<p>Also know several HYPS grads. Most are doing fine, but I don’t think their salary is the only benchmark of success.</p>
<h1>21 ^^:)</h1>
<p>…</p>
<p>Three of the wealthiest, self made, people I know went to colleges that have probably never even been mentioned on CC: public, state, smallish directional schools not known for much of anything. These people who are now in the prime of their earning years happened to start businesses in just the right time, in just the right places. They would all tell you that they were not the best nor the brightest students. In fact, one of them barely graduated from college. </p>
<p>As young businessmen, they found mentors, marketed their businesses well, and got excellent financial and business advice, which they followed. They have had years where they made well over a million (personal profit) each year. They live pretty modestly, send their kids to good public schools, and have weathered the recession well. Though their incomes are down in the past few years, they invested well in the go go years and have adjusted their business models.</p>
<p>If you had predicted that these three people would have been this successful, based on their
high school or college years, any reasonable person would have laughed at the thought. I’m pretty sure that even these three individuals would have laughed at the thought.</p>
<p>Not wealth. Given the hype, wouldn’t you think HYPS grads would wear a halo of some kind by the time their first child is born? One would expect something more than making a decent living which many others do. If money, it should be a lot to live up to the hype. If not wealth, they could have made an earth shattering discovery, scientific or otherwise. After hearing the worship about HYPS, it’s a bit deflating to see what most of them have become. It doesn’t match up with the hype. The question is so why we stress so much about getting into one of them?</p>
<p>I know dozens of HYPSMC alums from both undergrad/grad from HS classmates, friends, a few relatives, and colleagues I’ve worked with. </p>
<p>If you’re defining lifestyle by income…most aren’t making much more than those who didn’t attend those schools. </p>
<p>The few exceptions I know are some HS alums who worked their way up in the ibanking/consulting fields or who successfully started a business, a cousin-in-law who’s a senior executive somewhere who’s doing pretty well…even though you’d probably think her family’s “plain” because they’re big savers and abhor ostentatious displays of consumption, and a cousin who graduated as an EE major from Caltech who is now a co-owner of an small Engineering Tech firm that has been successful for several years. </p>
<p>One common theme with all of those exceptions is that it isn’t all wine and roses for them despite their high incomes and/or lifestyles. Nearly all of them work long punishing hours in highly stressful work environments…sometimes rivalling/exceeding that of my 3 Medical Doctor resident roommates…and they often worked over 120+ hours/week. </p>
<p>In the last case…while he’s highly successful based on your metric…he’s such a glutton for work with a perfectionistic streak that he’s had serious issues with dating/maintaining relationships. Also, knowing him…he’s probably not an easy boss to work for/satisfy as he doesn’t suffer fools gladly and won’t hesitate to let them know…even if they happen to be professors or parents who misspoke on one of the many areas he in which he has working knowledge.</p>
<p>OP … you may also want to check this out … [Household</a> income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States]Household”>Household income in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>A family making $200,000 is in the top 3% of wage earners in the US … my guess is your impression of how many people make big bucks is higher than reality. Over $250k is 1.5% and that includes pro athletes, entertainers, senior partners of law firms, the Bill Gates’ of the world, CEOs, etc … someone in the 30s making over $100k is way up the food chain in income for their age.</p>
<p>We have many Stanford and MIT grads where I work and I don’t believe that compensation is related to the school you go to - it’s more related to what you get done, the responsibilities that you take on and a career growth plan with your manager.</p>
<p>This is a really silly, insulting topic of discussion. People who go to college at places like HYPS go on to have vastly different lives from one another. Some of them are driven by a desire to get rich and succeed at it, some fail, and lots don’t measure their success by that yardstick at all. </p>
