<p>@legendofmax, I disagree with your first paragraph, I hear constantly that there really is minimal difference in the learning material between the top top schools, and your average good school- the difference is the academic atmosphere, the opportunities for research/internships/etc, the accomplishments of who is teaching the class (how much could that truly matter if you never/hardly heard of the person before the year anyway Id rather have a person who can easily explain and teach me the material with less credentials than the top of his field professor who doesn’t care much about the class and is focused on his grad students/research).</p>
<p>So to my understanding, its not that the work would be typically easier in a less prestigious school, just probably more lenient expectations and a less competitive atmosphere (which probably could be to your advantage when looking for research opportunities)</p>
<p>I have an undergrad degree from a “top school” and an MBA from a more average state university. The big difference is the quality of students and class discussion, IMHO. The profs were honestly equally good – in fact, quality of teaching was generally better at the state school. But the quality of my classmates, group project work, class discussions, and “life of the mind” on campus were FAR higher at the top school.</p>
<p>@mccruz: You are correct in what you are saying, but we aren’t technically disagreeing. When I say “work” I don’t mean to imply the material in itself – I mean just the level of required/minimal performance. The competition is definitely the primary difference. When you’re competing against a curve that is made up of kids who were largely in the top 5% of their class, it’s going to be a lot harder to achieve the same level of performance. Being “at the top of your class” at a “lesser” school means you don’t have that augmented competition breathing down your neck all the time. There’s not really a huge difference in material (although there’s usually a greater depth covered at the top school compared to, say, a state school). For example, I know that when I was taking Acct 101, my state school friends covered maybe half of what we did in the same amount of time – but of course this probably depends on the subject and what the school “specializes” in.</p>
<p>It depends on your goals and what you mean by “average.” If you intend upon medical or law school, a lot of your admission rides on your GPA. If you can more easily achieve a 3.9 at a good school but would get a 3.5 at a higher-ranked scool (but don’t assume that you will automatically do better at a lower-ranked school - Ivies are known for grade inflation because their classes are more difficult, and there are some other difficulties at lower-ranked schools like perhaps larger classes or inaccessible tutors or professors), then obviously a 3.9 would be better for admission to those kinds of programs.</p>
<p>But being an average student at a top college can be in your favor in other fields. These schools have a far reach. If you want to enter finance and work on Wall Street, for example, you’re more likely to get recruited and have access to those firms if you go a top school than if you go to a lesser-known school, even if you have a 3.3 vs. your 3.9 studentat Compass Point State. You also get access to resources you won’t have at smaller/lesser-known schools - well-reputed professors, bigger research labs and more equipment, better-funded libraries, internship programs, study abroad opportunities, language courses in a variety of languages, etc.</p>
<p>It really depends on the college. Being a top student at college with no reputation won’t help you as much as being average at a high powered, well known school.</p>
<p>Also, some schools dominate a state and are not known for elite students. Penn State has a massive alumni network in PA and its a party school - the shared experiences and culture and traditions you share with tens of thousands of alumni across the state are like bonding glue which will get your r</p>
<p>My grand-uncle (who is one of the top top surgeons at NYU hospital) is a person who went to an unheard of crappy undergrad school and now works with many ivy league colleagues, actually his ivy league colleagues work for him and he told me that it really doesn’t matter in the end where you went to college if you work hard, you will be ending out where you should be.</p>
<p>Truth be told I dont know where he went to grad school, but he is a self made very successful (financially and family-wise) man who couldn’t afford to go to a nice college.</p>
<p>His advice about the prestige not mattering though seems to make me nervous because he is around 65-70 now and things must have been A LOT different back then as its A LOT more of WHO you know than WHAT you know now. Also he is in a completely different career than one I can picture myself being in when I get older. So IDK what to make of his advice. He also sent his daughter to UPenn.</p>
<p>It has always been about who you know to a certain degree. That’s why when this conversation is brought up many people prefer the more prestigious university because of the company you will keep.</p>
<p>Truth of the matter is, it doesn’t boil down to where you go. It’s all about what type of person you are. If you’re the type to be able to reach for opportunity and stand out, a lesser known school would be a great environment. If you go to an Ivy and expect things to come to you, it will be a waste. </p>
<p>There’s so many variables in this question that the answer will always be relative. If the Ivy student is taking on $50,000+ more in loans/debt than the student at lesser known school, the Ivy student isn’t making a smart choice. The college is what you make it out to be. My mother never attended college and is very successful earning $200,000+. I know business owners who dropped out of high school and became successful. It all boils down to the type of person you are.</p>
<p>I used to believe the advice given above but different fields demand different backgrounds.</p>
<p>If you want to get into private equity, it’s nearly impossible without a Wharton or Harvard MBA. I work for a top, global corporation that hires folks from all over for some jobs but there are other jobs for which they only recruit from the Ivies.</p>
<p>Think of your future as approaching many doors. Some doors are wide open, some are shut and some are locked and guarded. You have to have a key for some of those doors. An Ivy League education provides the key to some of of those locked doors. A few people break those doors down, most people have no interest in what’s beyond those doors. A few dream of what’s beyond but have no means to open those doors.</p>
<p>None of this is bad but if you go to a school that can’t give you the key to the door you want, you’ve messed up. And many people learn that truth too late.</p>
<p>Yeah, definitely. If you want to work for a firm that only really hires from the Ivies, then that is the path you’ll need to take. But if you just want a good education for expanding your skills, keeping good company, standing out against the crowd, enjoying your experience, minimizing debt, etc – there are many, many schools that can fulfill all those needs.</p>
<p>A lot of people, I think, forget that the Ivies aren’t the only way to the top. When I was a freshman, I took a macroeconomics class where my professor at one point told everyone outright that our expected earnings in the future aren’t going to be higher simply because we went to Ivies (and the response was a lot of shocked/hushed whispering from around the lecture hall, haha). I always thought it was a very intuitive truth, but I think for some, it’s a truth they don’t want to accept: Ultimately, it’s because people who attend Ivies tend to be better-equipped financially to begin with and have better connections / opportunities for networking.</p>
<p>If you were to take the admitted class pools for the Ivies and push them aside, you’d be able to re-fill all the spots multiple times over with equally-qualified candidates who were initially turned down. At the end of the day, there simply aren’t enough spots, which means you’ve got many fantastic students who aren’t attending top schools – and most of them will do just fine for themselves.</p>