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Can I get reality checks here from some people who actually attended Ivy-league schools? The author's description of Yale doesn't match my experience with MIT

• neodude 18y ago
  I go to an Ivy League school, but not Yale - one of the lesser well-known ones. There are certainly people here who have "arrived", and are skating across, partying, until they get their job at Wall Street, but there are some genuinely interesting, 'searcher'-type people here as well. They do expel people here; the school administration is pretty harsh, actually. The academics aren't easy; sure, you can pick easy classes and get your A-, but your major classes are unlikely to not require some serious work, and you have to do a major. There's definitely a sense of severe detachment with the real world, but that may be more about the isolated location than the prestige. MIT sounds awesome, actually - people in touch with reality! Humble people! People who don't expect it to be easy, and hence complain about things being so hard! Maybe I should have applied, but apparently their financial aid isn't too good. When I visited Yale, their sense of entitlement was very, very stifling. From anecdotal comparisons, Yale seems way relaxed, academically, as well.
  • akd 18y ago
    > apparently their financial aid isn't too good nonsense. Harvard, MIT, and Princeton have the best financial aid in the country (besides of course Olin, Cooper Union, and the military academies...)
  • sethg 18y ago
    There's a cultural norm at MIT that you should complain about how hard your workload is, but I don't think that really counts as humility. Students are usually too busy to think about their social class.
• anon 18y ago
  (submitting anonymously; the login is easily guessable and the account seems inactive) I don't relate much to the article, but I might be atypical. I never understood what the big deal the Ivy was about. Some random points: 1. There are plenty of insanely smart people who don't take the "standard" career paths. They are the kind that take twice as many classes as everyone else and set the curves in all of them; the school got lucky to have them there. It's hard to not see them working on world-changing problems. 2. There are some people from truly underprivileged backgrounds, who are there by sheer hard work and ability. I met someone like this, who refused to play by the system's rules, and paid dearly because he didn't have the financial cushion. Unfortunately, after he recovered he no longer seems to want to take risks. 3. Classism exists before you enter the gates. There are a large number of students from prep-schools, who carry a whole subculture with them. I sense a kind of disdain from their eyes, and have never gone beyond small talk. 4. The "arrived" appears subtly. There are jokes about neighboring "safety" schools, and even the engineering school (which is easier to get into than the arts). The school of arts is always masturbating to its own name but the engineers don't ever seem to care. 5. I had some friends who were really proud to be there and embodied the school spirit. One time I said, "I find something lacking intellectually in the spirit of [the school]," which was taken with knee-jerk offense. Without having other places to compare to, I'd say Ivy is some overrated and incomprehensible bullshit marketing. Oh, the computer labs and libraries were nice, but big deal.
• anon 18y ago
  (submitting anonymously; the login is easily guessable and the account seems inactive) I don't relate much to the article, but I might be atypical. I never understood what the big deal the Ivy was about. Some random points: 1. There are plenty of insanely smart people who don't take the "standard" career paths. They are the kind that take twice as many classes as everyone else and set the curves in all of them; the school got lucky to have them there. It's hard to not see them working on world-changing problems. 2. There are some people from truly underprivileged backgrounds, who are there by sheer hard work and ability. I met someone like this, who refused to play by the system's rules, and paid dearly because he didn't have the financial cushion. Unfortunately, after he recovered he no longer seems to want to take risks. 3. Classism exists before you enter the gates. There are a large number of students from prep-schools, who carry a whole subculture with them. I sense a kind of disdain from their eyes, and have never gone beyond small talk. 4. The "arrived" appears subtly. There are jokes about neighboring "safety" schools, and even the engineering school (which is easier to get into than the arts). The school of arts is always masturbating to its own name but the engineers don't ever seem to care. 5. I had some friends who were really proud to be there and embodied the school spirit. One time I said, "I find something lacking intellectually in the spirit of [the school]," which was taken with knee-jerk offense. Without having other places to compare to, I'd say Ivy is some overrated and incomprehensible bullshit marketing. Oh, the computer labs and libraries were nice, but big deal.