Went to a non-top-20 school, wound up working at McDonald's

<p>While many companies send their rising stars to the big name MBA schools, the undergrad origins of the CEOs are much less Ivy centric and feature many more from more humble colleges.</p>

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We’d have to see a study on this (idea for Pascarella’s next book), but his story certainly suggests it. He only got the McD’s job because a frat brother had a connection.</p>

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OMG Hunt. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.</p>

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<p>Actually, if I recall, P&T do talk about the effect of fraternities. I don’t have the book at hand, and I don’t remember what they said.</p>

<p>I think you will find that the claims for the benefits of fraternity membership–like the claims for the benefits of attending a more selective college–will often focus on things that are hard to measure, like life-long friendships. They may or may not provide measureable benefits in earnings. This is really the point that many of us have been trying to make, and that Pascarella doesn’t really address.</p>

<p>Montessori school system claims credit for Google’s founders.</p>

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<p>I think the point that many of you have been trying to make is that prestige and selectivity do have an effect on the quality of the education (on which the data clearly shows they have none) and on lifetime earnings (on which the data shows their effect is far less than often claimed). You’ve repeatedly made this point - then repeatedly ignored the question, “So why doesn’t these effects show up in the data?”</p>

<p>If you want to argue about lifetime friendships from fraternity membership, you’ll have to find a different interlocutor.</p>

<p>There IS data to support pizzagirl’s repeated point of peer effects in higher education. Since annasdad claims not to read my posts could someone please direct him to this study that I posted months ago in this post <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13828540-post461.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13828540-post461.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here is the link to the full article <a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w9501.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nber.org/papers/w9501.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>All went to non-top 20 UGs.<br>
All are fine.
I have been working in my field after graduating from CC and found my first job during the worst economic crisis (Carter’s time) in one of the worst economic region of the country. Several employers paid for the rest (BS and MBA)
H. has been an engineer and hi employer has paid for his MBA.
S. is a Graphic Designer, has never worked outside of his field (during and after college )
D. is Med. School. Had been accepted to few after state public (just like the rest of us) where she was on full tuition Merit award. Has been accepted to couple top 20s Med. School, had hardest time deciding which one to attend.
None has ever worked at McDonald, but S. worked at pizza place during HS. D. could only dream that she found ANY job during summers, including McDonald, bu it was not available for her. She had an awesome job at her college though for 3 years, great experience being Supplemental Instructor for Chem. prof.
I do not see anything wrong working for McDonald, many do not have this opportunity, be thankful and make plans to move on.</p>

<p>MiamiDAP- Did you even read this thread to have some idea of what it is about?</p>

<p>Another reference in support of the benefits of “prestige” schools, that was posted months ago here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13815538-post384.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13815538-post384.html&lt;/a&gt; but again selectively ignored [Rewarding</a> Strivers — The Century Foundation](<a href=“http://tcf.org/publications/2010/6/pb715]Rewarding”>Book - Rewarding Strivers)</p>

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Could someone please encourage those with blinders on to take a look at these articles?</p>

<p>It’s the blinders that suit one. YK, I didn’t send my kids to either an elite magnet or an elite private school in our area, but that doesn’t mean I have to pretend that such schools didn’t offer benefits that our public hs couldn’t provide.</p>

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Which twelve? We need to see who makes the cut.</p>

<p>Ah yes, back to the future, PG. Rather than address the question based on 30 years of juried research about the effect of colleges, try to change the focus to where one parent decided to send his kid to high school.</p>

<p>bovertine-
I believe that got discussed in the thread about CEOs.</p>

<p>btw again, the articles that refute AD’s will be conveniently ignored. Will someone reference them please?</p>

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<p>I must have missed the listing of the delightful dozen. But I found it elsewhere-
“The authors are likewise too dismissive of what they call the “Golden Dozen,” the twelve institutions about which upper-middle class parents are obsessed: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Stanford, Duke, Amherst, and Williams”</p>

<p>Sorry Northwestern, MIT, Caltech, Georgetown, Swarthmore, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, USC, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins …</p>

<p>BTW, as an aside I came across a 1975 edition of Cass and Birnbaum, a guide for counselors to colleges and selectivity predating the USNWR. They also talk about the benefits of attending elite schools, except their list of elite schools from 1975 is different than the list now. Sure, the usual tippy top suspects were tippy top then, but about a third of the Ivy League didn’t make the most selective grouping. It’s pretty interesting where some schools fell in those days.</p>

<p>And, of course, to repeat yet again – the fact that graduates of elite colleges succeed at a high rate proves nothing about the key point – that for a given student, it doesn’t much matter where you go to college – because those studies do not control for the entry level capabilities of the entering freshmen.</p>

<p><em>for a given student</em> . Its not reasonable to leap from an N of 1 to generalities about student populations. But then again, the data to support the other side will continue to be ignored. When it was posted months ago, it was reposted, quoted, and referenced by several posters. It was still ignored. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Try as we might, its hard to have a conversation with a broken record.</p>

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<p>My brother is a barrister and he never made coffee for sale in his life.</p>

<p>So far most studies show that the mere act of applying to highly selective schools and then not attending them results in similar economic outcomes as actually going to one as far as earnings. So all that extra money they spend on the student may not have much material impact. </p>

<p>As far as corporate leaders go–undergrad can be anywhere</p>

<p>['Any</a> College Will Do’ - WSJ.com](<a href=“'Any College Will Do' - WSJ”>'Any College Will Do' - WSJ)</p>