<p>To add to the Thekev's looong list: Jesse Ventura (the Navy SEAL, professional wrestler, actor, mayor, radio talk-show host, governor of Minnesota and recent visiting fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government) attended North Hennepin Community College (Minn.) on the G.I. bill in the mid-1970s, but left without a degree to pursue wrestling.</p>
<p>Also, I just came across an article relevant to this thread (from the Atlantic Monthly last October) written by a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution:</p>
<p>The Ivies and top LACs deliver the goods. If you can go IVY and you don't, you're making the biggest $$$ of your life. Employers clearly are looking for Ivies, plus Stanford, MIT and CalT.</p>
<p>The same people saying you don't have to go to an Ivy to guarantee success are falling into the same trap as those who do say you have to go to an Ivy to guarantee success. You're either going to do good in the real world or you aren't going to do good in the real world based on the person you are; there is very little exception unless your family is influential or you have other connections.</p>
<p>I can mostly go along with UCBenz...choose a school for the education it gives you, not for what you anticipate its effect upon your career will be. There are very few industries, outside of investment banking...blah, that recruit narrowly. And 18 months after your take your first job, the question isn't going to be "Where did you go to school?", it's going to be "What have you done lately?" and "What can you do for me now?" If you think a manager going through a stack of resumes spots a Harvard, Princeton, or Amherst grad and then calls the HR department and says, "Okay, no more resumes," you've got another think coming.</p>
<p>Barrons, nice article.
Besides, Las Vegas high rise condos, do you think there is a real estate bubble building in the US? If so, which areas are most vulnerable?</p>
<p>Mensa, if you think 30 million jobs are important and 22 million of those are filled with tier 1 institutions.... do 22 million grads from tier 1 schools exist?</p>
<p>Typically only a few housing markets in major cities have ever had major declines in value that lasted more than a couple of years. The Texas cities in the 80's were one group that was down for about 10 years before reaching the 1983 levels again. Most others that slumped came back with strong growth a few years later--all California for instance. So I'd say no, but a small dip (5-10% loss) would happen if rates go over 8% or so. The weak dollar is now bringing in some buyers from offshore who view our stuff as cheap. I'd stay away from cities with cold weather and net job losses.</p>
<p>Another similar article and links on job placement</p>
<p>Mensa, umm...there are not 30 million HYP grads out there. I know a fair number of HYPSM grads. The value their education and their experience very much but a HYPSM degree is not a magic wand in the working world. Really. One of my friends put it this way: sometimes having a Harvard degree I may have gotten interviews that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise but as to my overall career, it hasn't affected it very much at all. Another bluntly says that the undergrad degree isn't that much of a factor in her career. And you really should talk to a couple of dozen people who actually hire people...you're really WAY overstating the benefit of the HYPSM/Ivy degree.</p>
<p>I will say that given the quality of the inputs (students admitted) at the IVies+, you should certainly expect above average results. However equally talented students from other schools have every chance to do well. Then there are the millions of not so talented folks that still manage to do quite well.</p>
<p>Alright, the earlier Bloomberg article points out that four times as many CEOs come from public universities than Ivies. However, there are only 50000 students at the Ivies. I added the enrollments of University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, UTA, UCLA, UCB, UF, FSU, University of Alabama and Auburn University, and came up with over 200000. That's four times total Ivy enrollment at those (eight) schools alone.</p>
<p>I couldn't find any numbers on total public university enrollment in the US. However, it's safe to say that it's many times greater than four. On a percentage basis, CEOs are much more likely to come from the Ivies.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong. I want to go to Columbia but certainly not for the money (I'd like to go into physics). The people you'll be surrounded with are unlike people you'll find anywhere else (with the obvious exceptions of Stanford, MIT, Caltech, the top LACs and the top students at some state colleges). I think it's safe to say that there's easily a difference of a couple orders of magnitude as compared to going to, for instance, the University of Alabama. Don't go strictly to make money, though, because if that's all you want, it doesn't really matter where you go, you'll make money somehow.</p>
<p>the reason to want to attend an ivy or top lac is not to break into the top sphere of the business world or to make a million your first year out of school. for me, at least, it lies in the community - the exposure to professors and students with priorities, abilities, and passions like mine. the opportunity to make and keep friends who want to challenge themselves and are committed to goals and care about learning. i trust (perhaps naively) that that's what the whole admissions process and highly-selective bit is really about: separating the intelectual wheat from the chaff, and building a community of people with common values - in this case, learning. </p>
<p>this community bit may not apply to the more cutthroat of these institutions, obviously, but it is the most personally meaningful reason to want a ivy/lac experience, and it's far above and beyond the "front" of these schools - that prestige, name recognition, or percieved societal advantage. people who want an ivy because then they can SAY they had an ivy education - bragging to their friends, future employers, whatever - seem to be missing something big.</p>
<p>i mean, sure you can get a fine education somewhere else and be perfectly successful; you just miss the depth of community that comes from a group of people coming together and WANTING to learn.</p>
<p>Who cares about corporate stats? The main reason to go to an IVY is to avoid having to spend four years with people whose deepest desire in life is to run the Maytag division of GE.</p>
<p>To be honest, I have an inkling that MOST undergrad schools are the same or similar as far as what you learn. Go to a place that feels right, looks fun, and hopefully, gives you money. The most important thing to me is the college experience. I'm going to the University of Arizona for free as a payoff for my hard work in high school. Sure, I would have LOVED to have gone to Columbia, but I prefer not to take out $160,000+ in loans. I'm going to save my top-tier education for graduate school, which is where it really makes a difference (separates the men from the boys, as they say).</p>