adfasfsd wrote:
Which is why people choose liberal arts colleges. Average starting pay for a graduate of any elite school, be it an ivy or a liberal arts school or a top research university, will much, much larger than a graduate from a state school or similar.
Correlation doesn't equal causation. The IVY league school didn't "make" them. By contrast, many of these people would be making the same money with a community college education.
Also, I'm surprised at all the responses stating "connections". Connections do not get you squat in many, many professions. Or at least connections that you made in college.
If you are interested in science, where you go to college is not at all important. How well you do in college and what kinds of undergraduate research experience you have is very important. What kind of undergraduate reesarch experience are you going to get in a lab with 3 postdocs and 8 Ph.D. students?
Where you do your graduate work is more important (or who you do it with). Where you do your postdoc (or who you do it with) is more important. The number of publications and the journals that you are publishing in are most important (although a genuinely awesome letter from a well-known researcher can get someone a job). That said, I had a number of friends that had extremely weak publication record coming out of a Ph.D. in Biology at Univ. Chicago and they were snapped up by small 2nd tier colleges who I think wanted a UC grad on their roster.
Medical school? Doesn't matter.
From what I've read, it doesn't matter with engineering. Companies recruit from a list of 30-50 schools and give no preference to the perception of "eliteness". What does matter is your grades.
Do you actually want good teachers because you won't find many at Ivy League Universities.
By far the most influential component of my ivy league education was more the exposure to lots of people from around the country, which heavily influenced things like my politics and musical taste.