The Name Game?

Colleges & Universities Cornell University
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<p>Most of you are probably well aware of this list, but recently I have become more and more fascinated with the Ivy Leagues and their “celebrity students.” I’m merely starting this thread as a distraction from the oncoming letters at the end of March, and also because I find it interesting. So what is it with stars and their Ivy diplomas? I’m not say ALL, but a lot of them acquire their diploma AFTER they have already hit stardom. It’s not a bad thing, by all means, if it’s anything it definitely is a motivation. However, I can’t help but ponder the thought that these “stars” don’t really NEED the diploma since they have a well paying job already. So why can’t they leave the Ivy covered halls alone, and give their seats to the rest of us who need the diploma for a “normal” job, or a less paparazzi filled job? And if they REALLY wanted a diploma, why can’t they just go to a more normal university, like a state sponsored one? Obviously the prestige is alluring, or the fact that it makes the Ivy league look better, the schools immediately accept them?! I don’t get it, but I find it at this point repulsive…so here’s the list feel free to add :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Princeton = Brooke Shields, David Duchovny</p>

<p>Columbia = Matthew Fox, Maggie Gyllenhal, Jake Gyllenhal, Alicia Keyes, James Franco, Amanda Peet, Julia Stiles, Vanessa Carlton, Anna Paquin, Casey Affleck</p>

<p>Penn = John Legend, Elizabeth Banks, Candice Bergen, Ivanka Trump, Tory Burch, Becki Newton</p>

<p>Yale = Jennifer Connelly, Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Henry Winkler, Edward Norton, Sigourney Weaver, Angela Basset, Jodie Foster, </p>

<p>Harvard = Mira Sorvino, Natalie Portman, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Conan O’Brien,</p>

<p>Brown = Laura Linny, Leelee Sobieski,</p>

<p>Cornell = Bill Maher </p>

<p>So some these people I’ve never even heard of, but apparently they are famous and made their famous schools even MORE famous. Some of them deserve the diploma, they really do…those of them who went to school FIRST and then became known I can truely applaud. However, the rest whom used their star power and <em>cough</em> money to get in well…that’s really not fair!?! I may as well have higher SAT’s and better grades, but can’t be accepted just cause my EC’s wasn’t making an on location film?! Where is the justice in that? Anyways my random ramblings never get me far, but if I missed any please add them on here.</p>

<p>P.S. Columbia and Yale sure as heck have a long haul, but Cornell why is Bill Maher the only one I could find?! I KNOW I’m missing something here, right?</p>

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<p>ummm…hello, Bill Nye the Science Guy??? </p>

<p>And for a thorough list (not just actors/musicians): [List</a> of Cornell University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cornell_University_people]List”>List of Cornell University alumni - Wikipedia)</p>

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<p>AHHH!!! I can’t believe I forgot Bill Nye, my apologies. </p>

<p>But thanks for the site dewdrops.</p>

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<p>" * Robert C. Baker (B.S. 1943; Professor) - Inventor of the chicken nugget"</p>

<p>NO FREAKING WAY!?!?!!!</p>

<p>LMAO!</p>

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<p>oooooh, john legend went to upenn?! makes me love him even more <3</p>

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<p>didn’t emma watson just get into yale this year? apparantly she’s a good student, though</p>

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<p>Yes, I heard about that one; especially when she took a tour of all the ivy schools sending America in to a blogging rampage. haha. but apparently she’s attending Cambridge University in the U.K.</p>

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<p>um, their numbers are so small that they’re not really “taking seats away” from anyone except, like, the 3-5 <em>extremely</em> borderline candidates. and honestly, if you’re that borderline…</p>

<p>besides, just because they’re already well-off, they shouldn’t be allowed to attend the best schools possible? 1st problem with that is you’d have to also ban kids with rich parents/large inheritances - they also don’t “need” a very good education because they already have the money. 2nd of all, celebrity fades rather quickly in some cases - these guys may well want a job after their brief moment in the spotlight, and who are you to say they shouldn’t get the best education possible to prepare for that scenario?</p>

<p>i say congrats to anybody who got into the ivy league, celebrities and us plebs alike!</p>

