<p>The salary numbers and comparisons cited most commonly on here have to do with engineering. I think there’s less of a difference among schools in that field of study than in others.</p>
<p>Pulling up a seat and watching the action. Anyone taking bets??</p>
<p>truthseeker2,</p>
<p>She was clearly a shallow b---- who never deserved you. </p>
<p>Take away from her the the most important thing you can take from anyone… a place in your mind.</p>
<p>TheGFG wrote: “The salary numbers and comparisons cited most commonly on here have to do with engineering. I think there’s less of a difference among schools in that field of study than in others.”</p>
<p>Data to support your opinion… please?</p>
<p>The engineering salaries may show some regional differences, if anything. I looked at Virginia Tech’s Career Services survey. The median for chemical engineers in 2012 was $65,000. The 75th percentile was $70,000.</p>
<p>maikai- Is this what you are looking for? <a href=“http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Unemployment.Final.update1.pdf[/url]”>http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Unemployment.Final.update1.pdf</a></p>
<p>“Is going to a prestigious university worth the premium?”</p>
<p>Name the universities that each of these men received their undergraduate degree from:</p>
<p>Ted Kaczynski</p>
<p>Tim Cook</p>
<p>for bonus points name the occupation for each.</p>
<p>^^^^^Do you really want to get into a comparison list of highly successful people and folks where the wheels fell off???</p>
<p>Kaczynski gave his occupation as “prisoner” for his entry in the Harvard alumni directory.</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> Alumni Association apologizes for listing Unabomber Ted Kaczynski?s ?awards? – his life sentences for terror campaign - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/05/24/harvard-alumni-association-apologizes-for-listing-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-awards-his-life-sentences-for-terror-campaign/qJekNsHOeMZHgL6S7JxtkI/story.html]Harvard”>http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/05/24/harvard-alumni-association-apologizes-for-listing-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-awards-his-life-sentences-for-terror-campaign/qJekNsHOeMZHgL6S7JxtkI/story.html)</p>
<p>With that, I think I’m going to go research how many colleges teach 16th century religious developments.</p>
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<p>I know you won’t believe me, but it just isn’t true.</p>
<p>I went to a public high school in the suburb of a Midwestern city. Most people went marching off to state U. A lot of time and effort went into getting into the right sorority/ fraternity. It was extremely important to your social life. Not only were some sororities considered “better,” they also cost a lot more to join. I recently reconnected via facebook with a classmate who went to state U and didn’t join a sorority. She had no interest in doing so. She said that she and the others who lived in the dorms had very little interaction with any of the girls in the sorority. The sorority girls really looked down on them. </p>
<p>I went off to “elite U,” to use your term. There were no sororities. I had some friends who were definitely top 1% and some friends who were from struggling families. Quite honestly, the only way we knew in most cases was the girls on financial aid got first crack at the best work-study jobs. You knew if someone had one of the highly sought after jobs she was on financial aid. </p>
<p>Look at the Bush twins. One went to UTexas; the other to Yale. The one who went to UT belonged to Theta. She lived in its sorority house. My understanding is that you don’t get into Theta at UT unless your parents went to UT and it helps a lot if your mom or sister was in Theta. Almost all of the girls are from wealthy Texas families. According to news reports, almost all the members had new expensive cars at school.</p>
<p>The other twin went to Yale. One of her closest (platonic) friends was an African-American guy who was from a dirt poor family. She lived in one of the residential colleges–like everybody else. She wasn’t in separate housing. And Yale usually matches up a roommate on financial aid with a roommate who isn’t on financial aid. </p>
<p>Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore were matched up as roommates by Harvard and became close friends who chose to continue to live together after freshman year. Jones was from a blue collar family; Gore was a senator’s son. </p>
<p>Are there a few kids who are snobs? Sure. They’d probably be snobs if they went to state U. Seriously, you don’t think there are any snobs at UVa or Arizona State? Hate to break it to you, but there are.</p>
<p>^ went to a presentation by 5 top 20 schools few days ago. They go around the country together because they claim to follow similar admission and need blind policies. Most of them average a median or mean of 40k+ for financial aid.</p>
<p>The Harvard lady said she went to Harvard because her state U was more expensive for her.</p>
<p>Re: #191 re: sororities and fraternities</p>
<p>Their presence or absence, and how important they are in the social scenes of the schools, varies considerably even within a given type of school.</p>
<p>For example, Dartmouth and Williams are both considered small elite LAC type of schools. But Williams has no fraternities or sororities, while Dartmouth has a fraternity and sorority dominated social scene where 65% of eligible students are in one.</p>
<p>
I’m sure if you paid an extra $100K he wouldn’t have only been quoted in all those magazines but on the front cover, but looks like we’ll never know! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My take on all of this:
State schools have more fun. 
