Ivy League vs Regular College

College Life
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<p>Choosing to go to a school isn’t always a prestige factor, I chose USC not because it is the most prestigious school I was accepted to, but because it was the school I felt most comfortable choosing to spend four years of my life at. I feel that the educational opportunities afforded to me by USC are going to be amazing, but that’s not the only reason that I chose the school. The social life I can have and the scholarship I was offered were enough that the school made sense in those areas as well. I did choose USC over two offers of full rides from other schools, and I might have been just as happy at those schools, but fit mattered to me, and USC just felt right.</p>

<p>On another note, I don’t think USC is going to give me more opportunities than I would have had at other places if I don’t apply myself, I expect to fully apply myself in order to take full advantage of the opportunities I have been given by my education. In the end it won’t matter where I went to college, it will matter that I have a college degree and that I took full advantage of my education.</p>

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<p>Just simply graduating from Ivy/Stanford-type schools won’t open doors. Hard to believe, I know, but I have watched the progress of the high school Class of 2000 from my kids’ large, highly competitive, public high school. Many of these kids graduated from Ivy schools, Stanford, and top UC’s. Some are now on Wall Street earning six figures. And some are sitting on their parents’ couches, unemployed and wondering what the heck happened. Employers want to know what you did while you were at college, and majoring in Political Science with a minor in Binge Drinking at Princeton turns out not to be a good recipe for success in the job market. The students who chose top colleges because they wanted to take advantage of the many educational opportunities available to them at those colleges are doing well. Then again, so are those who went to state schools and immersed themselves in their work while they were there. It’s not so much where you go, but what you do once you get there. But if you’re going to do great things, doing them at Yale is probably going to get you more notice with employers and grad schools than doing them at East Southwest State University.</p>

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<p>Higher-ranked schools (such as the Ivys) also provide numerous and invaluable resources that cannot be found at state-schools: lecture-series with prominent scholars in the relevant field, professors themselves who are considered pre-eminent, research opportunities, an enormous library, a student-body that itself facilitates intellectual discourse/exploration, journals, writing competitions, and so on. </p>

<p>Students who are accepted to Ivy-Leagues (and attend) are not necessarily subject to such resources. These resources are present for those who pursue them, and they provide useful tools for either advancing in one’s career or making the most out of one’s life - neither of which are mutually exclusive. </p>

<p>Every lecture I have attended at Harvard and Rice has been an incredible experience; the ambience that is engendered by both students and professors is incomparable, and it only makes the joy of learning all the more fun. I would much rather do that than seek methods for inebriation, for instance.</p>

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<p>1down2togo, I agree with you that there’s a very big difference between skating by at a top school and standing out at a top school.</p>

<p>When deciding between a top (expensive) school and one which is less prestigious, it’s important to consider not only which school you have more of a feel for, but also your own personal characteristics.</p>

<p>I chose between MIT and Ohio State, for biology. Now, Ohio State is a big school, and does a lot of biology research, and I certainly would have been able to get better grades at OSU with less effort than I have to put forth at MIT. But I know myself very well, and I know that, given the choice, I probably would have taken the path of least resistance at OSU and been afraid to ask for research jobs; I probably wouldn’t have gotten the grades I was capable of out of boredom. The more free time I have, the worse my grades are. :)</p>

<p>At MIT, I’m successful because I don’t really have a choice. My first lab job was a research internship at the National Institutes of Health (which I got, I was told later, because I go to MIT); I easily got a research job on campus following my NIH internship. I’m a double-major and take 5-6 classes per term (normal is 4). </p>

<p>At MIT I am a lean, mean, intellectual machine. I think, had I gone to OSU, I would have let myself get a little intellectually portly. I’m sure this isn’t the case for everyone, but it’s something to think about when deciding.</p>

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<p>That awesome molliebatmit! I wish I were going to MIT! Cornell’s pretty good too I guess. Any knowledge if it’s as easy to open doors at Cornell?</p>

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<p>with regards to financial aid and being able to afford college, my mom has always said that the only debt you should be proud to have is one paying off your education.</p>

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<p>1Down2go: Is that to see that oly Sci is a bad major.</p>

<p>I know proxility, especially when your mom is paying it off.</p>

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<p>“Higher-ranked schools (such as the Ivys) also provide numerous and invaluable resources that cannot be found at state-schools: lecture-series with prominent scholars in the relevant field, professors themselves who are considered pre-eminent, research opportunities, an enormous library, a student-body that itself facilitates intellectual discourse/exploration, journals, writing competitions, and so on.”</p>

<p>I would like to emphatically disagree. UNC consistently ranks within the top 30 of the top tier schools (though I’ll state at the outset that I despise the rankings and the unqualified arrogance they inspire in certain people), and we have all of those things that you listed in your post and more. Our numerous libraries are enormous in and of themselves, and beyond that, we also share library collections between 3 other universities in the Triangle area in order to further increase its breadth. Our campus is also inundated with lectures from “prominent scholars,” politicians, artists, and others (John Edwards actually has a visiting professorship and is the director of an innovative research project on poverty and its possible solutions). I can also assure you that we have an intellectually, politically and creatively active student body and plenty of pre-eminent professors - for instance, my Intro to Geology professor my freshman year actually helped develop the asteroid impact theory of the massive extinction 65 million years ago that brought about the end of the dinosaurs. We also have many departments and schools, such as the School of Journalism and the School of Public Health (which, I might add, outranks Harvard and JHU and every other university, for that matter) that are widely considered tops in their fields. Fantastic research opportunities for undergraduates are also widely available (my expertise in this area is limited since I’m a Romance Languages major). As far as journals, writing competitions, etc, examples that exist at UNC are too numerous to name individually.</p>

