivies is terrific - as it is at many other excellent universities. The conections formed through the Ivies are unequaled. If anyone disagrees with this, they haven’t had a great deal of exposure to the real world (stop in at the Harvard Club in NYC for a quick example - I am still looking for the “Stevens Institute” club). I also agree that the school you graduate from has a substantial impact with respect to your first job. Over time, it is your performance that will mean more.</p>

<p>I always enjoy the Bush argument. Who did he run against? Where did that person go to school? How did their transcripts compare? (If you don’t know, the answers might be a bit of a surprise.) All schools make mistakes. Academics, as we all know, are hardly the only consideration for admission. Of course, it isn’t just the students. Does anyone have an opinion of (I will use older professors for my examples) Fred Gaudet of Harvard or Vic Vroom at Yale?</p>

<p>My S is a senior and we have visited 15 or so schools. He has loved some of the Ivies (e.g., Princeton and Brown) and strongly disliked others (e.g., U of Penn and Columbia). The differentiating factors were non-academic. Honestly, my wife and I would be estatic to be able to attend any of the colleges we have visited. For him, it has been the small LACs that have captured his imagination. In our opinion, the outcome of his education will be more a function of his talents, decisions and effort than which of these wonderful colleges he attends. </p>

<p>Good luck to all of you who will be imbarking on this fabulous life journey. Say hello to my son if you run into him along the way.</p>

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<p>I think career connections are better made at the professional school level. At the undergraduate level, even at the most elite schools, most students don’t really know what they want to do and therefore, make poor potential future business partners.</p>

<p>The only place where you could find such powerful connections is probably at the top Final Clubs, Secret Societies, or Eating Clubs at HYP. But then people who get in there have to be really loaded and a ******bag, so do you really want to be there?</p>

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<p>nbachris2788,</p>

<p>I agree with you in that professional/graduate schools do offer better connections. My reasoning for this is because these schools are more narrowly focused on a specific career and/or field and allow students to directly transition into a job. Examples of such schools could include law, medicine, or architecture. </p>

<p>Many undergraduate programs, except for those linked to the natural sciences and applied sciences, are generalist in nature and tend to focus on the development of the “whole person” rather than on skilled training. </p>

<p>In regards to alumni and business networks, I also agree with you. It always depends on how willing “the student” is to get involved, regardless of the school that he or she attends. A network means nothing if you don’t understand the people in it and how to utilize it.</p>

<p>But let me ask some questions to the entire group of this board, what is generally the main reason for the “top students” to choose to attend the elite universities? Is it for economic reasons, academic reasons, or both? </p>

<p>I seem to believe that there is a sense of desperation on the part of the most intelligent and hardworking students to meet “America’s Elite Set of Expectations” by going to these universities even though it may not be the best fit for them as individuals. A system that expects these students to be the greatest, even though there isn’t a clear definition of what that means, so that our nation can maintain its’ high level of respect, power, influence, and domination in the world. </p>

<p>It is as if the top students don’t view middle of the road and/or fall back universities as an option for their success. With our top high school graduates entering college and for our top college graduates entering professional/graduate school, second and third tier is becoming much more viewed as a "failure,” according to our nation’s own standards.</p>

<p>I, of course, don’t agree with this notion, but I am afraid that it is becoming more and more present amongst our youth and I do believe that it is hurting the higher education system in the process. With me being a current public policy graduate student at Northwestern University, I have always viewed a college education, from any institution, as an opportunity to become a good and productive human being. It is not about getting rich or becoming powerful. It is the privilege to engage in an atmosphere that improves critical thinking skills and helps to prepare you for the always changing world we live in. In my view, that is the fundamental principles of higher education. America’s expectations has altered it, and not necessarily for positive reasons. </p>

<p>Anyways, I look forward to your responses. Take care.</p>

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<p>I too agree about the higher quality through greater focus of connections forged in graduate school. I also agree that in the US we have created some interesting viewpoints on which school or program you attend (but we certainly aren’t alone in this regard as evidenced by the continually growing numbers of foreign students attending US colleges). I would prefer to focus on a single dimension within all of this.</p>

<p>My S is immediately turned off by any university where he feels the driving dynamic among/between students is competition. He is drawn whenever the primary dynamic seems to be collaboration. The latter is not at all uncommon. But what is it really like after school - competition or collaboration? Does this vary by profession? Is he making the better choice?</p>

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<p>At least I can punctuate properly.</p>

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<p>My dad works as a recruiter as well as a computer engineer and he says his company doesn’t care what school you go to, as long as your good at what you do. That is determined by how well you do on the tests they give you.</p>