T
twf
Guest
Yep. A local priest did his undergraduate at Harvard… it comes across very clearly in his homilies that he is a great intellectual. That’s not a bad thing.
- Status
Tis_Bearself
Patron
This is a common attitude in any workplace where the people in charge of the hiring, such as the managers and the interview team and the engineering leads, etc. did not go to the high dollar schools. Engineering is a workplace where you might find such people in charge of hiring. However, if you should get a manager in charge of hiring who went to an elite school, he will most likely want to hire more people from the elite schools, because people like to hire people who they have stuff in common with, such as school background. I have seen this happen a couple of times.
B
BoomBoomMancini
Guest
Totally agree. If I wasn’t clear, when I said that school prestige is very important, I meant law school prestige, not undergraduate prestige.
I am also a lawyer.
(shame, shame, shame)
L
Loud-living-dogma
Guest
Thanks everybody for your (name removed by moderator)ut. My daughter doesn’t really know what her major is going to be, she’s leaning toward something tech / computer. We’re mainly just weighing if local-branch-of-state-school is good enough, or whether big flagship is worth it. I feel like she will have more options at flagship school, but she may end up starting local and transferring.
Lots of things to consider. I am thankful that she has these choices! Local is going to be a better price point, but of course that’s not the only thing to consider.
Thanks again!
Lots of things to consider. I am thankful that she has these choices! Local is going to be a better price point, but of course that’s not the only thing to consider.
Thanks again!
P
phil19034
Guest
I’m actually an eDiscovery Project Manager 
P
phil19034
Guest
Nothing wrong with starting local and then transferring, esp if she’s not sure what she wants to do yet.
Many community colleges today even offer curriculums that line up with many area colleges, so you can attend 1-2 years of community college (even earn an Associate’s Degree) and then transfer to finish the Bachelor’s without losing credits.
Also, as someone who once tried majoring in computer science, starting in community college might not be a bad idea so she can figure out what area/specialization she likes.
Typically, with computer degrees, the local community colleges have a lot more specializations, while at the Bachelor’s level, the universities often do not offer all the computer science specializations.
So if she can attend a community college to determine which specialization she wants, then she can pick the university for years 3 & 4 (or 2,3&4) that have that specialization.
God Bless
P
phil19034
Guest
Not really. That was true back in the early 90s when I was applying for school, not so much now.
If you can get into schools like Penn State, University of Michigan, University of VA, Norte Dame, etc then you can get into Harvard.
The quality allowed into the Ivy League schools (for undergrad) has dropped dramatically due to the rising costs of college.
As the price tag at Ivy Leagues schools scares more kids away, more trust fund kids attend, even those who would have never been accepted 20-40 years ago.
The EXCEPTION is the full rides that are given to exceptional students & minorities, which far exceeds the number of minorities which used to attend those schools 20 years ago. If you get a full ride to an Ivy League school and keep it, THEN your Ivy Leage bachelor’s degree will be very prestigious.
So you can look at it like this: if mom & dad pay for your Ivy League undergraduate degree, then it’s really no different than at any other school. But if you have a full ride to an Ivy League school, then your undergrad degree is worth a TON.
It’s basically the exact opposite of how it was back in the 1960s where scholarship kids were looked down upon.
God Bless
P
phil19034
Guest
That has less to do with where he went to college and more to do with his personal intellect, public speaking skills, work ethic, and what he studied.
Also, sometimes it also depends on where you went to high school too. Kids who attend a high school that teaches classical philosophy and have debate clubs often come across as more intellectual.
Example: Bishop Robert Barron. He attended a Catholic high school and fell for St Thomas Aquinas in 9th grade. He then went to the Seminary to become a priest, and then went to Catholic University of America for his MA in Philosophy and then to the Catholic University of Paris for his STD - focusing on Philosophy.
Point is: it’s not where you go that matters, it’s what you study, how you study, and how you prepare that counts.
God Bless
Last edited:
J
jackfitz316
Guest
As a senior in high school I honestly never thought of that. I mean sure, I want to get into the best college possible, but that’s so I can be more successful and serve God better in life.
B
BoomBoomMancini
Guest
That’s true, but there’s also something to be said for the idea that iron sharpens iron. Being in a student body that is almost exclusively made up of highly intelligent, driven people is going to have some benefit.
For example, I knew a girl in high school who was brilliant. She just was. Clearly miles ahead of everyone else in class. And I think she always felt a little out of place. Not that she was bullied or ostracized: she was friendly and got along with people. But she just had vastly different interests than the average 16 year old. When she went off to an elite undergrad, she told me it was so refreshing to not feel like the oddball anymore. She went from being the class brainiac to being surrounded by other people who super smart and passionate about school. I think she did her PhD at Oxford and she’s now a professor somewhere.
And I went to an average state university, so this isn’t me defending elite schools out of self interest.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
They’re everywhere, aren’t they.I am also a lawyer.
T
TechieGuy
Guest
I assume that one of the reasons one goes to Harvard is to make those connections
Tis_Bearself
Patron
Bingo.