<p>This is not unique to UNC, as I’m sure that students from Cal, UCLA, UMich, UVA, and other top public universities can corroborate. True, we lose many professors to private schools simply because our resources are fewer, but overall I feel that I am getting a first class education, and so do the numerous top students that chose to come here over the top private schools you so ardently laud. Ivy League schools are wonderful and serve a definite and unique purpose in this country, and I do not begrudge you the fact that they are able to offer more and better resources than schools with smaller endowments and lesser reputations. I can honestly say that I have never been encouraged to take any class because “it will get me a better job;” on the contrary, students in the General College (first two years) are required to fulfill an extensive set of Perspective requirements that cover a broad and widely varied curriculum, and those who ascend into the College of Arts and Sciences after completing those (which is the majority of the undergraduated student body) are given a whole nother set of these Perspectives to complete that specifically exclude classes in one’s major or minor department. This I would hardly call a vocationally focused education. Anyway, this post is becoming a novella, but my main point is that, while I absolutely concur that Ivy League and highly ranked private schools certainly have more resources and a more valuable name brand than most universities in this country, I disagree that they are the only schools that are able to offer superior academic opportunities such as those you named and first class educations for the sake of becoming educated.</p>

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<p>I agree. I never restricted the scope of benefits to Ivy-League schools:

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<p>I do not have the hardihood to discount the quality of education and resources offered by these institutions, as I consider them in the above criteria I mentioned. Perhaps my comparing it to ‘state universities’ undercutted the point I was opining, and I apologize for being misleading.</p>

<p>Suffice to say, and to substantiate my argument, you will not find the adumbrated resources at the University of Alabama; moreover, the fact that I do not restrict such resources to the Ivys is further attested to by the following post:</p>

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<p>I admit to my laziness in referring only to Ivy League schools as your point of reference, but I was mainly trying to refute what I perceived to be the statement that Ivy League and highly ranked private schools offer the scope of academic opportunities that public schools cannot. Perhaps we both should have been more clear!</p>

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<p>Additionally, pre-professionalism and higher-ranked schools are not mutually exclusive. </p>

<p>I need only utter one such institution to refute the premiss: Northwestern University.</p>

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<p>Ivies and the bigger name schools actually ARE better for political networking…</p>

<p>bmoreyo, if you look at the key figures of the past few years- they are dominated by ivy league graduates…Little Bush and I belive Big Bush went to Yale (where he proudly wears his “C” average as a badge of honor, something to be proud about)…the Clintons met at Yale law. O’Conner and Rehnquist went to Stanford, and I am sure there are more. John Kerry, another Ivy grad.</p>

<p>You most definitely do not need to have gone to an Ivy League school to be smart or have a rigorous and worthwhile education. If you slack off at an Ivy League, you’ll get a worse education. College is what you make it, but one can’t help but recongize the level of business and political relationships and opportunities that are afforded to those from name schools. (Though, this could have more to do with $$$$$ than IVY status.)</p>

<p>ok, that was long…and winded. I apologize</p>

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<p>bmoreyo, no, it is not to say that Poly Sci is a bad major. There is no such thing as a bad major, just bad reasons for choosing a major. In the case of Poly Sci, there are always a handful of students that take it, not because they have a passionate interest, but because they have heard that it is “easy” and they don’t have to take a lot of advanced math or science. In general, people who take the easy way out of things tend to be less successful in the long run. And, believe it or not, it is possible to do all the work necessary to make it into a top university and then coast for the most important four years, mistakenly thinking that just having a degree from Princeton will be enough.</p>

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<p>I’ll be a freshman at Cornell next year.</p>

<p>Yes, the resources are great, but you have to pursue them, but there are also great resources at any top university/college. . . .regardless of ivy status.</p>

<p>I think success ultimately comes down to the drive of the student. . . .ivy league schools are just selective and end up with a lot of driven people, so therefore people assume from watching those driven people succeed that an ivy league school is a sure way to achieve success. . . .not true.</p>

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<p>i know ivys give great oppurtunities and have great facilities but to say stat u’s or other college dont have this is false. many stat u’s are getting so much funding and have the same facilities then these ivies. the only difference is that after you graduate i think the ivies have better connections and oppurtunities. but those 4 years in college u can do the same things at a good stat u as u would in an ivy. herd of umich, unc, uva, utexas all these schools are great stat u’s with great facilties and get lots of funding. in the end i think it matter on the person.</p>

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<p>I am at a “well known / prestigious” school simply because I find the academic environment to be better and more stimulating. And yes I find that I do have lots more work than my friends at states schools and such. I’m not complaing though - after two years here I’ve learned so much - including how to fight and work hard for what needs to be done. This in itself is something that will transfer over to the work place. Mostly, the academic culture here is wonderful. I came here because I couldn’t find that at any of the less challenging schools that I applied to.</p>

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<p>Nsepds</p>

<p>It’s a shame that along with all the prestige and advantages the elite universities offer, the one that you attend (?) has failed so far to teach you how to write. Your vocabulary is mismanaged and your rhetorical skills would not earn you a passing grade at, say, Cal State Chico–to name just one of the schools “adumbrated” in an earlier post. Laughable . . . and, I guess, expensive, too!</p>

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<p>How trite. Is that the best you can do?</p>

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<p>Do most graduate school applications ask you not only where you attended but also where you were accepted as an undergraduate student?</p>

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<p>No, they just ask where you went to school. Where you were accepted is completely irrelevant.</p>