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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

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.

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.