However, it should be noted that once again, if you hustle, you can make reasonably decent connections from a non-elite State U (as opposed to the elite State U’s like U Mich, U VA, etc which are pretty much same as ivies). You may not be meeting the Barack Obamas of the world, but you can certainly meet people who can help you get a job.
I would also add, I spent some years on Princeton Review forums in a much earlier era, where we basically discussed and argued literally all day long about school admissions. It’s a topic of interest to me because there are literally thousands of different opinions on school prestige from thousands of different people who are all involved in hiring. I don’t think there’s any magic formula especially for undergrad. Just pick a school where you’re happy and where most of the student body isn’t either dropping out or being weeded out of the major. Then work hard while you’re there.
Last edited:
X
Xantippe
Guest
I have to put in a plug here for honors programs, which can produce a similar effect.
L
Loud-living-dogma
Guest
Yes – add in more permutations here! Honors college at the different schools – more choices and factors to consider.
X
Xantippe
Guest
We plan to send our kids to Hometown U and have them live at home unless they can earn the money to live outside (and they don’t seem interested in that).
Hometown U is literally in our town and it’s a decent school–but we kind of have to send the older kids there no matter what, because we can’t afford to pay for both out-of-town college expenses and K-12 private school for the younger kids.
I didn’t realize when we were choosing the kids’ K-12 that this is how it would shake out (I thought we’d have enough for state college), but here’s where we are today.
Hometown U is literally in our town and it’s a decent school–but we kind of have to send the older kids there no matter what, because we can’t afford to pay for both out-of-town college expenses and K-12 private school for the younger kids.
I didn’t realize when we were choosing the kids’ K-12 that this is how it would shake out (I thought we’d have enough for state college), but here’s where we are today.
L
Loud-living-dogma
Guest
This sounds like a plan. The younger two kids are going to get a lot less fussing over college choices, I think! 
I can over-analyze with my oldest, then hopefully have more of a handle for the younger ones.
I can over-analyze with my oldest, then hopefully have more of a handle for the younger ones.
X
Xantippe
Guest
I had a lot more choices and I went to private out-of-state (combination of small academic and large need aid and then full pay final year), so I feel a little bad about not being able to offer more choices, but hopefully if any of them do graduate school, they’ll be able to spread their wings a bit more if that’s what they want.
Another thing–going to college in a particular location could put you on track for working in that area. For example, if you go to college in WA DC, it could make it easier to go to work in DC, whereas if you want to live and work in your home state, it makes more sense to go to college in-state. Aside from work, there is romance, and meeting Suzie Out-of-State would tend to exert a certain gravitational pull toward the new area or wherever Suzie is from.
Edited to add: I went to college out-of-state, and I haven’t spent more than a summer in my home state since I left for college my freshman year.
Another thing–going to college in a particular location could put you on track for working in that area. For example, if you go to college in WA DC, it could make it easier to go to work in DC, whereas if you want to live and work in your home state, it makes more sense to go to college in-state. Aside from work, there is romance, and meeting Suzie Out-of-State would tend to exert a certain gravitational pull toward the new area or wherever Suzie is from.
Edited to add: I went to college out-of-state, and I haven’t spent more than a summer in my home state since I left for college my freshman year.
Last edited:
X
Xantippe
Guest
I’m a little squeamish over the fact that we will probably be able to offer the youngest more choices, but c’est la vie!This sounds like a plan. The younger two kids are going to get a lot less fussing over college choices, I think!
P
phil19034
Guest
I think this is true to a degree, but I think it depends more on where you go to high school.phil19034:
That’s true, but there’s also something to be said for the idea that iron sharpens iron. Being in a student body that is almost exclusively made up of highly intelligent, driven people is going to have some benefit.
For example, I knew a girl in high school who was brilliant. She just was. Clearly miles ahead of everyone else in class. And I think she always felt a little out of place. Not that she was bullied or ostracized: she was friendly and got along with people. But she just had vastly different interests than the average 16 year old. When she went off to an elite undergrad, she told me it was so refreshing to not feel like the oddball anymore. She went from being the class brainiac to being surrounded by other people who super smart and passionate about school. I think she did her PhD at Oxford and she’s now a professor somewhere.
And I went to an average state university, so this isn’t me defending elite schools out of self interest.
I went to a high school where less than half the kids went directly to college from my class. A lot joined the military and others when into agriculture (we had a big ag program at our high school) and trades.
So for me, any college would have been “iron sharpening iron.”
Then, I think it’s the demographics of the college too. If you go to a party or big school, that can be hard if you are someone who cannot focus on academics with lots of distractions.
I feel that “iron sharpening iron” is more about picking the school that is the right fit for the individual and less about the school itself. Afterall, while some might thrive at large Ivy’s like Harvard, UPenn or Columbia, others might thrive at smaller college like Bryn Mawr College or Mount St Mary’s University.
And, just because a kid thrives at an Ivy like Brown doesn’t automatically mean that he/she would thrive at Harvard, Penn, Columbia or Yale.
All colleges are different, even inside the Ivy League
God Bless
Last edited:
- Status