“As you read more and more brief description of board of directors/CEO, or even head of governmental agencies, one can see most of them are associated with very top colleges.”
I count 11 for the 50 who got a bachelor’s from an American uni in the US News top 20, 29 who got a bachelor’s from an American uni outside the US News top 20, and the others from LACs (mostly not elite LACs) or abroad.
Many probably did pick up an elite MBA/grad degree, but that says more about them than the school.
And yes, the Ivies/equivalents are over-represented compared to their numbers, but they also have a higher percentage of top talent coming in.
@CU123, for law school, that’s not really true, but as I kept telling UCB, actually, outside of law, what he said also isn’t quite true. For example, to get in to an MBA program, your work experience usually matters more than undergrad, and what do you during your MBA program also matters.
@homerdog “…such a gift since I was able to meet people from all over the globe and challenge myself beyond what… It shaped me and, even though my parents left me with $35,000 in loans (a lot in 1989!), it was definitely worth it.”
Not trying to pick on @homerdog, but can anyone show me the law which requires parents to cover a kid’s college? (I haven’t found it, yet) The 35k in loans was actually "part’ of your lifetime education. Extra credit work, perhaps?
Be thankful you had the opportunity to attend such an institution that served you so well.
Nothing in life is free.
@PurpleTitan “and what do you during your MBA program also matters.”
Not sure quite what that means, and are you saying your GPA from law school is not a top consideration for job placement?
@nhpm510 Parents who are unwilling but able to help there children in whatever endeavor they choose, college, starting a business, etc (of course they have to know they are serious about such endeavor) are leaving there progeny with a large mountain to climb.
Of course there is no law saying parents have to pay for anything past 18 years of age but that also tends to perpetuate a cycle of poverty (and if not poverty, something close to it)
Maybe you misunderstand, a 4.0 from HLS is going to get more job offers than a 3.5 from HLS. I’m not talking about comparing different law schools. In fact its obvious that a 3.5 from HLS is going to get more offers that a 4.0 from University of (random state) law school.
@PurpleTitan In the interview my husband had In preparation for meeting the investment bankers from the private equity firm, my husband asked the headhunters if he was at a disadvantage because he didn’t have an MBA. He was told not really, because he had gone to CMU. They said he wouldn’t even be interviewing if he had gone to a state school.
As for my D, she was told by several mentors (through MLT, the Consortium and the Forte Foundation) that it was good she had gone to NYU. She was told that recruiters and admissions (for top 20 MBA programs) would seriously consider “alternative candidates” only if they went to upper tier schools. D was accepted at NYU Stern and the Kelley School of Business with full tuition scholarships.
@nhpm510 I didn’t get into detail but the fact is that we had a private parent/student loan through my university. While we both signed the loan, my dad told me that he would pay it. A year after I graduated, they declared bankruptcy and the loan became all mine. At the time, I was pretty freaked out but I was gainfully employed and was able to stretch the payments out further than the original plan with no extra interest and it all worked out.
In general, success is determined by an individual’s personality and drive, not by the name on his/her degree. Lots of people have fulfilling college educations, careers, and lives during and after attending a college that may not be among the nation’s most selective.
That said, prestige may have two impacts.
A. The first is on the college experience itself (for education is a goal in and of itself, not just a means to a financial goal), in so far as that “prestige” can be a marker for:
resources available (from small classes to top equipment to amazing research opportunities), and
the type of student who will be attending. A more selective college may have a higher percentage of students who love learning and engage in intellectual conversations in dorms, dining halls, etc.
You can find peers and opportunities anywhere. Some colleges just have more of them.
B. As has been said above, some careers are affected more than others. Do you want to be a United States Supreme Court Justice? 8 out of 9 current justices went to Harvard or Yale for law school. If you look at H and Y law schools’ sites, they list the undergraduate schools their current students attended. One of them lists the numbers of students from each undergrad college listed. The nation’s most selective colleges are disproportionately represented.
But not everyone wants to be a Supreme Court Justice!
Yes but its more than just law, it’s IB, and top consulting firms to name a couple of others. Friend of mine is a SVP at a very large consulting firm and they only hire from Tier 1 Universities (which he said generally corresponds to a top 20 school when I inquired to the Tier 1 reference).
In fact it really is all fields that you get a bump from, even STEM. The fact you graduated from MIT means more than graduating from state U. There are only so many MIT grads each year and they get snapped up pretty quickly.
@CU123, it really depends on the field. In CS, the schools that have grads that do best are many of the top privates but also the state schools that are highly regarded in CS:
The colleges that have the highest percentages in the top engineering firms are also the top engineering schools (both private and public): https://www. collegetransitions .com/infographics/top-engineering-feeder-schools
But several of the publics represented there aren’t extremely difficult to get in to, even for engineering.
The media feeder one is interesting: https://www. collegetransitions .com/infographics/top-news-media-feeder-schools
A few Ivies/equivalents but more from “the rest” which include schools known for journalism/communications, schools known for politics, and top publics. Some aren’t terribly tough to get in to.
Yes, of course, there simply aren’t enough MIT grads to go around. Also any top ranked public university in CS is going to have good relations with employers which is part of the reason they are highly ranked. However this idea that you can go to any school, and you’ll get the same offers as the top privates is, well, just not true. You might come close (or even have the same offers) if you went to UIUC and had a high GPA but that is not just any school.
And yes, UIUC is not just any school in CS and engineering.
Agree that in many fields, not just “any school” would do. Rigor does matter. Also being a target for recruiting. Also reputation (at least in the field).
But you also have some options that don’t cost $280K if full-pay and don’t have insanely low admit rates. SJSU, UT-Dallas, and RIT (none Ivy-like in admissions and the last two offering merit scholarships) make the LinkedIn list. NCSU, Purdue, SJSU (again), A&M, and Santa Clara make the CT Tech list. Cal Poly, PSU, A&M (again) and Purdue (again) make the CT engineering list. None are Ivy-like in admissions and many/all of those schools give scholarships.
The publics that are tops in STEM (Cal, UCLA, UW-Seattle, UMich, UIUC, and UT-Austin) make all 3 lists, and while UW-Seattle and UIUC for engineering are tougher to enter than an average flagship, they’re also not Ivy-like in selectivity.
FWIW, was “lucky” enough to make it to Wall Street and had attended a state school in the South.
It is the size of the fight in the dog that counts. YMMV.
(Admittedly, it would have been a bit easier if I had attended a more name-brand school)
Facing this prestige versus full-ride scenario/question with my D now which is a good 1st world problem to have.
@PurpleTitan I think we agree on most of it, but it comes down to a couple of things MIT is recruited nationally where as most of the schools you list are recruited regionally. The rigor at MIT is only matched by honors courses at those universities, so they would also have to be put into the equation. Finally the washout rate is much higher at public universities because they aren’t getting the same product to start with.
you sound wholly unqualified to be giving advice. where are you “helping” kids? what are your qualifications? zero chance you went to a top college, therefore you have no understanding of why “prestige” matters (hint: it’s not really about “prestige” it’s about the high-achieving inspiring atmosphere, top faculty, top departments, top peers, top network, top support, top resources, top financial aid). and what do you know about medical school admissions? apparently nothing.
