Do you believe in a college caste system?

Parents Forum
1

<p>For example, the top caste would be the top colleges, like Boston university, Cornell, and USC.</p>

<p>The “lower castes” might be 2nd - 3rd tier colleges, like Liberty University, U of Arkansas, etc.</p>

<p>Because prestige does matter in finding high-paying jobs and opportunities.</p>

2

<p>Not sure where you are coming up with your “top caste”. Most posters out here would not put any of those 3 colleges you list as the “top caste”. (Maybe Cornell…but it is considered a ‘lesser Ivy’). Of course there is a hierarchy in the minds of most people here. And colleges are discussed as “top tier”, “2nd tier”, and sometimes “3rd tier” and lower. Different people draw the lines between them in different places, though, and it doesn’t actually matter very much (IMHO).</p>

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<p>Oh, please (not you, intparent).</p>

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<p>Nope. </p>

<p>Next! </p>

5

<p>I think we can safely assume jarjarbinks23 has never sat on the other side of the hiring table.</p>

<p>the name on your diploma only gets you so far, my friend.</p>

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<p>I thought this was about caste system within a college, so I was curious to know if there was one and where the division would be. I thought I would learn something new, but this sounds like a lot of other threads we already have. Next.</p>

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<p>Actually, it doesn’t.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2004/10/education-easterbrook”>http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2004/10/education-easterbrook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

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<p>It does…if your objective is to seek out well-endowed campuses/students who can host college parties with a fine spread of fine foods, spirits, other beverages, and desserts to raid for those of us in search of free food and fun…especially the well-heeled hosts per Adam and the Antz’ example. :D</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>It does…if your objective is to seek out well-endowed campuses/students who can host college parties with a fine spread of fine foods, spirits, other beverages, and desserts to raid for those of us in search of free food and fun…especially the well-heeled hosts per Adam and the Antz’ example. :D</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Well, yes, my answer would have been different if the OP’s caste system were based on which colleges give the most expensive parties. ;)</p>

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<ol>
<li>There was never a notion that elite college attendance was ESSENTIAL to later success. </li>
<li>One study is not enough to declare a definitive answer to a complex problem. </li>
<li>Using income as the sole measure of success is very weak indeed, many people may think high positions in public service indicate some sort of success.</li>
</ol>

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<p>Oh good grief on the “lesser Ivy” nonsense. Et tu, intparent? </p>

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<p>“Because prestige does matter in finding high-paying jobs and opportunities.”</p>

<p>In SOME industries, that is true. In OTHER industries, it is not true.</p>

<p>In SOME industries, it is about the prestige of the university and not the specific major. In OTHER industries, a lot of attention is paid to the specific major (such as engineering - where the most respected programs may or may not be in otherwise highly rated schools).</p>

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<p>"[R]esearchers Alan Krueger and Stacy Berg Dale began investigating this question, and in 1999 produced a study that dropped a bomb on the notion of elite-college attendance as essential to success later in life."</p>

<p>And no one with any brains ever thought “elite-college attendance is essential to success later in life,” unless you define success narrowly as “being a Supreme Court justice.” So no bomb was really dropped, and it confirmed that there’s a lot of selection effect vs treatment effect. The prettiest models in the modeling agency are also the prettiest people later in life, too - that doesn’t mean the modeling agency "made’ them prettier. </p>

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<p>This sounds like someone is trying to justify or rationalize…</p>

<p>Is there a certain career field this is targeted towards?</p>

<p>I can say in engineering, in particular with Civil where I have 30 years of experience, one’s undergrad degree school really doesn’t make a difference either getting hired or throughout a career. An ABET accredited degree program is based on a pretty much common curriculum. Certain schools will tend to dominate regionally, based on student populations and local geography. Here in northern NJ, 95% of civils went to either Rutgers or NJIT.</p>

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<p>I don’t follow the initial question. I “believe” in a caste system in that there are plenty of college rankings out there that classify schools by status (and none of them include BC or USC at the top, although those are good colleges). So if I “believe” whether or not there is a caste system: there assuredly is. Is the question, “do you think that’s a good thing”? That’s debatable.</p>

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<p>Jarjar…please tell me you were bored and had nothing better to do than start this thread.</p>

<p>Carry on.</p>

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<p>“Caste” suggests immutability. USC clearly demonstrates that immutability is not the case.</p>

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<p>“Caste” is simply a poor choice of metaphors all around. It means a lot more than “tier,” most of which has no equivalent in the wold of higher ed. </p>

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<p>Some colleges do very well within niches. The OP specifically mentioned Liberty University, which has done spectacularly well in supplying conservative legislative staffs, think tanks, judicial clerks, and - under Republican administrations - lots of sub-Cabinet appointees. </p>