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<p>Are you seriously trying to sell us on the idea that saying you went to Harvard or Columbia is somehow a liability in the same circles where saying you went to Swarthmore would be advantageous? That’s just plain ridiculous. The reputation of the Ivies is still miles ahead of even the most elite liberal arts colleges, and the brand name recognition they get are certainly far more beneficial than they are a hinderance. Harvard graduates even have a term for name-dropping their school: “Dropping the H-Bomb.” The reason is because it is almost like cheating in that it is so effective at getting people to instantly give you more esteem than they would someone else, all because of the reputation Harvard has throughout the world.</p>
<p>All that said, and to answer dchow’s concerns, the truth is that out in the real world, people don’t care so much where you went to school as much as they care about who you know and what you can do (for them or their company). A school is supposed to be an indicator of the latter and, in the case of schools with strong and vast alumni networks (Harvard, for example), it can help you with the former. But, ultimately, it’s about being relentless and working hard to achieve what it is you want. Nobody cares about your GPA or whether you were honors or not or whether you went to Swarthmore or the University of Minnesota when you’re out in the world, trying to make a go of it. If you can be relentless, driven, outwork the competition, and constantly maintain a high level of competence in your endeavors, you will be successful. It’s as simple as that and the adage that “school is what you make of it” only serves to illustrate the first step down that path.</p>
<p>Statistics like Swarthmore’s future Ph.D. production or Harvard’s future MBA production are misleading, because they are merely characterizing the matriculants, not saying anything special about the school itself (save that is has in its ranks such matriculants). Just because you go to Reed or Swarthmore, it doesn’t mean you’re screwed unless you want to go into academia via a Ph.D. It just means that a higher percentage of your fellow graduates will end up with Ph.D.s, because that’s the type of people who go to those schools, and that you will have a bigger network of alumni in those areas, proportionally speaking. It doesn’t mean, though, that you’re going to get turned down from medical school or have a harder time getting a job, except in that it does factor into the “who you know” component of getting on a career path. Ultimately, though, your career is entirely on you, and your selection of which school to attend will have little bearing on your success in your chosen career path. It’s more about what you want to get out of your college experience than how it’s going to be a springboard into professional life.</p>