Elite schools are too worried about the success of the kid sitting three seats away from them.</p>
<p>It’s getting pretty hard to find jobs today no matter where you went to college. Yes, going to a top school increases your chances, but it is hardly a slam dunk, even at the better Ivies, like Harvard and Yale.</p>
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<p>I assume you went to a non-elite since you didn’t comprehend from my post that I was done paying.As far as on the cover of those magazines, newspapers, well I wouldn’t bet on it, he is only 29.He was interviewed on CNBC (on screen) and I guess you missed that one too.</p>
<p>
My son would disagree. He played on the sprint football team, traveled with the team, won a national championship and he thought that was a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I haven’t read all 13 pages of this thread, so some of my post may have been stated earlier. I have engineering degrees from Stanford, have taken classes at several other less “prestigious” schools, and have worked with engineers who attended many different schools – some “prestigious” and some not.</p>
<p>Going to a prestigious university doesn’t necessarily cost a premium. For example, Stanford offers a free ride including room & board + tuition + books for families that make under $60k/year. Families making under under $100k pay no tuition, but need to pay room and board. There are some additional criteria such as not being international and amount of savings, but the point remains that it can be very low cost. I understand that Harvard and many of the ivies have a similar policy. In these programs, the student usually needs to have a part time job at the school during the academic year to contribute a small amount, such as $5k/year. This job often relates to their intended degree field. </p>
<p>Many classmates I’ve known have achieved some amazing things during their career. However, I think this relates more to the person than the school. Had they gone to a less prestigious school, most probably would have had similar success. Similarly it’s been my experience that engineers I’ve worked with who went to prestigious schools tend to have impressive skills, but I think this relates more to the person than the school. Some of the more prestigious schools have admit rates of as low as 5%. They can afford to be very selective, resulting in most of the students being talented, passionate, and creative/innovative people who are likely to do impressive things in their lifetime, both in and out of the workplace. There are plenty of people who meet this description that don’t go to selective schools. I know an outstanding engineer who didn’t go to college at all. But it’s generally a lower percentage than more selective schools due to this selectivity.</p>
<p>There has been a good amount of research that has attempted to isolate how much of the salary difference relates to the school, rather than the person. One example is the one at <a href=“http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0002.pdf[/url]”>http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0002.pdf</a> , in which the author concluded that 2/3 to 3/4 of the lifetime salary difference between school ranking related to the academic strength of the individual, rather than the school name. One can critique numerous aspects of the study or find others that came to different conclusions, but I think the general idea is correct – the salary difference is mostly due to different people, but the school also has an effect – not just the name of the school, but also the classes, opportunities, resources that are available at the school. For example, a few years ago I started a website about a hobby of mine during my free time, which became a greater source of income than my day job in engineering. Creating the website did not require going to any particular college, but it’s unlikely I would have done it had I not been exposed to the innovative and helpful atmosphere at Stanford with many lectures from others that have had similar successes, specific classes and degree programs that fostered entrepreneurship, and various other opportunities on campus. </p>
<p>That said the school name does help in employment, particularly for the first jobs, before you have a lot of experience. It’s been my experience that the school name has a big effect in how easy it is to get interviews from a resume, but far less beyond that point where technical skills and personality during interviews become more important. The school name probably also helps in which recruiting companies come to the school. The school name can also hurt you if you would have had a much higher GPA at a different school.</p>
<p>Data10, </p>
<p>Granted some get to go to “top” schools for little to no money, but knowing everything you know now, would you pay a quarter of a million dollars to go to Stanford for four years?</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>Pretty sure his answer would depend on what the alternatives and their prices are.</p>
<p>I don’t find any difference. I spoke to an employer of a computer company and he told me that he manages engineers that are graduayed from all kinds of universities, from Ivies to private schools, Georgia Tech to regular public colleges. He doesn’t find any difference between graduates from different colleges. Some of his best engineers are actually from University of New Orleans. So, why bother to go to a prestigious university with all the debts and being treated the same after graduation?
My old teacher told me that some employers don’t even care ehat college you attended. All they care is if you have a college degree or not.</p>