The College Rejection Bonanza: Ivy League Schools are Over-rated Compared to Less Selective Colleges

THE AMERICAN THINKER ^ | 04/07/2006 | Richard Baehr

[p. henry]

Which schools did your children attend? My eldest daughter will be entering a Catholic university this fall,

[tbird5]

"The wealthy kids often lack motivation to earn money."

Not according to the BELL CURVE book by Murray.

[Jim Noble]

You were not exactly slumming. Colgate is a very good school.

Colgate was, and is, a good school.

Whan I went there, though, it was still a pretty decent party school, and was striving to become what it is now academically.

The upper 1/3 of the class was, in general, made up of Ivy rejects.

[tbird5]

My 2 daughters went to St Marys in Notre Dame, Ind, and my 2 sons went to Notre Dame, and my 3rd son went to Loyola New Orleans with a 10000 scholarship for every year. My daughters LOVED St Marys, both RNs. All girl colleges are great expecially if located near a large college. The Notre Dame guys date them and my daughter just married a Notre Dame graduate and my other is dating one. St Marys was a great choice for my daughters. They get well educated, become independent, are well protected, become assertive, don't hate men when they come out, and the guys across the street at Notre Dame just love these girls. Great way for a catholic girl to meet a catholic guy. Sounds old fashion but I am,plus I wanted to give our money to catholic institutions as part of tithing. Our money does support the nuns and priests that live at all 3 of these schools and it helps to maintaine the churches there.

[Dont Mention the War]

But the big advantage with Harvard and the Ivy league schools is the alumni organizations and the networking. The networking aspect is what you pay all those hundreds of thousands for these schools. Once your in the club, more doors do open for you when it comes to jobs.

Boy, are you dead on correct. When I worked in Manhattan, I lost track of the number of substandard people I met that had entire careers handed to them on silver platters for no other reason than that they were Harvard undergrads. And the vast majority of them simply were not that good at what they did.

[napscoordinator]

To all who think that Ivy Leagues are the be all end all. I would humbly disagree. I went to state school (FSU), my brother went to state school (Penn State) and my sister went to Catholic University (Seton Hill). I have had many friends that went Ivy and owed sooooo much money that they are still paying off the debts after 15 plus years and still complaining. I hope parents will talk to the kids about state schools or small colleges and see if maybe that is a better option for them. I understand how the "prestige" is especially to a senior, but life will go on whether a student goes to Ivy or not.

[HitmanLV]

I think the whole thing is a scam.

I think so too.

[p. henry]

My daughter is headed to Santa Clara U. I hope she enjoys as much as your daughters enjoyed St. Mary's.

[CFC__VRWC]

In any event, too many colleges are not worth the price. Parents are paying from $100,000 to $160,000 for an undergrad degree that qualifies junior or sis for practically nothing, except radical politics. This is truly dumb.

I've heard that the only thing difficult about the Ivy League schools these days is getting into them. Once you're in, you can pretty much goof off and party all the time and show up for class every once in a while, and still get all A's and B's.

[Sabramerican]

My nephew was recently accepted to the Fisher program at Wharton.

Word is there is no comparison anywhere.

[Andy'smom]

"I've heard that the only thing difficult about the Ivy League schools these days is getting into them. Once you're in, you can pretty much goof off and party all the time and show up for class every once in a while, and still get all A's and B's."

Probably true of Brown, but all the ivies are different.

[ugstudent]

Is there any links/citations associated with this statement? I have heard this cited several times and would like to read this steadily accumulating research myself!

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Despite more and more evidence that graduates of the most selective schools do not earn much more over their lifetimes than their counterparts at other very good but less selective colleges
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[ugstudent]

I answered my own question by searching a bit more.

For those who are interested, here is one good article I found which addresses the relative merits of elite private colleges:

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/elearning/?article=elitecollege
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Although I understand the bitterness towards "elite" colleges, it is difficult to deny that wages are higher for those who go to the most prestigious colleges... the only question is whether those higher wages are the result of the education, or the individual privelege and potential of the student.