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<p>I agree, but honestly there’s no need to come in here attacking. I felt like you were ready to swing the bat at me or something. I never said I had the right to decide weather or not they should get an ivy education. Sheesh. In my mind, I just think its a bit unfair, even if it is a limited number. From this side of the grass it looks like they got it all. Anyways my ramblings sparked up from a recent picture of James Franco I saw, while he was sleeping in class at Columbia. Which made me feel frustrated, because hell I would kill to be in that seat…while he slumbers away. I’m entitled to my opinion and you to yours. </p>

<p>btw congrats on your acceptance I read it in another post, still waiting my rejection…sigh</p>

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<p>Sorry, I think the tone of my post came out wrong. Didn’t mean you, the o.p., just meant you, generically, the reader. But I stand by the points I made - colleges should accept based on merit, not “need” for a diploma.</p>

<p>Here’s a bit of a viewpoint from/about the other side: I go to a school that can get pretty cutthroat, and after the early decisions came out in December (I got deferred at Penn), the atmosphere was pretty nasty. It was all “oh, she got in because her dad’s a big donor, he got in because his grandfather’s on the board of trustees,” etc. Some of the people who got in because of blah blah blah were my friends, and I <em>know</em> they actually worked their asses off for that acceptance. I certainly don’t think they should give their seat up to me, even if I do need the impressive diploma more.</p>

<p>On a more light-hearted note, you could just say that these celebrities have <em>amazing</em> ECs, yeah? So accepting an Oscar winner isn’t that much different than accepting some sort of piano prodigy lol. Plus, some of these people really do have hidden sides. Natalie Portman’s a member of Mensa, and Emma Watson got straight A’s on her A-levels, which she studied for <em>after</em> lord-knows-how-many-hours of filming each day. Pretty impressive.</p>

<p>Sorry again for coming off so rude. I guess I’m pretty defensive about it, but at least for the “privileged” folks I know, it pretty much sucks. You get in <em>because of</em> blah blah blah, and you don’t get in <em>even though</em> blah blah blah. In some respects, I honestly think the grass is greener on OUR side.</p>

<p>Thanks for the congrats; best of luck to you!</p>

<p>ps - Aw, c’mon, give poor James a break. After too many all-nighters in a week, even the coffee stops working and the best of us fall asleep in class! Acting takes a *****load of time outta your day, and he’s doing Columbia-level work on top of that! :)</p>

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<p>Some of these people got their Ivy league diplomas way before they reached stardom though. Edward Norton and Conan O’brien for example. Alicia Keys never went to Columbia, though she got in.</p>

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<p>Yup, I agree Norton and O’brien are a few that got an edumacation BEFORE fame. However alot of them also went back to school AFTER the fame set in. I just became obsessed with all the famous ivy league attendees for a week thuse the birth of this thread! I believe the saying for Alicia Keyes is that she traded in Columbia University for Columbia Records…?!</p>

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<p>Haha my dad was a few years above Conan O’Brien’s class, but they were on the Harvard Lampoon together. Conan asked Dad what he should do with his life. Dad told him to be safe he should go to law school. Everytime Conan had a big break from there on out, he would call up my dad and we could all hear him screaming jubilantly into the phone, “HAHAHAHA! TED, I AM SOOOO GLAD I DIDN’T LISTEN TO YOU.”</p>

<p>Matt Damon also went to Harvard. He lived in Lowell House as an upperclassman. Also, all of the creators of the Simpsons: Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Sam Simon, etc. </p>

<p>Homer Simpson is partly inspired by my dad’s wildness. Lol. I’m not sure…if I should be proud of that…or ashamed…hahah.</p>

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<p>Wow! Hey amplifiar, what DOES your dad do now, if you don’t mind my asking. But that’s pretty cool that conan even calls up your house haha even with the “I’m so glad I didn’t listen to you!” Seems like your dad was a mentor for alot of successful people, now if you want to get into show biz you always have the connections. haha :wink: </p>

<p>I didn’t know about the Simpson’s clan though, that is interesting.</p>

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<p>Hahaha…he went to law school.</p>

<p>I don’t know if he was so much a mentor…as much as he was a general bad influence…but I think it would be fair to say he was an inspiration.
(Usually at his own expense haha)</p>

<p>Simpsons people were all on the Harvard Lampoon, the “humor” magazine with the rivalry against the Harvard Crimson. </p>

