<p>I always hear that getting an education from a top notch school has much harder material and always something special. What does this mean? Does it mean that at IVY’s, you have more homework, 300 pages to read every night, and 2 tests every week? Do you learn things that aren’t taught in other universities like splitting of a diatomic molecule or every bit of details in US history?</p>
<p>At the undergraduate level, there’s really not that much different in terms of what you’re taught. I mean, it’s not like going to Harvard will allow you to learn about some secret documents hidden from everyone else. Same applies across most disciplines, although I imagine that the differences in terms of research could be important to people. The main differences are that 1) You will have more of a chance to land an interview. 2) You’re surrounded by smarter, more ambitious students who can help you down the road. 3) You have an alumni network which you can tap.</p>
<p>So you’re saying the work load is the same among all universities including elite colleges right?</p>
<p>Then can you explain why then would Harvard and MIT students would be likely to commit suicide than others?</p>
<p>Personal insecurity? Inability to live up to one’s own expectations?
A high Asian population?</p>
<p>A “top notch school” doesn’t exclusively describe the Ivy League, which is a sports conference.
It describes most of our nation’s best national universities and liberal arts colleges.</p>
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<p>lol. Yeah, so I’m pretty sure in the classroom the education isn’t different per se from other colleges. But outside the classroom is a whole other ball game, where the true advantage of an Ivy education comes into play.</p>
<p>The main advantages of going to an Ivy :</p>
<p>1) You usually get a good first job out of college (you can even get this if you do pretty well at a non-Ivy)</p>
<p>2) Bragging rights.</p>
<p>You don’t learn different things, but you’ll be forced to work harder because of your peers. I even question the whole bit about “you’ll make good connections” because I doubt any alumni will hire you over a more qualified candidate just because you went to their school (other things equal).</p>
<p>cervantes,
If your point was that the value of an Ivy graduation is in the non-classroom connections, I would agree, but it’s not as if this is only available at the Ivies. Furthermore, I would posit that the quality of undergraduate life is better at several other highly ranked privates. In fact, outside of the classroom is exactly where, for some students, the Ivies fall down in comparison with some other top privates. </p>
<p>For campus social life, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Notre Dame all offer equal or better social life and, in some cases, the social differences are large. </p>
<p>And for athletic life, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame all offer a significantly better athletic scene than any of the Ivy colleges while Northwestern and Rice likewise offer nationally relevant sporting environments, albeit with a little less campus fanfare.</p>
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<p>There was a thread on here about suicide rates at various colleges, and I don’t believe either of them really stood out as having crazy high rates.</p>
<p>And even if they are a little above average, I imagine a bit of it comes from having a lot of students that have always breezed through school, but then when they finally fall off the horse in college, they might not be willing to get back on. Think of that kid you knew in high school that cried because they got a 70 on a test. Now imagine they get a 2.0 after going to Harvard for two years.</p>
<p>Nobody gets a 2.0 at Harvard these days…</p>
<p>Graduate schools, companies, whatever you’re going to apply to after college, will view your where your degree came from. Chances are that they will respect a degree from an Ivy over a degree from a not-as-great college. This is because the ivies have amazing academic reputations. Keep in mind, however, that there are great colleges out there that are not ivies, such as Stanford, Northwestern, CalTech, MIT, etc…</p>
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<p>You learn about heteronuclear diatomic, triatomics, face centered, body centered, cubed centered, homonuclear diatomics in General Chemistry at the college level AT all universties. You even learn about the hydrogen molecule and the schrodinger equation, steady state approximation, reaction rate mechanisms, and tons of ridiculous crap that goes WAYY beyond highschool AP Chem.</p>
<p>I’ve taken classes at Harvard. They have good teachers, but I’m pretty sure you can get a good quality education else where as well. One thing noticed, professors are extremely nice, challenges you a lot, very helpful on the tests, and overall very good character and good teaching style.</p>
<p>hawkette, I totally agree with you, that’s why I’m attending Stanford in the fall, not an Ivy, but it has the connections of one plus the “bonuses” you mentioned. Though for the better undergraduate life part, maybe for people like you and me but not for everyone else. :)</p>
<p>At school, you get three basic things: education, horizons, and connections. Most good schools can give you a good education. Some will require you to be proactive to really get one while others almost make it impossible not to get one. Harvard requires more initiative than others, for example. </p>
<p>In all good schools, you are surrounded by bright kids. In some schools, you are surrounded by really bright, intellectually inquisitive kids and you will learn as much or more from them as you will in class. In other highly-ranked schools, it isn’t cool to be intellectually inquisitive and your non-classroom interactions are likely to be less intellectually stimulating (though they may be more fun).</p>
<p>The other differences are in horizons and connections. In some schools, people will say, “I want to be the best lawyer in the state” while in others, they say, “I want to be a Supreme Court Justice” or “I want to be the best person in the world in my field.” While you may place positive or negative value on how the school affects horizon-setting, in the top schools, you will pick up the gestalt and likely set higher expectations for yourself. Higher expectations probably lead to greater achievement (but likely more angst as well).</p>
<p>Lastly, connections. The people you meet and go to school with at the very top places fan out to positions of power and influence all over the world. I have found this startling. Just this week, I wanted to talk to a senior executive at a major US company, looked on the website and discovered that I had been introduced to exactly the person I wanted to meet when he was in his previous job by one of my college roommates (then a Fortune 500 CEO).</p>