Either way, I found it interesting that although it cannot be reasonably determined whether it is worthwhile to spend the money on an ivy league education, the only conclusive result is that going to a mediocre private college was a demonstrable waste of cash!

[twilightrach]

I actually will be a sophomore at Princeton next year and would like to respond to this and, really, all of these comments. I'm studying engineering and I had a really hard first year. I worked my ass off the whole year and ended up with a few C's, a lot of B's and no A's. I worked hard to get in and I'm working hard to stay in. I feel as if I get a really good education. And with all of the things I have learned from my professors and all of the intelligent people around me, I admit that networking also makes the experience worth it (I'm interning at NASA as we speak and guess where my boss went to school). Of course people are successful that go to less prestigious schools. Hell, people that don't even go to college are successful. I'm confident that I will be able to pay off this massive debt that comes with my education and that I will never feel as if my education was a waste. After all, I've already learned so much.
It comes accross as ignorant to talk about people wasting their money going to Ivy League schools and claiming that they "goof off". We work hard and deserve just as much respect as anyone else.

[twotix]

I am hampered by not having Ivy League credentials. Employers and professional schools kiss the butts of the never had a job Ivy graduates whose summers consisted of European travel or riding around with friends in their Jeeps.
I had to WORK while at a STATE university. I had to attend an INFERIOR state dental school, also while WORKING. My father would NOT fill out an FAF because it cost $15. TRUST FUNDS ARE GOD to the admissions officers.

[blahblah1]

I have to disagree with a majority of the points made in this article. Firstly, the fact that you suggest that “only 10%” of major business leaders in America are Ivy League graduates is impressive simply because 10% is high in relation to the percentage of college graduates who come from an Ivy League university.

Secondly, schools don’t “game to accept a lower percentage of applicants”; schools (from Ivy to state school to community college) all have set limits on how many students they may accept per year in order for their school. It is ridiculous that you suggest one school might tweak numbers so that they don’t take as many kids from one year to another, simply because they want better “stats”. Schools might accept fewer students (especially now, during a time rampant with budget cuts), but that has no correlation with trying to be “prestigious”.

Thirdly, when you talk about parents who drop 30 grand on their kids for a college counselor, you’re talking about a very small exception to the average American college applicant. What high school, private or public, do you know where the majority of students have a 30,000-dollar college tutor? None that I know of, for sure. And furthermore, you have just generalized every Ivy kid as being a rich, pompous, self-conceited brat who takes advantage of such resources. I am a student at Yale University (before you get caught up in the bias, remember that you yourself went to the humble college of MIT) and the majority of kids I have met do not have enough money to afford such extravagant counseling for applications, nor are they spoiled brats.

For years, I was set on attending my favorite state school in Colorado (go Buffs), and I still love CU Boulder to death. In fact, some of my best friends in the world go there; I am a firm believer that the education is practically equal at every school regardless of prestige. The DIFFERENCE is in the PEOPLE you meet. And I found that the diversity of faces, although still similar had more draw for me PERSONALLY. Does that mean I look down on them? NO. You assume so much, and yet make generalizations about everyone in the Ivy League based on the most extreme exceptions to the average.

Finally, we come to your last comment about affirmative action. I have met COUNTLESS kids who are African-American, Hispanic, or Native who, simply because of people like you saying that they “only got in because they fit under those three groups”, feel that they have been judged for their race and not their grades. Why do they feel that way? Again, because people such as yourself pointed it out and harped on it. Schools do not pull the quota card like it’s 20 years ago; get with the present.

In conclusion, I did not mean any disrespect in this post, but I thought I should clear things up because I very strongly disagree with so many of your points. Having had the most difficult time of my life in deciding between Yale and CU Boulder, I feel that it is my right to defend both state and Ivy schools.

Stop making generalizations, please, and then reassess just how “over-rated” your alma mater and every other so-called prestigious institution is.

(P.S. Thank you for your time.)

In conclusion,