Article: Ivy league entrance, benefits of schools etc.

[Hakkola]

An article I found really interesting.

http://www.gladwell.com/2005/2005_10_10_a_admissions.html

[t-im]

Interesting article - really highlights how seriously some take which school they've attended. From what I've encountered, the school totally does end up defining them.

All I can say is all my Ivy educated friends are fairly similar. Type A, kinda pompous, fairly entitled and expect everything (career wise) to be handed to them.

Legacy admissions is interesting as generations have attended, and future generations are expected to attend that one school. An acquaintance of mine was dinged from his 'legacy' school (even though he should have been a shoo-in), and is still extremely bitter..and it's been 10 years.

Of course, admissions can be bought at Harvard, pretty blatantly actually - case in point Jared Kushner (Ivanka Trump's husband):

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/09/04/harvards_admissions_of_gilt/

OR better yet, just lie your way into Harvard (and then Stanford):

http://gawker.com/5541134/how-a-lie-on-a-harvard-application-ended-in-larceny-fraud-charges

http://gawker.com/5541765/the-talented-mr-wheeler-meet-the-kid-who-faked-his-way-into-harvard

[Ebon]

Good article. I agree to a certain point that what school you go to doesn't have a huge impact on future success. However, going to a top school (whether it be Harvard, LSE, Oxford, etc.) can certainly grease the wheels for certain jobs/networking, especially with their graduate degree.

Wheeler would probably would had never been caught if he wasn't a compulsive liar and tried to apply to the most high profile scholarships in the world. Rhodes and Fulbright have very rigorous background checks, where universities just do it on a random basis.

[Godfuader]

The whole point of attending Ivy league is for networking. My wife will start her second year at Columbia Graduate school in September, and it has all been about who you meet during your time at school. The first week into her classes, they are set up with 500 personal business cards with the Columbia University logo prominently displayed. They are expected to have none left over mid-way through the second year. She is interning at the United Nations right now, and her school played a factor in the organization's decision. School name dropping has allowed her to network at events with attendees such as Colin Powell, Kofi Annan, Vikram Pundit, Michael Bloomberg, and other global CEOs.

Surprisingly at the graduate level, you don't always chase after Harvard. Harvard has just gained a reputation that makes it stand out. For her program, she voluntarily removed her Harvard application once Columbia admitted her. (This was after she interviewed with Harvard) There are many of her classmates that were undergrads or graduates from Harvard, who came to Columbia strictly for the academic/networking excellence. That being said, I have three relatives who are graduates of Harvard Business School, and they are at premier positions with their companies.

Moral of the story: Get into Ivy leagues...and milk it for all its worth.

[t-im]

Originally posted by Godfuader
Surprisingly at the graduate level, you don't always chase after Harvard. Harvard has just gained a reputation that makes it stand out.

I know people who absolutely refuse to consider Harvard for anything. They won't even apply there as an option.

I actually think MIT is a good b-school to consider (though I could be drinking the MIT kool-aid. Their alumni are an extremely awkward but prideful bunch). Not Ivy but highly regarded, and often forgotten.