<p>One of my college roommates – a history of art major, by the way – is a multi-, multi-millionaire real estate developer. Another spent time in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and was a homeless alcoholic street person, with malaria, for a time after he returned; he owns a small landscaping business now. One holds a Senate-confirmed post in the Obama Administration. Another is a medical outcomes researcher and chief quality officer at a major academic medical center, and yet another is chief of oncology at a different major academic hospital. One is an engineer and operations research PhD who has started a series of businesses without ever quite hitting it big. Another has been, at various times, a partner in a law firm, a Senate staffer, an Outward Bound instructor, a political campaign strategist, a department head for a national environmental group, captain of a 33-foot boat crewed by his wife and children as they sailed around the world, and a high school teacher. One mainly manages his family’s investments, his wife having retired at age 50 from the last in a series of glitzy jobs that made her wealthy (they were business school classmates at another Ivy). Another has a technical job with a government agency and has struggled with mental illness most of his adult life.</p>
<p>That’s just my roommates. My wife’s roommates include a middle school art teacher, a prize-winning journalist and author, one doctor who practices in Alaska and another who runs a clinic for low-income people in a major city, a nationally recognized expert and advocate in a certain educational field, a Harvard MBA who followed her husband as his job took him all over the world, raised four children, and now chairs her town’s school board, and professors (of history and physics, respectively) at two state flagship universities.</p>
<p>So . . . from that fairly accidental sample, not so many millionaires (a few though), a bunch of rich, successful professional lives, some with lots of public recognition and some with more private achievements, and a few real struggles.</p>
<p>After giving it some thought I realize I do know a handful of HYPS (and the like) graduates in their 60s & early 70s making (low:)) seven figures. One is first generation college. Spouse is from wealthy background. Their kids (mid to late 30s) all went to HYPS (and the like) and I doubt make six figures. The kids did not pick careers based on maximizing income potential.</p>
<h1>26 This is interesting to think about. What is the probability on CC of one of us knowing any of the very few fabulously wealthy in this country?</h1>
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<p>Pretty good actually. Does several hundred million count as fabulously wealthy or are you only talking billions. There have been at least two of the latter where I work.</p>
<p>I am a lecturer at a large Midwest research university and we have dozens of people with Ivy undergrads and/or PhD’s in my college. The two best, brightest, and well funded faculty in my college? Undegrads at UGa and Oregon, PhD 's from Ga Tech and Purdue.</p>
<p>“This is a really silly, insulting topic of discussion. People who go to college at places like HYPS go on to have vastly different lives from one another.”</p>
<p>I think your second sentence is exactly why this IS a really interesting topic of discussion, because it seems to me that that fact gets overlooked a lot here on CC. Combining this thread with the thread running concurrently, “Paying for 50k at elite college”, is fascinating. Looking at the widely ranging outcomes at “HYPS(and the like)” does add another dimension to the question of whether the cost is worth it. </p>
<p>And as I said in that other thread, if you can afford it without breaking out into a cold sweat then attending an “elite” college may be worth it. But it is helpful, in making that decision, to get a glimpse of real world outcomes, and to recognize that people end up with a variety of outcomes no matter WHERE they went to school. An elite education will not necessarily result in a better life, or a higher income. That is a useful thought to have when making a decision about colleges.</p>
<p>I know a kajillion HYP grads. Most are probably making six figures and live comfortable but not lavish lives. A few (gasp!) may well make only five figures. (The nursery school teacher, the half time Episcopalian priest, the Lutheran minister, the guy who is choir master at a church, my friends working for non-profits, the guy who edits books and is a stay at home Dad…) Lots are working in academia. The few I have met who are fabulously wealthy came from fabulously wealthy families. (I met one at a reunion event who was listed in the top five on some list a few years ago - amazing estate in Greenwich!) My sister-in-law dated one of the early Microsoft guys - he became a multimillionaire, but he was also the world’s most boring guy! I also knew or met during my time at Harvard the current governor of Massachusetts, Grover Norquist, and YoYo Ma. None of my friends aspired to wealth.</p>
<p>If I could find our classes’ 25th reunion survey results I could probably give you a pretty good estimate of the income/wealth levels in our class, but I can’t. My recollection is that our household made less than Harvard’s average (at that time - 2003 - we might have “only” had five figures). The average certainly wasn’t seven figures. But what I really remember from the report was that our class had a divorce rate much less than the national average and a happiness rating much more than the national average.</p>
<p>And in regard to that last statement? Correlation does not equal causation. :)</p>
<p>JHS</p>
<p>Whether a degree from HYPS (and the like) allows some individuals to dramatically change the financial circumstances into which they were born seems like a valid discussion to me. But I may be quite wrong.</p>
