<p>What is the point of attending a prestigious school in the long run? For a long time I was very focused on going to an Ivy, but I ended up finding a better fit (and a scholarship) at a top LAC.</p>
<p>I'm finishing up my frosh year, and from talking to the graduating seniors, I really began to think about the whole college prestige factor. I know seniors headed to the top law schools and seniors headed to the top banks in NYC. I also know seniors headed to second tier law schools and seniors who are still looking for jobs.</p>
<p>One of the older guys I know is doing investment banking for Goldman next year, and in his "class" of co-workers, or whatever, there are a lot of Ivy types, but then there are also kids from so-so state schools.</p>
<p>I guess what I am asking is related to the fact that when I was younger, when my vision of the long run ended at college. By going to a top college, I would have had a better life, so I thought. Wrongly.</p>
<p>The '07 Valedictorian of my old high school had to turn down NYU Stern for a ****ty state school because of money last week. I've had to convince him that his life is not over.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on the importance of prestige?</p>
<p>Having worked at a bulge bracket (large) elite Wall Street firm, I can assure you I saw no grads of ****ty state schools in key jobs. The vast majority of from the same few top schools.</p>
<p>I guess the general idea is that high school students want to get into the most competitive colleges they can so that they can have a better shot at the most competitive jobs available. It seems like a lot of high school students here dream big, which is great, but what doesn't get chronicled is what happens when they don't get that job on Wall Street. Or they find something else that they want to do that makes them happier.</p>
<p>For example, I go to a prestigious school where I'm working hard, taking lots of difficult classes, and letting the grades come in as they do. I want to be a teacher. To be a teacher, I don't need the fancy shmancy degree I'm going to get; if I wanted to make life easy for myself I would have been an education major at a local state school and I'd probably end up in the same position at the end of the day.</p>
<p>There's a reason I'm not doing that, though. I want the opportunity to expand my interests and my capabilities, and I chose a school at which I felt that that was possible. That it was prestigious was an afterthought-- I literally didn't know the school's USNWR ranking until after I knew I wanted to go.</p>
<p>i dont know about this SUZE member, but the reason some top school grads do so good is because they are such hard working nerds, they continue to be hardworking nerds and reach the top pier, you can be a hard working nerd, which i dont think anything is wrong with that and reach the top,
PS
TOP private schools always stick to their alumni and that is one reason too,
thats mostly my opinion</p>
<p>Also lots of top firms only hire from the top colleges. Its a natural progression, top college gets you top job, which gets you into top b-school or professional or academic grad school, which leads to another top job, which leads to more success, etc. Top school grads like to hire other top school grads, its a safe bet and you feel part of a special network. Attending a top school is not a pre-requisite, but it sure helps.</p>
<p>I feel like, especially with the reality of hyper-competitive admissions, kids need the "justification" of being able to attend a prestigious school to make all of the sacrifices worth it. If you can get into a "decent" school without killing yourself, what's the point of working your ass off in high school and then "only" getting in a decent school. Especially because if you can tell someone that you go to X prestigious school, you can convey to them all the hard work and accomplishment you put in to getting in there, whereas if you tell someone that you attend an "average" school they may obviously not be as impressed.</p>
<p>Yup. Pretty bad reasons, when you look at them, but I think this is unfortunately today's reality. At least that was what went through my mind when I was applying back in 2003.</p>
<p><em>edit</em> I was looking through some of the other threads in this forum and the "Bates reputation - reassurance needed" thread illustrates my point perfectly.</p>
<p>Apparently there are kids from Michigan State, a couple of SUNY campuses, Marylan, and Iowa starting this summer alongside the Ivy Leaguers and other top tier colleges/LACs grads at his office.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You can tell people where you went to college and they're like, "wow, you must be smart."</p></li>
<li><p>It's very helpful with future job opportunities esp. if you want to go into a competitive high-paying field i.e. medical, law, business (IB), etc. Not so much if you want to be an elementary school teacher or something like that.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think what gets people good jobs after graduating prestigious schools isn't some magical product of the college they went to but something that was instilled in them all along, perhaps what got them there in the first place. However, the people with the same drive that go to state schools are equally as successful...I remember reading somewhere that more than half of all Congresspeople went to state schools. </p>
<p>I think prestige of a school is cyclical..if a school is seen as prestigious, more high-achieving students apply, and those students who graduate live up to the prestige, and so on and so forth. What drove me to apply to more "prestigious" schools was the environment I believed that I would find there, that I would be in the company of people who cared as much about learning as I do. Prestigious schools attract resources and attention, which open up opportunities for people. But does it define somebody? Heck no.</p>
<p>the whole prestige factor has gone out of control and become more of a pride issue than a security one. sure, going to a good college can help one be more successful in the future, but it's not only about the school you go to. it's about how well you do, how many opportunities you take advantage of, how you grow as a person, and also importantly, enjoying what are supposed to be the best 4 years of your life. when i hear people upset because they're going to berkeley and not princeton, i cringe a little.</p>
<p>I'm 28, went to Columbia for undergrad, work for a hedge fund in NYC right now. If I could go back to your ages (I'm presuming high school) I would have worked hard to get into a place like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Prestige matters if you're going into certain fast-track careers like law, banking/trading, or consulting. Now after around 5-6 years in a "fast-track" career I realize this more than I even did back when I was applying to colleges. I must know hundreds of high-income earnings bankers, traders, hedgies, PE guys, etc. and I can probably count on one or two hands the people who didn't go to a top school. Seersucker mentions his friend at Goldman whose class is made up of a lot of Ivy types but also some state-school types. Of course there will be some state school types in every class at every firm, but another thing to consider is what group they're with. Is the guy who went to Kansas State going to land on something like a fixed-arb desk where big money is made or is he going to land on the agency desk where he'll probably never make a quarter of what the fixed-arb guys get paid. As your career advances a degree from a Harvard, Yale, Princeton actually becomes more valuable in my opinion. I see it now with their strong alumni network on Wall Street. If you go to a middle-of-the-road college and do manage to land a great banking job your college is never going to matter anymore, it loses it's value but your work if it's good will keep you moving up, if you went to Harvard though it never loses it's value. I find it hysterical that people who want to go into careers like i-banking and big law choose to go to a mediocre state school over a place like Harvard to save money. If you want to go into banking your chances are hugely better if you went to a top school and the extra money spent on that school becomes meaningless. And Seersucker you said you're at a top LAC which is very very good on Wall Street (places like Williams), so you have the prestige factor there.</p>
<p>You are from Columbia and you wish you had attended HYP instead? Is there that much prestige difference between them? What about Stanford, Dartmouth, Brown, AWS, etc?</p>
<p>All you Wall Street people, the next time you are having lunch with Warren Buffet (ha ha), ask him where he received his undergraduate degree from.. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.. The school you go to will open doors for you after college. However, let's not get carried away.</p>