<p>We got Mike Reiss (Simpsons writer/producer) to come give a graduation speech at a local, conservative, all-girls private school in Charleston…Barbara Bush went there…and needless to say it was hysterical for those of us who didn’t mind the Simpsons humor…and disastrous for all those old biddies. Also, here is a comedy sketch he did at the 25th reunion of my dad’s Harvard class in 2006:
[YouTube</a> - Simpsons Writer Mike Reiss at Harvard](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL0E1xO-TlI]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL0E1xO-TlI)
It’s hilarious, especially if you know a bit about Harvard.</p>

<p>Also on the Harvard Lampoon were Jon Brancato and Mike Ferris who wrote The Game, The Net, Catwoman (Patience Phillips, the Catwoman of the 2004 movie is named for dad, I think – Ted Phillips), and helped write some of the first Spiderman scripts, I think.</p>

<p>Not related to the Lampoon, as I don’t think he was on the Lampoon, David Frankel was also in my dad’s class. His nephew goes to Harvard now, he’s a sophomore, and an acquaintance of mine. David Frankel directed/produced Marley & Me, Devil Wears Prada, Entourage (the show), a few Sex & the City episodes, and a few episodes of Rome.</p>

<p>Dad did some work in the solicitor’s office…eventually became a public defender…and then finally ended up writing history books. He may have drafted some novels, too. Or maybe he wanted to…I don’t know haha.</p>

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<p>Well amplifiar your dad was one heck of an inspiration then! He’s like the Harvard muse. haha. That Mike Reiss is soooo hilarious!! omg haha the cornell statment at the end made me bust out laughing. That’s extremely cool that you guys got him to come down and speak, nothing like that ever goes on at our school. Heck we would be lucky if the school district’s super intendent came down to talk to us… so did you meet all these people growing up or do you just know them mostly by name? I’m just curious I guess. I had no idea so many people from Harvard even ended up in the Hollywood hills. </p>

<p>Did you also apply to cornell and harvard, or did ya just stroll on to this thread? With your legacy I’m assuming your a shoe in for Harvard?! I’m so nervous about the upcoming Tuesday. YIKES! :(</p>

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<p>Hahaha - inspiration yes, but humorously at his expense (he still loved it!)
Don’t know if I would’ve called Dad the Harvard muse…maybe more like the Harvard goof-off! But comedy-writers love people like that.</p>

<p>LOTS of Harvard people ended up in Hollywood…and then some were famous before they went to Harvard. </p>

<p>Mike Reiss is awesome! The video of him at Ashley Hall is also on YouTube, but I did a poor job with the camera. It’s still hilarious, especially if you’re from Charleston. </p>

<p>Funny joke: Hilary Duff “went to Harvard.” Haha…well…she was in their online program.</p>

<p>I actually didn’t get into Harvard haha…I ended up at my second choice, Davidson, which is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. </p>

<p>I write for the Davidson board, but I was just curious as to what was going on in the Harvard board and this came up on a search because Harvard was written all over it.</p>

<p>Legacy status is supposedly just a balance-tipper, even though Harvard is infamous for using it as a determining factor. Of course, my father was infamous in his day, so I’m sure if Harvard read his file, it only would have hurt me! </p>

<p>Again, I’m really happy where I ended up. It’s been a really great year here and I can’t imagine being up north where it’s still so cold right now. </p>

<p>Just goes to show…if you don’t end up at your first choice, you can still be really happy.</p>

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<p>Haha, omg I totally forgot that Duff has a “Harvard degree.” Your dad still seems like a pretty cool guy though. I knew about the people that ended up at Harvard once they got the fame but I really hadn’t realized all of them that migrated to Hollywood after Harvard. lol It’s good to know I guess. I actually didn’t even know about Mike Reiss till you brought it up. I’m not a big Simpson’s buff actually, so…I had no clue about all the Simpson’s people. </p>

<p>Well Harvard or not, you seemed to have made the best choice at your second choice and for that you can definitely become my inspiration! :slight_smile: I’m pretty much waiting to be rejected from Harvard on the 31st…but I have come to accept that. Haha. You definitely have proved that our second choice, is just as good. Hopefully we can all keep that in mind in the coming days.</p>

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<p>Haha - so I hope that, accepted or not now, you guys all end up at your best match school :-)</p>

<p>For those of you that didn’t get in…here’s a hint: second choice is often a better match!</p>

<p>You know that silly little kid’s rhyme? First is the worst…second is the best? :)</p>

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<p>third is the one with the hairy chest</p>