<p>Around this time next year, I will be deciding where to go for the next 4 years, and for some reason, I feel like if I don't get into Rice, Georgetown or Northwestern, I will hate myself for a long time afterwards. I don't feel confident in my abilities to get in because of my EC's, my parents tell me that since I haven't "built a school in Africa" I won't get into ANY good colleges, and I have adopted that belief as well.</p>
<p>A part of me realizes that most colleges, even the state schools with high acceptance rates, are still great schools, but another part of me still needs me to get into top tier schools. I will be too disappointed in myself if I don't get into those 3 schools, but I realize now I probably don't have a chance at all anyway. </p>
<p>So, why do I mentally view college this way? Also, I feel like I speak for at least a few other people with this thought.</p>
<p>Because society has conditioned you to believe that the prestige of an undergrad college actually has some type of real impact on whether or not you can be considered “successful” in life. Surely the only people that have ever lived happy, successful lives are the people that got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT…right? Everyone else lives a life full of misery and poverty.</p>
<p>Seriously though…it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what your plans are…but if grad school is in your future, it doesn’t make a difference. People are going to see your grad school degree and typically not even really care where you did your undergrad. There are hundreds, if not thousands of colleges in this country in which you would be able to get a very solid education. There is nothing to be ashamed of by going to a state school. I used to be dead set on trying to transfer from my CC to UChicago. Because it was a “top” school. I still plan on applying there…but I don’t know if I’d go even if I did get accepted. I’ve researched a lot more…and I’ve found that U of I Urbana-Champaign would most likely be a better fit for me, because they have a far more flexible curriculum with wider options in the fields I’m interested in. Even though UIUC is just a crappy state school (intense sarcasm there), I think it’s where I’d prefer to go.</p>
<p>You feel this way because higher education has been successfully “branded” so most look at picking colleges as they look at buying cola, watches, or cars. This really took off in 1983 with the first USNWR rankings that fooled people into thinking that something as complex as a college could be easily summarized with a ranking.</p>
<p>You also feel this way because most people think that attending a brand name college will translate to higher pay, and they think that the criterion for success and happiness is money, instead of so many other possibilities such as health, purpose, good relationships, close family life, spirituality, etc.</p>
<p>It’s all marketing and brand names. You have been suckered into thinking this way. It’s not real. Break away from it now while there is still time.</p>
<p>It bothers me that society has become this way. My parents look at colleges literally on the basis of prestige, which is why they want me to apply to all the Ivies. I mean, I would love to go to Yale (it’s my dream school), but on the other hand, I’d be just as happy going to Boston University.</p>
<p>agreatperhaps Yeah hahaha but really I was just thinking about ego and super ego etc. </p>
<p>I feel like people, or just myself, don’t want to be judged. I would much rather say I go to Georgetown than American University. Maybe it’s just my naturally materialistic personality. Or like you have said, society branding colleges with prestige.</p>
<p>If you want to speak psychoanalytically, you could attribute this to essentially anything in the world…but if you want to discuss it in the realm of reality, a sociological theory may be the better way to approach it.</p>
<p>Perhaps a structural functional approach? Maybe some Karl Marx?</p>
<p>It’s because of capitalism. We live in a money based society, where social status is dependent on the perceived sense of prestige that one carries. Having gone to a name brand school gives one the illusion that they are forging greater connections for their futures, which may or may not truly be the case. It’s all about the power. Going to a top school gives a sense of superiority over people that go to those crappy state schools and lower level universities. Even though they’re walking away with an identical degree…they don’t get THAT degree. </p>
<p>Everything is a result of capitalism though. </p>
<p>Next, we’ll attempt to approach this with physics. The greater prestige of the name brand schools have created a greater warp in the fabric of spacetime, and this warpage is resulting in a greater gravitational effect on you…thus, pulling you in. So…if you go to one of these top schools…it will be the rough equivalent of getting sucked into a black hole. Think about that for a moment. Do you really want to get sucked into a black hole? No?</p>
<p>Technically the warpage is result of the greater gravitational effect, not the other way around, if we are speaking on Eisenstein terms at least, but this isn’t important. :)</p>
<p>I am not necessarily against the capitalistic view where everything is money based and the prestige that comes with certain colleges. Also, aren’t people who go to those nicer colleges actually forging connections for the future? Notre Dame has connections with banking and investment companies, my relative got an internship in Chicago, and she credits Notre Dame’s prestige for that.</p>
<p>Well…the gravitational effect is simply because of the high mass of the object causing warpage in spacetime…but, I think this is kind of interchangeable thing here. There would be no gravitational effect if the mass of the object wasn’t causing the warpage. In either case, I don’t think it matters too much at the moment…lol</p>
<p>Also, I meant social-conflict theory above…not structural functional.</p>
<p>Yes…there are connections to be made at high level universities, but your major really dictates that. Unless you’re going into business or politics or something like that…the connections aren’t going to be of quite as much importance. In scientific fields…you can make connections with professors, researchers etc…but you’re going to get far more out of the connections that you make in grad school. You can make solid connections in virtually any undergrad institution. As far as getting into grad school, connections can play a part, but your academic record is going to be the determining factor.</p>
<p>I’m in a community college right now…and one of my friends got an internship at the National Institute of Health last summer…this is an internship that tens of thousands of students apply to, and very few get accepted into. It’s a prestigious internship…and she got it from a community college in north central illinois. It comes down to academic performance and enthusiasm more than anything else.</p>
<p>You seek validation. The prestige, reputation, elite status and low acceptance rates(scarcity) make the top schools highly valuable which pschologically will make you feel highly valuable if admitted.</p>
<p>My D got into an ivy and we are struggling to stay humble. It’s not even our accomplishment. It makes you feel good to accomplish something that so many are unable to do but want.</p>
<p>On the flip side, I can envision a scenario where the OPs attitude sabotages his chances of acceptance. Being told you won’t get it by your parents creates some extra baggage going into essays and interviews.</p>
<p>Actually, school-prestige rankings informally existed long before USNWR rankings, although some of the “elite” schools (e.g. HYP) admitted a substantial portion of their students from SES-elite-not-necessarily-academically-elite prep schools. Back then, the idea that one can reach eliteness mainly through inherited wealth with relatively little academic merit and effort (just enough to get a “gentleman’s C”) was not frowned upon, unlike today where even the most advantaged (in terms of inherited SES) student is expected to show a good level of academic merit and effort (though the elite-SES advantages can help such a student reach the top level more easily than someone from a low-SES family).</p>
<p>Why do actors feel good if they win an Oscar? Why do employees feel good if they get promoted and/or get a raise? Why do students feel good if they get an A grade for a course? Why do athletes feel good if they win the Big Game?</p>
<p>It’s no big mystery. You are competing against the other applicants for the limited number of slots available in a selective college. And thus getting in is simply a form of winning and of achieving a big goal. And it is also a recognition of and payback for all your talent and hard work and in getting to that point. Wanting to win and achieve goals are very normal human behaviors and emotions.</p>