In terms of social status or just general reactions from the American public

29 comments

  1. I’m sure this depends on the social circles you run in but at least in my experience it’s a pretty big deal. My family are mostly all Doctors, specialists, lawyers, etc, but they all seem most impressed with my cousin who went to MIT for grad school and is an engineer.

  2. I usually associate it with snobby old money more than anything. At least for Ivies. But it’s a big deal, for sure. For reference, eight of the nine sitting Supreme Court Justices went to Law School at either Yale or Harvard.

  4. Quite a big deal. A good friend of mine’s step brother went for grad school after getting his undergrad at Kansas State. As for social status it will depend on what circles. Where I’m at it’s a big deal but it’s more that you’re smart and worked your butt off. It can mean more class and wealth but not always. My Father in Law has a friend who is a Canon Lawyer (basically a lawyer who studies laws of the Catholic Church and settles church issues) for aCatholic diocese and he has his undergrad and law degree from Yale as well as his Canon law degree from somewhere else ( I think in North America you go to a school Montreal but I’m not sure) and his wife is a Yalie too but they live a lower middle class lifestyle but they work for the church. It will depend on your job and that. A teacher with a degree from Yale is still a teacher and doesn’t make much compared to other jobs.

  5. It depends on your social circle. I don’t find it that interesting on a personal level. I can understand the work ethic it takes to achieve that kind of goal though.

  6. Most people would be impressed if they heard someone went to one of those schools.

  8. It depends. I’ve found in my career that most people are impressed by what you’ve accomplished. For some, graduating from an Ivy League school is a hell of an accomplishment. For others, it was a formality.

    But once you are well into your career it’s meaningless as far as pure prestige is concerned. By that point is what have you done with that education…not where did you get your education.

  11. It’s a big deal among family and high school peers when you get admitted. And it’s a big deal among family when you graduate.

    It’s also a big deal for attending Yale or Harvard Law School, because their graduates get a lot of clerkships and interviews with major law firms. I don’t know whether it’s a big deal for their med schools, though three major hospitals in Boston are affiliated with Harvard Med School (which means I’ll occasionally see a specialist who’s on their faculty, but doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all famous researchers).

    There are some departments for which it’s useful for getting into grad school.

    But for most graduates of these schools, after you’re out and gotten your first job, it’s not a huge deal. I’ve seen colleagues from other schools with better work ethics than some MIT grads I’ve worked with. I’ve friends who I didn’t know went to Harvard until I’d known them for several years, and likewise, I never bring up my credentials.

  13. It’s something you would say, “oh cool!” at, but not really some massive deal. The stereotype is that they are snobs who look down on other people. I prefer to make individual judgements.

  14. I go to an ivy right now and there is definitely a change in reaction once people hear that. My grandma specifically brags about it to anyone that’ll listen. However, beyond any initial impressing, it usually doesn’t change else much until you get to the job market

  15. They’re prestigious and yeah, it’s impressive. But making it a personality trait can get old fast.

  16. It’s a big deal, Brown (one of the bottom Ivy’s) still carries quite a bit of weight in RI and the Northeast, and they’re the proverbial punching bag to Yale, Harvard and Princeton.

  17. They’re good for networking if your aim is money or power but for the majority of us it’s like “oh that’s cool”.

  18. I work alongside individuals who went to those schools and are $300k in debt. I make just as much money. I had the grades to do it too, but the brains not to.

  19. I’d imagine it’s similar to how an English person would react to someone getting into Oxford.

    It’s definitely impressive and very difficult. And it’s a very good thing to put on your resume for a job.

  20. Both more and less.

    Went to Harvard for law or poli sci? Pretty big fucking deal. Went to Harvard for English Lit? You better have rich parents or have married someone in college who did.

    MIT is tech.

    Yale is Economics and more “academic” fields like history.

    If you’re not from a favored major, it’s still considered prestigious, but you take a pretty big ding for going for a non-competitive major. And a lot of it is also networking and connections. If you get the degree, but aren’t rubbing shoulders with others (either rich kids who can fund things, or smart kids who can actually do things), you’re missing out a lot of what it they’re offering.

  24. It’s a big deal. The acceptance rate at the most selective schools is under 5%, so you really have to be exceptional (or rich) to get in. It’s not an automatic golden ticket to success but rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful (and getting a world-class education) is a sizeable advantage over more “normal” schools.

  26. It can be quite a big deal. But only if you network. Ivies are all about networking. They have some of the brightest minds and researchers. The connections you make there can be extremely valuable.

    If you leave with no connections, you just wasted a ton of money for a degree you could’ve gotten at a state school. An Ivy degree may give you a slight leg up on someone who went to an ordinary university, but that’s it.

  29. It’s a big deal when you don’t come from a legacy family. It’s not impressive if you just come from a rich family that bought your way in like W

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