<p>I hope this isn’t a duplicate, if so it bears repeating. The number of people on here that think the world is going to end because of an ivy rejection is astounding. If you are a stellar student, many APs, 2300+ SAT, etc, chances are you will be successful wherever you attend. As an anecdote, my very good friend graduated from Cornell engineering and did that for many years, at a MAJOR electronics company. Well guess where many of the new hires came from? ITT. </p>
<p>Please look at the articles below…"Here, however, is what was explosive: Dale and Krueger concluded that students, who were accepted into elite schools, but went to less selective institutions, earned salaries just as high as Ivy League grads. For instance, if a teenager gained entry to Harvard, but ended up attending Penn State, his or her salary prospects would be the same.</p>
<p>In the pair’s newest study, the findings are even more amazing. Applicants, who shared similar high SAT scores with Ivy League applicants could have been rejected from the elite schools that they applied to and yet they still enjoyed similar average salaries as the graduates from elite schools. In the study, the better predictor of earnings was the average SAT scores of the most selective school a teenager applied to and not the typical scores of the institution the student attended."</p>
<p>If the stellar student didn’t go to college at all, but became a plumber, likely their earnings would be just as high. They would move to the top of the heap of little plumber businesses. </p>
<p>Going to the best possible university should be about the hope of the best possible education.</p>
<p>Although I am skeptical about the equality of plumbing talent. My kid would make an appallingly bad plumber. Some people are not meant to work with their hands. Now maybe the prospective surgeon would make a great plumber…</p>
<p>I for one could give a flying you know what about salaries as a supposed measure of the value of an education.</p>
<p>And yes, partyof 5, these studies have been cited here dozens of times.</p>
<p>Oh, I agree fully. I know some who are making top $s as plumbers or in other trades, hardly matters which one. Their attention focused on their business, their dedication, their work ethic abilities work very well. My car mechanic (now retired) who owned a gas station was a very smart guy. He could hold his own and better in any group of highly educated folks. Did very well, the best mechanic I ever met–kids all went to Amherst and ivies, and he kept our junkers running very well for years on a dime. His only fault in his work was that it was so good that he compromised come backs for other issues. His business savvy, his decision making skills, his smarts over all made him a giant in his field by far. </p>
<p>The reason many of us, myself included, have such an interest in these top schools, is that they do have things all together that are harder to find in other schools. They are not always the best schools for any given person. Also Ivy Dartmouth and Ivy UPenn are VERY different. HPY are in a category of their own. So though we do clump those school by their athletic league, there are schools in the bunch that may not make sense for some students whereas others would. </p>
<p>@sorghum, and others, the point of my post was not to downplay trying to get into a good university, the point was the angst, and the “my life is over, because I didnt get into an Ivy”, is unwarranted. Ive read several threads about how deserving a student was, and how unfair it is, when the student actually got into U Chicago, Duke, or Wash U, or a host of other tip top schools. No one can tell me that a student going to HYP is going to be anymore successful than someone coming out of U Chicago, or the other aforementioned schools. So yes, the school matters, but if your had the stats to get into an Ivy, you will be successful at a different school if you desire.</p>
<p>“Applicants, who shared similar high SAT scores with Ivy League applicants could have been rejected from the elite schools that they applied to and yet they still enjoyed similar average salaries as the graduates from elite schools”</p>
<p>For those students who go on to medical school this is usually the case.</p>
<p>If you’re a parent, and what you care most about is how much money your kid will make, you should also be aware that at the Ivies, your kid is probably more likely to switch majors from pre-med to classics, or to decide to go to grad school and become an academic, or go into government or non-profit work, as compared to some other universities. Education at one of these institutions can change your definition of what “success” is.</p>
<p>More evidence to confirm my suspicion that wage inequality between graduates of different schools is less due to the quality of education and more due to the types of students who are interested in a given program and get admitted to it.</p>
<p>There is actually a reasonably large literature on this topic and while Dale and Krueger are among the more prominent scholars on this topic there results should probably not be taken as definitive. Other scholars such as Hoxby have found larger effects. I haven’t read this paper but in general these kind of empirical papers require some functional form assumptions and shouldn’t be accepted as definitive. </p>
<p>“As is the case at most of its peer institutions, Harvard does not offer a pre-med concentration, secondary, or citation. Rather, the school suggests that students take a particular set of classes before taking the MCAT or applying to medical school.”- The Harvard Crimson</p>
<p>“If you’re a parent, and what you care most about is how much money your kid will make”- you should encourage them to go into investment banking rather than going to medical school.</p>
<p>A Harvard student can study “classicis” and still meet the course requirements for medical school.</p>
<p>You can “decide to go to grad school and become an academic” before or after medical school.</p>
<p>After medical school you can “go into government or non-profit work”.</p>
<p>" Education" at any university " can change your definition of what “success” is" .</p>
<p>No, their results probably should not be taken as definitive.</p>
<p>On the other hand, they probably should raise significant doubts about the wisdom of paying a large price premium to attend a more selective college, if your primary motivation is the supposed financial return on investment. Personally, I think the Ivies and other selective schools tend to offer many other advantages that would justify some price premium. Furthermore, for many students attending these colleges, there is no price premium at all (because after aid, they are often cheaper than the alternatives.)</p>
<p>the ivy league …is for the insecure who need some sort of validation, as opposed to a great education. many people fall into that trap and waste so much time and angst/anxiety worrying about getting in to say harvard and for those who do the outcome is that they are probably not at the best school for them but are with a lot of other hyper competitive people who are insecure(IMO)</p>
<p>Whoa. Talk about broad brush. I am sure there are insecure people at all colleges. But to say the Ivy League is for…for…insecure people says a lot more about you than it does about the Ivy League.</p>
<p>As always, this says it best. It summarizes the data on the effects of college and suggests the data indicate college has little effect on much of why many may attend.</p>
My kid would make an appallingly bad plumber. Some people are not meant to work with their hands. Now maybe the prospective surgeon would make a great plumber…</p>