Does going to a top university guarantee a successful life in most cases?

Do you think that the kids who get into Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Stanford right out High School will in most cases have a life where they make the six figure salary and own the best houses, drive the nicest cars, send their kids to the nicest schools and so forth?

No, I have seen tons of people who have degrees from Harvard and Princeton end up making 25-30kk per year. When you get to an Ivy, you need to stay competitive and compete with the top students, when you come out near the top among those students then you end up getting a shot at the top graduate programs and after that you need to stay competitive there. Then you get a chance at making the big bucks.

If it was that easy, well, we would have a lot of rich people in the US now wouldn’t we.

3 Comments

eriJuly 5th, 2010 at 10:40 am

Absolutely not. There are plenty of homeless ivy-league graduates. However, kids who get into those top schools usually worked very hard to get there, so they’re going to work very hard In college and make the most of it, so they are more likely to be successful for those reasons.
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Dreaming yet Living.July 5th, 2010 at 11:24 am

No, I have seen tons of people who have degrees from Harvard and Princeton end up making 25-30kk per year. When you get to an Ivy, you need to stay competitive and compete with the top students, when you come out near the top among those students then you end up getting a shot at the top graduate programs and after that you need to stay competitive there. Then you get a chance at making the big bucks.

If it was that easy, well, we would have a lot of rich people in the US now wouldn’t we.
References :

Maya AJuly 5th, 2010 at 12:12 pm

50% of the time it does. A good college name on your transcript will be a bonus for any application whether it is for grad school or for a job. And the highest paying jobs will look for the most competitive resume.

Not to mention that those ivy league schools usually do a good job, not necessarily educating their students, but advising them. Their students get to plan their coursework and major successfully and they have a better chance of knowing exactly what career they will be pursuing.

However, there are times when it doesn’t matter whether or not you went to an ivy school. A few of those cases are if you want to become a teacher. A teacher will be paid the same no matter where he or she teaches (sometimes private schools pay more but not significantly). Or if you are majoring in something like dance or music, it really won’t matter how prestigious your college is and instead depends on the location.

To sum it up, for certain cases yes it does guarantee success.
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