<p>Fluffy, I stand by my statement. Anyone can be asked “what’s your dream school .” It wasn’t asked only of top-school-worthy students who did due diligence. </p>
<p>Well, you can stand by it, but you are wrong.</p>
<p>The vast majority of students are not unaware of the top schools, nor are they lacking ambition or desire just because they may not be “top-school-worthy”.</p>
<p>Many people could feel that a Ferrari is a dream car or a house in on the beach in Hawaii is a dream even if they can’t afford it or are unaware of the cost of an oil change in a Ferrari or are unaware of the challenges with insects in Hawaii.</p>
<p>…also, remember that many students may have answered “Local U” but there weren’t enough to crack the Top 10.</p>
<p>If someone answered “Harvard” or “Stanford” or “Vanderbilt”, then it makes no sense that the vast majority of them know enough nothing about the school. </p>
<p>Fluffy, availability of info and kids seeking it out are two different things. Sorry, I’m with PG. Look at the number of questions and responses on CC that reflect assumptions. Not knowledge. It’s plain as day.</p>
<p>I do agree they heard S or H or V is “good” but not that they know why or what makes them right for that kid. Or, what those colleges look for. And, it comes through in “Why us?” answers, too. And the same old bare bones chance me descriptions, for holistic colleges that care about a lot more. I suspect a few on this thread could boggle some other posters’ minds with.some questions that are answered right on the web pages. </p>
<p>“The vast majority of students are not unaware of the top schools, nor are they lacking ambition or desire just because they may not be “top-school-worthy”.”</p>
<p>The vast majority of students don’t even give one minute’s worth of time to Harvard et al. It’s not their lifelong dream and their horizons typically don’t extend past their own state. What they know about Harvard is like what they know about the Mona Lisa - it’s the best because they’ve heard it’s the best, but they can’t articulate anything about why it’s the best. Come out of the upper middle class east coast bubble. </p>
<p>I was with you til you reverted to the “east coast” crap. We’re not to blame for all the college nuttiness. Share the blame with Californians, Texans, and midwesterners.</p>
<p>“We’re not to blame for all the college nuttiness. Share the blame with Californians, Texans, and midwesterners.”
And lets not forget the “nuttiness” of way too many International applicants to US universities ! :-S </p>
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<p>I think there is something else going on in addition to this…after all remember that during the tech bubble, tech and start ups were even more “frothy” than it is today (hello: pets.com).</p>
<p>In 2008 about 47% of Harvard grads went into finance or consulting. Three years later the number was down to 29%.</p>
<p>I think it is more than the financial crisis (after all, things have gotten better on Wall Street in the last several years). I think it may be tied to a shift in values - the whole Occupy Wall Street, 1%er thing. </p>
<p>Now, now…and let’s not forget that one applicant from the powerful state of Wyoming who applies to all 10 “dream” schools… 8-| </p>
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<p>How do you know that? You don’t. We are talking about people who answered the survey by listing a college.</p>
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<p>LOL! You got the coast wrong and the class wrong. Other than that, your sentence was accurate. LOL.</p>
<p>“after all, things have gotten better on Wall Street in the last several years”
but most of the entry level finance jobs have not come back. Wall street is much leaner than in 2007, with large financial and legal restrictions on how banks can now operate and make $$ </p>
<p>Want me to rant about the kids who say they “dream” of a Wall St career- and don’t know the first thing about what that entails, either?<br>
Any source for that 47%?</p>
<p>add: was that MBAs? Cuz WSJ says: “In 2008, 28% of Harvard graduates went into financial firms. Two years later: 17%.”
<a href=“Wall Street Is Losing the Best and Brightest - WSJ”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323623304579059592494840128</a></p>
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<p>What is plain as day is what I said earlier. That people are doing research and asking questions (geez, there were 10,000 views on a recent thread of how do I transfer to stanford and 79,000 views on the results thread)</p>
<p>I never said that every student is an expert when they started their process - just that people who replied to the survey with a preference are not total rubes who “don’t know anything about them” as was asserted earlier. </p>
<p>The volume on CC is no indication, not when they are still misinforming each other. There’s a thread now where many are knee-jerk raving about some kid, based on stats and some ordinary ECs. Do you know what S looks for? I think gravitas does, based on some other posts. More than the starry eyed hs kids.</p>
<p>For reasons of my own, I know too many kids cannot articulate why they want a particular college. On their apps. Rather than arguing, we should be giving them better advice. Look at the sorts of questions they ask on CC. </p>
<p>@lookingforward </p>
<p>I guess technically it is a blog from the NYTimes, so I can’t link.</p>
<p>The name is “Out of Harvard, into into Finance” by Catherine Rampell</p>
<p>It is not MBAs, but undergrads since it refers to “graduating seniors”
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I don’t have a login to WSJ so I can’t read your link, but the little I could read referred to “graduating class” and “beginning careers” (many MBA students who go into finance had some experience already working in finance).</p>
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<p>No. Not necessary.
Because then you would have to rant about people who dream about things that they don’t know the first thing about: </p>
<ul>
<li> Being a doctor.</li>
<li> Being an engineer.</li>
<li> Beng a diplomat</li>
<li> Being a politician</li>
<li> Being a translator at the UN</li>
<li> Being married</li>
<li> Being a parent</li>
<li> Being a successful actress, married to a rock star (the challenges of raising kids with their busy schedule)</li>
</ul>
<p>;) </p>
<p>…and so on, and so forth…</p>
<p>Well, wsj puts it differently. Here’s one to chew on, right from HC: <a href=“Where We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson”>Where We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson;
<p>Anyway, lots of reasons people answer a survey one way or another. Always open to interpretation,</p>
<p>“geez, there were 10,000 views on a recent thread of how do I transfer to stanford and 79,000 views on the results thread”
If anyone of those 10,000 or 79,000 had bothered to do REAL research,[ as in looking at Stanford U’s own data about the number of transfer acceptances] they would have found that is it next to impossible to transfer into Stanford!
A high number of views on a public website does not constitute “research”</p>
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<p>Those numbers are at 31% for finance and consulting, 2 years earlier it was 29%, so all in the same ball park - I don’t see much open to interpretation.</p>
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<p>Interesting viewpoint.
I look at it just the opposite.</p>
<p>Realizing that it is next to impossible to transfer, one has two options: don’t bother, bother.</p>
<p>If one bothers, then reading these threads is among the research one would logically do. Find out who got in, what advice there is out there, etc, etc. </p>