Do you non-Ivy Leaguers feel inadequate?

[rdawson808]

I certainly have no insecurity over my state school grad education as I sit here and review a dissertation paper for a student at a highly ranked department at a private (not Ivy) school. Her dept is ranked far higher than mine is/was. Yet...

She has an error in Lemma 1 on page 8 (of like 40+). How can you make a basic error like this so quickly?

What's worse is that it's been past her advisors and others.


b

 

[Augusto86]

Originally Posted by lifersfc

Guys, the argument can be summed up with a single graphic:

http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2007...-in-the-track/

Is that site for real???

It seems like parody but after "gym in 26 minutes" you never know...

 

[RJman]

Originally Posted by CTGuy

you need to click...on...the...link....
Damn you to hell!

Originally Posted by Augusto86

Is that site for real???

It seems like parody but after "gym in 26 minutes" you never know...

Not even Raptor Jeebus can save this thread.

 

[Augusto86]

Originally Posted by RJman

Damn you to hell!



Not even Raptor Jeebus can save this thread.

Never mind, I see now that it's parody...although the people commenting on it seem to be for real.

 

[thebeatblitz]

I went to Duke. I'm in medical school. The guy that went to Rutgers? Yeah, he's in here with me.

I'm the one that feels like the asshole for spending $$$, not him. For hardworkers, it all equalizes somewhere down the line.

And I get so much **** for our basketball team too.

 

[poly800rock]

Originally Posted by thebeatblitz

I went to Duke. I'm in medical school. The guy that went to Rutgers? Yeah, he's in here with me.

I'm the one that feels like the asshole for spending $$$, not him. For hardworkers, it all equalizes somewhere down the line.

And I get so much **** for our basketball team too.

if you intend to go to professional school, where your undergrad degree came from makes little to no difference. it's when you don't is where it might come into play.

 

[TheFoo]

Originally Posted by poly800rock

if you intend to go to professional school, where your undergrad degree came from makes little to no difference. it's when you don't is where it might come into play.

To be fair, where you went to undergrand can be significantly helpful when trying to get into professional school. Also, speaking for myself, my undergrad came into play when applying for summer associate positions--but I imagine that represents only a marginal advantage, if any.

 

[poly800rock]

Originally Posted by mafoofan

To be fair, where you went to undergrand can be significantly helpful when trying to get into professional school. Also, speaking for myself, my undergrad came into play when applying for summer associate positions--but I imagine that represents only a marginal advantage, if any.

It's a bit of everything really. a 2.0 at harvard won't get you into wharton, but it could land you a job due to the connections at harvard. My schools (small liberal arts in new england) came into play at a recent grad school interview, they asked where the **** was it, and what kind of school is it, it's a big east division 1 school. I did get in though, grades being more important that actual school in my case.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by RJman

I had no idea that people's idea of the Ivy League is as distorted and as wishful as people's idea of England on the Ask Andy forum.

Oh, crap. I just sharted. God save the queen!

 

[Manton]

Originally Posted by poly800rock

It's a bit of everything really. a 2.0 at harvard won't get you into wharton, but it could land you a job due to the connections at harvard. My schools (small liberal arts in new england) came into play at a recent grad school interview, they asked where the **** was it, and what kind of school is it, it's a big east division 1 school. I did get in though, grades being more important that actual school in my case.

Nobody gets a 2.0 at Harvard. I doubt many people even leave with a 3.0. The only places that grade hard any more are Berkeley, MIT, and Cal Tech (hardest of all, legendary). I may have left out one or two.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

I certainly have no insecurity over my state school grad education as I sit here and review a dissertation paper for a student at a highly ranked department at a private (not Ivy) school. Her dept is ranked far higher than mine is/was. Yet...

She has an error in Lemma 1 on page 8 (of like 40+). How can you make a basic error like this so quickly?

What's worse is that it's been past her advisors and others.


b

You are assuming that her advisors and others read the dissertation. In my very limited experience, I'd say that the best (as in the brightest, with the most intellectual potential) students I've met were at the most highly regarded private schools, but that the most diligent students were the top quarter of the class at a state school.

 

[drake]

Originally Posted by poly800rock

It's a bit of everything really. a 2.0 at harvard won't get you into wharton, but it could land you a job due to the connections at harvard. My schools (small liberal arts in new england) came into play at a recent grad school interview, they asked where the **** was it, and what kind of school is it, it's a big east division 1 school. I did get in though, grades being more important that actual school in my case.

Most graduate schools look at the opportunities you had and what you made of them. Someone going to, say, MIT and not using the resources they had looks a lot worse than someone going to a "crap" school but using every opportunity they had.

 

[topbroker]

Originally Posted by ComboOrgan

This is certianly hyperbole, but it may not be as outrageous as you think.

In the world of physics, if one intends to be a physicist at a large research university, then one needs to get his PhD from a Top 30 school. There are exceptions, but generally the faculty at even the least prestigious research universities are made up of Ivy Leaguers and and graduates of other top physics schools.

A Physics PhD from UVA will certainly be fighting an uphill battle if he intends to work in academia.

I'm not sure how true this is for other fields, but my point is this: in many fields, his statement is not entirely laughable.

I agree; it is not a laughable statement. Certain professions (law is one) are extremely credentialist: the positions that are open to you coming out of your degree program are determined to an enormous extent by where you went to school and where you graduated in your class; and those initial work opportunities determine to a great extent your later work opportunities. You get on a track and it is very difficult indeed to leap to another track.

 

[drake]

Originally Posted by Manton

Nobody gets a 2.0 at Harvard. I doubt many people even leave with a 3.0. The only places that grade hard any more are Berkeley, MIT, and Cal Tech (hardest of all, legendary). I may have left out one or two.
MIT allows you to "hide" the grades for your first year.

 

[topbroker]

Originally Posted by bslo

It's really hard to understand exactly what you are arguing. Ivy league graduates are no better on average than the graduates of any other school in the country (or any "fine" state school or any other private school)? Bullshit! Some public school graduates are better than some ivy league graduates? Obviously this is true. Who could argue otherwise?

I went to a non-prestigious undergrad, an ivy league for law school and have taught at several law schools (and am currently doing so as a career). The very best students at the 4th tier law school where I taught were excellent, and a few of them could have done quite well at a top law school. But the average student was vastly inferior to even the bottom students at my top 3 law school. This is also the case for the 3rd and 2nd tier students that I've taught (although they were much better than the students at the 4th tier school).

Incredibly gifted people often attend non-prestigious institutions for various reasons. Prestigious institutions somtimes admit marginal students. To say, though, that these facts render prestige illegitimate is obviously false (and, frankly, unsophisticated).

Very well argued post.