<p>I have the sense you help students who may be in this situation?</p>
<p>I do know some Harvard work-study students (which is the only guess I have to their family incomes), who are doing very well these days. (For example old boyfriend, who came from a really poor family in Louisiana is now a lawyer for a big law firm in East Asia.) I believe I’ve read studies that the more economically disadvantaged you start out the more likely an elite education is to catapult you into a different economic class.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl Sorry, I guess plain wasn’t the right word to use. I meant that her life seems pretty average. They have a nice house and 2 nice cars but so does my aunt and her husband and they went to really low ranked state schools.</p>
<p>@JHS I was just curious to see how much of a difference graduating from HYPS made. That’s all.</p>
<p>@Quantmech Honestly I kind of did. </p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who responded. I didn’t mean to offend anyone.</p>
<p>Another question to ponder: HYPS alumni who are rich … are they rich because they went to HYPS, or is there some other factor (family wealth, a drive to make money, etc.) such that they would’ve been wealthy regardless of where they went to college?</p>
<p>If the latter, then attending HYPS might not make you rich but it might increase the likelihood of your having wealthy friends. :)</p>
<p>My sister went to Wharton and made several million from her own business. Ironically, her husband also made several million from his business and he never went to college.</p>
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<p>eastcoastcrazy is my favorite CC poster this week. I know a few Ivy League graduates, all successful, none fabulously wealthy (but most more than comfortable) and all having following a path that was different from the one they started on or dreamed of when they entered college. </p>
<p>As a young person, I had no idea of the opportunities I’d encounter, the choices I’d make, the pitfalls that awaited and the pratfalls I’d take on the way to what I will call “adulthood” for lack of a better word (having buried a husband at the age of 38 and raised a terrific child on my own, I suppose I’m as much an adult as anyone is). I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up and figured it out as I went along. I imagine, though, that many people who think they know what their trajectory is going to be (or know, at least, what they WANT it to be) end up making the same seat-of-pants moves I did. And they’ll live to talk about it. Maybe they’ll be millionaires. Maybe, like me (proud alum of two fine state flagships), they’ll be scratching their heads trying to figure out how to pay for a more expensive college than they attended because they now make enough money to be out of the running for much need-based aid.</p>
<p>I loved my fancy education, and made real sacrifices to provide my children with something equivalent. But I have no doubt that the students who get to choose whether to go to HYPS or to pay less for an education elsewhere are probably just as successful (or not) and just as happy (or not) than they would have been if they had gone the HYPS route. Most of the secret of their success or failure is internal to them, not a function of where they went to college.</p>
<p>I also have no doubt that HYPS can change someone’s life and circumstances. One classmate who was straight off the farm in Nowheresville made a strong impression on me the first week when, upon meeting me, he came out with an anti-Semitic slur without even realizing that’s what he was doing. He became a team captain, senior society member, editor-in-chief of the law review at a top 10 law school, Supreme Court clerk, state attorney general, federal judge, and a thoroughly sophisticated, charming guy. Now there was clearly a lot of brainpower, focus, and ambition there, but it’s hard to believe he would have become what he is if he had stayed home and gone to the local directional state. (But then . . . look at Dick Cheney.)</p>
<p>My roommate the high administration official was the son of a small-town mayor. Again, his personality, intelligence, and ambition would have taken him a long way in life no matter what route he chose. But he got a bunch of little boosts along the way, especially early in his career, from a Yale network, and it’s hard to see how he would have gotten to the high-profile place he holds today without that.</p>
<p>None of this is reflected in income, by the way. The two men I just referred to make considerably less than they would if they did not hold jobs of public trust. Neither is in it for the money, but both would easily make much higher incomes if their careers were less prominent. </p>
<p>My wife, who is a celebrity in her field, has never worked in the private sector. She sometimes wishes that she had studied hospitality management somewhere; there is no doubt she would have been extremely successful doing something like managing hotels (or chains of hotels), and earned many multiples of what she has made over her career. But one of the reasons she was at Yale in the first place was that she wasn’t the kind of person whose ambition was simply to earn a lot of money working in a business, even one she liked.</p>