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It's more that, for people who have the money, the process of throwing serious money at education starts much earlier, and the amount of money is higher than ev

It's more that, for people who have the money, the process of throwing serious money at education starts much earlier, and the amount of money is higher than ever. Go read about extremely-competitive pre-kindergarten programs with gigantic waiting lists for parents desperate to start their child on an Ivy League track as soon as possible. Follow up with top private schools, intense private tutoring, and parents who literally do things like buy a clinic or an orphanage somewhere in a developing country so their child can "work" there for a couple summers and write about the experience in their admissions application: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/to-get-to-harvard-go-to-haiti.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/to-get-to-... Richard Weissbourd, a child psychologist and Harvard lecturer who has studied the admissions process in the interest of reforming it, recalled speaking with wealthy parents who had bought an orphanage in Botswana so their children could have a project to write and talk about. He later became aware of other parents who had bought an AIDS clinic in a similarly poor country for the same reason.

madengr 9y ago
Funny, everyone I know who is doing well never went to an Ivy League school. The most wealthy (net worth probably $100M) never went to college. I'd say wealth is built from grit, education, and frugality, not pedigree. If anything, all the online, open courseware has shown me that the Ivy Leauge coursework is no different than that of most state universities. My kids will have a choice of two in-state schools. If they can get into an Ivy League, that's fine, but they must fund the difference.
- sjg007 9y ago
  Peer groups are what matter. If I hadn't had a friend whose parents were programmers back in the early 90s I'd be some plce else entirely.
- bsenftner 9y ago
  It has very little to do with the coursework, and everything to do with the social bonds formed in Ivy League. However, I will point out, being a person that did my undergrad at Boston University but took my preferred computer science classes at Harvard, the Ivy League actually teaches! Their professors take a personal interest in their students success. I originally took a Harvard assembly language class because it was not offered at B.U., and that one class opened my eyes to their vast difference between Ivy League and non. I went on to take the majority of my core classes at Harvard night and summer schools, as the same classes at B.U. were foreign grad students with bad accents lecturing to the board. The Harvard classes were exhilarating and exciting, with my head filled with possibilities after every class. And that was practically every class I took there. At ivy League, the professors are self actualizing on their students, and that is HUGE.
  - madengr 9y ago
    Maybe I'm jaded then. My professors were American and also cared about student learning. No grad students teaching courses, other than myself (just the lab section). I also have no social bonds to class mates; most were foreign and were only there to study.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  I'd posit that the network strength that you get from Ivy schools are a boost in getting to 1~2 sigma above the mean, but 3 sigma variation will have a lot to do with luck on top of everything else.

madengr 9y ago

Funny, everyone I know who is doing well never went to an Ivy League school. The most wealthy (net worth probably $100M) never went to college. I'd say wealth is built from grit, education, and frugality, not pedigree. If anything, all the online, open courseware has shown me that the Ivy Leauge coursework is no different than that of most state universities. My kids will have a choice of two in-state schools. If they can get into an Ivy League, that's fine, but they must fund the difference.

sjg007 9y ago
Peer groups are what matter. If I hadn't had a friend whose parents were programmers back in the early 90s I'd be some plce else entirely.
bsenftner 9y ago
It has very little to do with the coursework, and everything to do with the social bonds formed in Ivy League. However, I will point out, being a person that did my undergrad at Boston University but took my preferred computer science classes at Harvard, the Ivy League actually teaches! Their professors take a personal interest in their students success. I originally took a Harvard assembly language class because it was not offered at B.U., and that one class opened my eyes to their vast difference between Ivy League and non. I went on to take the majority of my core classes at Harvard night and summer schools, as the same classes at B.U. were foreign grad students with bad accents lecturing to the board. The Harvard classes were exhilarating and exciting, with my head filled with possibilities after every class. And that was practically every class I took there. At ivy League, the professors are self actualizing on their students, and that is HUGE.
- madengr 9y ago
  Maybe I'm jaded then. My professors were American and also cared about student learning. No grad students teaching courses, other than myself (just the lab section). I also have no social bonds to class mates; most were foreign and were only there to study.
hkmurakami 9y ago
I'd posit that the network strength that you get from Ivy schools are a boost in getting to 1~2 sigma above the mean, but 3 sigma variation will have a lot to do with luck on top of everything else.