Is Elite College Worth It? Maybe Not

[Cypress]

It's been my experience that folks with degrees in psychology do quite well in corporate sales.

I have never understood the inclination among some science, engineering, and business grads to bash liberal arts degrees.

Plenty of scientists can't write and are terrible speakers. Some psychology majors are bad at math. Any organization needs a mix of talent. Good writing skills, an ability to reason, and good speaking skills are at a premium in value.

My opinion? Study what interests you, study what you like, study what you are passionate about - and the rest of life will fall into place if you have ambition and commitment.

One of my cousins was an Art History major at a Canadian university - and I think she might make more money than me!

[NiftyNiblick]

The big advantage to elite schools isn't merely the quality of education.
An excellent education is available from state schools as well.

Attending an elite university gives you a networking list of people who can get you into a good job.

Mr. Bigwig went to Harvard or Princeton or Stanford.

Become a golf buddy of Mr. Bigwig's kid.
Play trumpet in Bigwig Juniors band.
(At first the kid will get a rush thinking that he's hanging out with the criminal element, but eventually you'll become friends.)

Mr. Bigwig offers you a job after graduation.
For better or worse, that's how it works in America.

[LV426]

fucktard. you focused on one degree and one company

Check the thread, you lazy fucknut.

Cawacko the moron also invoked History and English degrees as well and guess what? Both those degrees also track at or above the national average for wages and both those degrees count Financial Institutions like Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase as top employers.

Stop being so fucking lazy.

[Controlled Opposition]

a business degree is a box to check on an application........95% of companies hiring don't care where you got your degree or what what your grades were.......have any of you ever gotten a job where the employer wanted a copy of your transcript or even checked to see if you really graduated?........

As an investigator, I have conducted a lot of employment background checks. Most employers don't even want to know applicant's academic records or even degrees if they were earned more than 10 years previously.

[Mott the Hoople]

Contrary to LV's dozens of posts claiming otherwise my intent was not to knock a psychology degree. I could have selected history, English, medicine etc. I simply picked a non-business major and asked the question you responded to, would you rather study business at State U or a non business major at an Ivy if your goal was to go into the business world. (And yes, "the business world" is very large and there are people with a variety of degrees in "business". But from what I'm seen those who are higher up in companies tend to have more business backgrounds education wise, which makes sense).

Indeed it does. In fact the former Senior VP for the business unit at the corporation I work for had his MBA....from U of Phoenix.

[Mott the Hoople]

Hi Mott.
I have too.

That is why I said this: "You almost cannot be a top tier scientific researcher without Ivy League, MIT, Cal Tech, or at least an elite, top tier public university under your belt (UC Berkley, Michigan etc.)."

There are some elite earth scientists who went to top tier public universities like University Texas-Austin, University of Washington, University of Michigan, et al. Penn State is top rate in the geosciences.

I will say that the truly elite genius-level students I met as undergraduates all applied to, and were trying to get into MIT, Scripps, Woods Hole, Cal Tech, Stanford, etc. None of them were applying to Utah State or Akron State - not that those aren't fine schools for the students they serve.

Yes, I agree there is probably a distinction between elite research scientists, and scientists in applied field.

Yea I hear what you're saying. When I was in undergrad I wanted to become a Chiropractor and I didn't apply to Parker or Life College or any of the other schools that give Chiropractic it's steller reputation [/sarcasm]. I applied and was accepted to the most prestigious school in that discipline Palmer College. Turned out to be a big mistake but getting accepted into a graduate program in my Junior year was probably my greatest academic accomplishment. Having said that....I really do hate academia. LOL

[Mott the Hoople]

Yeah, exactly.

Corporate businesses hire people with degrees in anthropology, sociology, history, women's studies, and psychology because they want to increase their sales, revenue, and customer base.

Anyone who thinks those degrees don't have value is a fucking moron.

I wouldn't say that. The reality though is that they are not as marketable as a degree in a STEM field.

[Controlled Opposition]

Bad faith is not a "side".

It's bad faith.

Bad faith? You're reaching, but failing to grasp. Facts don't care about your feelings. If you are ever called to jury duty, please, for the sake of justice, do whatever you can to get out of it.

[LV426]

I wouldn't say that. The reality though is that they are not as marketable as a degree in a STEM field.

They're just as marketable.

Also, if there were more history majors, we could tear down the argument that Confederate monuments preserve history. Just sayin'...

[LV426]

Bad faith? You're reaching, but failing to grasp. Facts don't care about your feelings. If you are ever called to jury duty, please, for the sake of justice, do whatever you can to get out of it.

Problem is that you all have emotional reactions to facts being presented to you, while posturing that you don't.

[Cypress]

Yea I hear what you're saying. When I was in undergrad I wanted to become a Chiropractor and I didn't apply to Parker or Life College or any of the other schools that give Chiropractic it's steller reputation [/sarcasm]. I applied and was accepted to the most prestigious school in that discipline Palmer College. Turned out to be a big mistake but getting accepted into a graduate program in my Junior year was probably my greatest academic accomplishment. Having said that....I really do hate academia. LOL

Nice work man.

One of my high school friends had to run a gauntlet of laughter from people, because he wanted to major in history.
I wasn't one of the ones laughing, because I love history.

Success in history comes to those who are passionate about it, and pursue it with commitment. These days my friend is teaching history at one of the United States military academies and has a top tier position in archival research. I am pretty sure some of the kids that were laughing at him are punching the clock at some really crappy jobs.

[Callinectes]

Yes, it does. It contradicts this: "I'd argue the one variable left out is the major the student chooses. If you want to go into the business world is studying Psychology at Harvard going to help you much more than a Business major at State U? Probably not."

One of the top 4 employers of Psych grads is Bank of America.

So because of that, it proves that statement of cawacko's wrong, doesn't it?

What positions are those psych grads holding at BofA?

[Nordberg]

Saw a woman on TV the other day that worked in the Financial industry namely Wall Street. She was in HR. She said when they went through job applications that shitcanned the ones that were not from the 5 Ivy League schools they wanted. They did not even allow all the Ivy leaguers to have a foot in the door.

[Controlled Opposition]

Problem is that you all have emotional reactions to facts being presented to you, while posturing that you don't.

You are the emotional wreck, not me. Each one of my posts says, "Note my apathy."

[anonymoose]

Nice work man.


Success in history comes to those who are passionate about it, and pursue it with commitment.

True for anything.
The opposite is true for STEM degrees too.
A classmate of mine was spying on a few of our classmates last week and told me what he found.
One, who graduated when he was about 37 and is now 70 has over $4,000,000 in liens. (We all knew he would end up like that).
Another lives in one of those little suburban neighborhood ranch houses that are about 10 feet away from each other. Nothing wrong with that but why go thru the trouble of dental school for that?
Another lived with his parents for 20 years after graduating until he sold his practice and went on to something else.
I once had an ophthalmologist as a patient who 'forgot his checkbook' for his copay and ended up in collections (we never got it).
You never know.