<p>jwlstn just so you know UNC is a great school and its gaining more and more prestige every year so you really shouldnt worry about what others think because if you do great at UNC I’m sure you will get a high paying job and be fine in life</p>
<p>I’m not worried about others perception of UNC’s prestige at all. I absolutely love it here and I really think it’s the best place for me given my situation. The prestige-whores on here want you to think that going to a state school means you are a moron or something but when I’m taking two classes this semester alone with two of the best professors in the world for their field, I can’t really see as though I’d be doing much better anywhere else. </p>
<p>My point in posting all of that about prestige and what-not is that you can still get a stellar education from a state school, kids need to stop being blinded by the prestige.</p>
<p>Say what you want but prestige is prestige. In the engineering world, all the top engineers are from the best engineering schools in the world. Prestigious schools graduate very ambitious, very competitive students. It’s a stereotype that rings true. </p>
<p>If you go to Rutgers or a state school, most of the student body aren’t that competitive. If you go to the top schools, almost everyone graduated in the top 10% of their class and have high SAT scores and are well accomplished outside of academia. The prestige of graduating with such people is always going to be there and it’s a stereotype that’s actually true.</p>
<p>maskedengineer I would somewhat agree to a certain extent, but I hope you werent seriously comparing Rutgers to North Carolina because honestly UNC is way out of Rutgers class as far as academics</p>
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<p>So pretty much, those of us at your average state school (not including UNC, UVA, Cal, UCLA, etc.) are screwed in the future, right? We’re also unintelligent, unambitious morons too, right? We can’t possibly be competitive because we didn’t all score 2300s on our SATs and graduate in the top 10 in our classes, right? (newsflash, state schools have plenty of people who fit this description)</p>
<p>^I think people CC over-hype these colleges. In real working life, some of the graduates from the top UCs underperform some students from Cal State Long Beach even, not even Cal Poly SLB.</p>
<p>Whoa, I was not talking down to people here. UCLA, UNC, UMich, UVA are one of the best in the nation. I was just stating that the selectivity and status of incoming students raise the prestige of schools. That is why people admire Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia students for getting into such a selective school. </p>
<p>UNC and the like are FAR from just being average “state schools”. Over the past few decades, they have become more selective and their honor programs have been graduating fantastic students and that is why these colleges are now seen as prestigious. </p>
<p>Bottom line, I was stating that prestige is something that will always be there at ANY selective school.</p>
<p>Now, let’s go back on topic and help the Original Poster.</p>
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<p>You completely misread my post. I was not talking about people at UNC and etc., I was talking about your perceptions/generalizations of people like me, who attend ‘third tier’ schools…</p>
<p>I don’t think he was saying people at those state schools are dumb. Not everyone who goes to Nebraska college is a moron, most are average, some are below average, and some are very smart.</p>
<p>I think he was just pointing out that on average, highly selective schools like Princeton offer a more competitive environment than 3rd tier schools. That’s not to say that everyone at Princeton is a genius and everyone at Nebraska College shucks corn and grinds in a barn. Smart people are everywhere. In the end, your intelligence/skills/motivation matter more than how fancy your degree is. But many people covet the idea of surrouding themselves by highly motivated, intelligent people. They want the atmosphere of Princeton. And others simply want the prestige that goes with it.</p>
<p>btw, I made up Nebraska College. I was afraid if I used a real college, someone would say, “oh yeah, well that school has the #1 Egyptology program in the Midwest! snob!” and get all offended.</p>
<p>for shame! my great great grandfather carmichael went to nebraska college where, after a perilous journey to egypt where he was lucky to come away with his life, founded the Egyptology department, now the top ranked program of its kind in the midwest</p>
<p>why have you forsaken me!?</p>
<p>Oh alright maskedengineer yeah I would have to agree there is a certain luster to being able to attend an Ivy league rather than a state school, but honestly some of the top state schools like UCLA, UNC, Umich, and UVA, Cal Berkeley are starting to build some serious prestige as well and it depends on the individual if an individual can work to their potential at a UCLA, UNC, Umich, Berkeley, UVA, etc. then they will end up doing just as well as an Ivy League graduate</p>
<p>Kids really put way more emphasis in the school they go to than real adults do. There are some individuals who will only hire kids that come from a certain pedigree, that is true, but the vast majority of employers care much more about the individual than their alma mater. </p>
<p>The kids you speak of who were top 10% in their class would have probably excelled just as much anywhere else, prestige matters but in the end it’s the individual.</p>
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<p>Pretty much outside of the financial industry, no one really cares where you went. Luckily for me, I have absolutely ZERO interest in working on Wall Street and the like (and it just so happens that for what I want to do, no one really cares where you went outside of the two schools who have had the most successful alumni in the field)</p>
<p>yes TUowls, its also not the best time to be working on wall street given the current financial situation :)</p>
<p>anyway, i do think prestige matters a lot in the current job market. the name really helps you to get your foot in the door. thus coming back to the original topic of this thread, is it possible to transfer to (perhaps not Stanford) colleges like Cornell, JHU, Emory, and McGill with a bad h/s record?</p>
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Depends how “bad” your HS record is, whether you’re a soph or junior transfer, if there’s an explanation as to why you did poorly in HS, how good your reccs/EC’s are, and most importantly, how well you did in college, how ambitious you are, etc. I know Cornell has a history of taking CC student tranfers, more than would be expected considering it’s an Ivy.</p>
<p>what happened to the op?</p>
<p>A 2.0 in high school? And you want to get into Stanford.</p>
<p>No chance, sorry, aim lower. UC Irvine, UC Davis and UC Riverside will be reasonable destinations for you, Stanford is out of your league.</p>
<p>Also, those who transfer to the top schools come from other prestigious schools, where did everyone get the idea that you can go to a lower ranked university or a community college, change your life and all of a sudden end up at a top college for your undergraduate?</p>
<p>Not happening.</p>
<p>Everyone on this board, get this across your head. If you have below a 3.5 in high school and graduate with a lower GPA, you will not be going to a top college. If your SAT score is below a 1750 then chances are you won’t go to a top school either.</p>
<p>Look, few people go on to schools like the Ivies, Stanford, MIT and Cal Techs, those are for the people who did outstanding in high school. The ones who do outstanding in high school get rejected so THEY apply as transfers to those schools and they are the ones getting accepted. If you have poor high school grades, no matter how well you do in college you won’t get into the top schools as a transfer, period. It is common sense that if you do bad in high school then you won’t do good in college.</p>
<p>High school excellence means everything when you apply to the top colleges and even the top grad programs.</p>
<p>If you have a truly stellar application, 2.0 HS GPA will not hurt you. However, if you’re just an average joe with good college grades, your HS GPA will likely keep you out of top schools, because there are many other average joes with good college grades AND good HS GPA.</p>
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<p>Yep, because when I apply to Boalt Hall in a year, I’m expecting to receive a call from Berkeley regarding my poor high school performance <em>insert rolling eyes smiley here</em>. I don’t think your post could possibly be any more wrong. I had both a sub-par HS gpa and pathetic SAT scores, but was able to earn a 3.93 college gpa. This “common sense” that you speak of seems to only be an assumption on your behalf.</p>
<p>Here’s another one of your misled posts:</p>
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<p>So when you were proven wrong, you just opted to call everyone in the success thread a liar, rather than shifting from your myopic stance that high school will always be paramount in one’s life.</p>