<p>I know six people who've gone to Ivy League schools. Two are alcoholics. One is in jail for securities fraud. Another stares out the window a lot and looks depressed. The other two seem ok, I guess, and drive nice cars, although my dad just told me that one of them has end-stage leukemia and is expected to die in six months (which has nothing to do with her Ivy League pedigree, obviously).</p>
<p>Anyway, from what I see, having an Ivy League degree is no more a guarantee of a great life than having a degree from, I dunno, Edward Snowden's community college. So why the stampede? What am I missing here?</p>
<p>WHile I completely agree that an Ivy league diploma guarantees nothing, it does seem like you have a pretty skewed sample of Ivy league attendees in your life. As for the “obsession”…on boards like this one, perhaps…but in general, and in real life, I know far fewer kids who are pining for admission to HY or P than I know kids who are looking for colleges that are a good and solid match for their past and future achievements and goals.</p>
<p>Pretty campuses? The chance to network and make connections? The obvious answers: They think the Ivy League is more prestigious, or that the quality of education is far higher at an Ivy League institution.</p>
<p>Because American society is centered around being NUMBER ONE!!!1111 In AMERICA everyone should strive to be THE BEST!!!11 so there are hundreds of thousands of kids who go to THE BEST schools and they’re THE BEST along with ALL OF THEIR PEERS!!!1 and it means absolutely squat. Maybe a nice car. But a nice car doesn’t make you THE BEST either.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, people should strive to work hard and accomplish great things and live fulfilled lives and seek out amazing opportunities. But the obsession with Ivy Leagues specifically is just another step away from people bragging about their designer handbags and trying to turn in their exams faster than everyone else.</p>
<p>Prestige, networking, and overall the feeling you get when you know all your hard work in hs has paid off</p>
<p>It’s an interesting question. I think it started with Wall Street when in its heyday it hired a lot of Ivies and paid them well with little or no experience. But that Wall Street is essentially gone. Death by overdose of MBS. I think the new catalyst is the influx of International plus first and second generation students who for the sake of family pride and insecurity believe that attending an Ivy will somehow give rise in social status or deliver pride to the family.</p>
<p>First of all it’s prestige. You hear a college is number one, you’ve always been number one, therefore you go to something you believe to be number one. </p>
<p>Secondly, all of the Ivies are almost entirely comprised of extremely smart individuals. Many students prefer to be around academically accomplished peers (one of the reasons why it’s so common to see students loading up on APs even if they don’t plan on applying to anything but state directionals), and the Ivies offer the chance for a student to surround himself with 5,000+ exceptional students in one environment. </p>
<p>Third, many students were bored in high school and assume that if they go to a more selective school, the difficulty of most courses is proportional to the abilities of the average student. This is especially true in the humanities, although may not be as accurate as in some of the sciences. </p>
<p>Fourth, many students believe that only the best professors are concentrated at particular schools. It’s difficult for high school students to understand just how bad the market is for phDs which causes them to assume that best schools=best professors= best chances for success.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s just a fact that many highly successful people graduated from the Ivy Leagues. Sure there are many state school success stories, but the people whose pedigree is most highly publicized, eg Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, and Obama, all share a common affiliation with the Ivies regardless of whether or not they dropped out. It’s perfectly reasonable (although probably incorrect) for students to assume that the Ivy or quasi Ivy affiliation helped these people form connections or educated them in such a way that caused them to go down the road they did.</p>
<p>So that they can have bragging rights and hang up and show off their diploma ;)</p>