Bother to Apply to HYP and other Ivies?

[StitchInTime]

<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13499767-post1.html]#1[/url]”>quote</a> …And how low do you think he has to go on the US News list of the top 50 national universities before he has a reasonable chance of admission?

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<p>[The</a> American Scholar: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education](<a href=“http://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/]The”>The American Scholar: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - <a href='https://theamericanscholar.org/author/william-deresiewicz/'>William Deresiewicz</a>)</p>

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…Getting to an elite college, being at an elite college, and going on from an elite college—all involve numerical rankings: SAT, GPA, GRE. You learn to think of yourself in terms of those numbers. They come to signify not only your fate, but your identity; not only your identity, but your value. It’s been said that what those tests really measure is your ability to take tests, but even if they measure something real, it is only a small slice of the real. The problem begins when students are encouraged to forget this truth, when academic excellence becomes excellence in some absolute sense, when “better at X” becomes simply “better.”…

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<p>[Prestige</a> Versus Education by Thomas Sowell](<a href=“Prestige Versus Education (Thomas Sowell)”>Prestige Versus Education (Thomas Sowell)):</p>

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…While we are on the subject of reality and prestige, one of the tragic misconceptions of many students and their parents is that you have to go to a prestigious, big-name academic institution to really get ahead and reach the top…</p>

<p>…Academic prestige is based mostly on the research achievements of the faculty. Places like Harvard or Stanford have many professors who are among the leading experts in their respective fields, including some who have won Nobel Prizes. </p>

<p>Good for them. But is it good for you, if you are a student at Prestige U.? </p>

<p>Big-name professors are unlikely to be teaching you freshman English or introductory math. Some may not be teaching you anything at all, unless and until you go on to postgraduate study. </p>

<p>In other words, the people who generated the prestige which attracted you to the college may be seen walking about the campus but are less likely to be seen standing in front of your classroom when you begin your college education. </p>

<p>Lower level courses are usually left to be taught by junior faculty members or even graduate students. Yet these courses are often the foundation on which higher level courses are built. </p>

<p>If you don’t really master introductory calculus, physics or economics, you are unlikely to do well in higher level courses which presuppose that you already have a foundation on which they can build. </p>

<p>By contrast, at a small college without the prestige of big-name research universities, the introductory courses which provide a foundation for higher courses are more likely to be taught by experienced professors who are teachers more so than researchers. </p>

<p>Maybe that is why graduates of such colleges often go on to do better than the graduates of big-name research universities…

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<p>Via the [Harvard</a> Law Record](<a href=“http://www.hlrecord.org/opinion/unemployed-law-student-will-work-for-160k-plus-benefits-1.1179172]Harvard”>http://www.hlrecord.org/opinion/unemployed-law-student-will-work-for-160k-plus-benefits-1.1179172):</p>

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**Unemployed law student will work for $160k plus benefits</p>

<p>On being a 3L with no job offer…from Harvard, no less**</p>

<p>…It’s been a little over five months since I found out I did not get an offer. In those five months, certain topics have been rehearsed with wearying regularity. Greater world, on behalf of the Harvard 3Ls with no offers, let me tell you the things we know…

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