<p>You get to look down on people ;)</p>
<p>^ You also develop that kind of attitude.</p>
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<p>Yes, this is true. My brother, who attends a local SUNY school, will be paying approximately $10,000 more for his education than I will.</p>
<p>However, I believe that most people who sincerely want to attend Ivies find that the level of prestige associated with the school in laymen’s eyes, in addition to the connections and resources of Ivy institutions, make matriculation of one of the 8 schools considerably attractive.</p>
<p>I definitely don’t want to go to an Ivy-League school, but maybe I would go to Penn. They are extremely overrated. Also, they are too small for my likings. However, I’m still applying to Harvard and Penn, maybe Princeton and maybe even Yale, just to see if I can get in so that I can be the only person from my school to get in to one of those schools.</p>
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I shouldn’t need to remind you of the lurking variables in this scenario, but for the benefit of the less knowledgeable I will point out that HYP students are an intensely self-selected group and as such any correlation may possibly be caused by student ability/drive rather than HYP.</p>
<p>With that said, the easiest route to financial success is a nonscalable career with solid earning potential. Given that I am personally leaning towards engineering/CS/act. sci careers, the impact of school brand will be relatively limited in my own search for such a job. However, those more interested in high finance or elite management consulting would do well to consider recruitment stats and attend a school prestigious in the eyes of potential employers in those fields.</p>
<p>^^Ah, the curiosity factor!</p>
<p>Well, that’s not a horrible reason for applying to a school. You might end up liking it immensely. To be honest, I think I only took my application to the University of Chicago to heart. The rest were far more flighty, especially since I knew I would have somewhere to attend in the fall of 2010, although I may not have loved it with all my heart. And the strategy worked rather well.</p>
<p>So have fun. Knock 'em dead. :)</p>
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<p>Polling people. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen some prestige rankings out there somewhere. Some of the peer assessments that go into US News’ rankings could be considered prestige rankings in part.</p>
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<p>Yes, I’ve been on CC too long to ever let the correlation-causation distinction slip my mind. 
In fact, I intended to make a point out of this: even if this over-representation is not causal from an admissions perspective, it’s still a really positive thing in that it indicates the quality of one’s peers at those schools. It’s most likely a combination, though.</p>
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<p>All but Dartmouth are larger than my decent sized home town. Are you going to like the University of Paris???</p>
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<p>That’s a very small town, not “decent sized.”</p>
<p>lol not compared to the rest of the state</p>
<p>Polls are not perfect science, and it seems that the US News’ ranking system is a bit flawed. I can say this because, well, ranking systems are pretty much flawed simply by defintion. </p>
<p>It is difficult, if not impossible, to rank things that are not the same. For example, how can we compare School A with a good financial aid system and a strong math program with School B that has a winning basketball team and a strong pre-med program? Those are two completely different schools, so I cannot think of a way to tell which one is better. It is really a matter of personal opinion, because beyond that, we are really just comparing apples to oranges.</p>
<p>Everyone knows the Ivy League schools hold the monopoly on hot guys and wild parties.</p>
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<p>I’m not saying the rankings itself is an indicator of prestige; I’m saying that the peer assessment factor may be a rough proxy.</p>
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<p>I’m sure someone else who actually wants to attend these schools would appreciate your spot. Honestly, that is the worst possible reason to apply to an Ivy.</p>
<p>@ilovefgump: I didn’t know if ivy leaguers were into the party scene.</p>
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Contradictions abound.</p>
<p>^^ Maybe they aren’t, but they gotta have SOME hot guys.</p>
<p>^I feel like the OP was including any big name “oh the prestige” school and was just referring to them as “Ivies” because that’s what people do. But I also haven’t been paying attention.</p>
<p>If your wink means that you meant something else, ignore me.</p>
<p>@Pioneer. I applied to rival schools just so that other people won’t get in.</p>
<p>And when I think Ivy League I just think sports conference.</p>
<p>And I don’t know how to quote on this thing but as far as financial aid, I have a friend who is taking out 38k in loans a year to attend an ivy. While in many case yes they provide great aid, that is not always the case.</p>
<p>^ Well obviously not if your family has money… At other schools, he/she probably would’ve gotten nothing in financial aid. Maybe scholarships, but not financial aid.</p>