<p>Not a parent, but a college graduate in the working world.</p>
<p>I was rejected (in 2003) from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. I got into MIT. I was totally shocked by this…I had expected it to be the other way around. I went to MIT, graduated, and work in artificial intelligence (a field I would never have considered if I hadn’t gone to a tech school). I am well-paid, have good benefits, and have an intellectually interesting and challenging job. I go to grad school part-time.</p>
<p>My life would have been very different had I gone to one of the Ivies. I am happy that it has turned out as it has.</p>
<p>My spouse had to turn down an Ivy for grad school because she could not afford it and as international students we could not afford to come to the US without some scholarship. She ended up graduating from a small state school. She still talks about the missed opportunity & think she regrets it. However, I seriously doubt that it would have made any difference in the long run from a career or income perspective. I guess we can only speculate and will really not know. </p>
<p>Luckily, I faced no such dilemma as I goofed off spectacularly in college and did not even bother applying to the Ivy leagues since there was no chance of being admitted. However, I have been the one who has been more significantly more successful financially and in my career – though I can attribute a majority of it to some timely help from my spouse in making some key decisions.</p>
<p>There is no denying the fact that the Ivy Legues provide some great opportunities and open some doors for it’s students in the corporate world. I am not sure that it helps them become entreprenuers or improves creativity – Stanford being the one school that seems to be able to do this.</p>
<p>H got accepted MIT and Columbia in the early 80’s but didn’t go because of the high cost. I got in Cornell but my parents told me they weren’t paying so I cried for days. We both went to SUNY Stony Brook. My H graduated top of the class, got into the PhD program at Berkeley and now is a professor and chair of his department.</p>
<p>Not exactly the same as the OP’s original question, but what the heck.</p>
<p>H turned down Cornell for grad school in German Lit because at that time Ohio State, which he accepted, was considered much better in that field. H became a journalist at a couple of the country’s top newspapers. His first job out of grad school was at The Wash Post. He’s now a journalism prof with an endowed chair. Doesn’t seem to regret turning down an Ivy, but does seem proud that his wife went to one. :)</p>
<p>Another parent here - I turned down Princeton (and family tradition there) for Lafayette - I wanted a much smaller school, and one where I could design my own program combining economics and mathematics (which is now a separate major at Lafayette). The big difference in scholarship money was the final kicker - Never looked back!</p>