What's so special about top universities?

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they cost more

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-93MpfS5ptc[/youtube]

Top tier universities help your resume be looked at, instead of trashed, like the hundreds of other resumes laying on the hiring manager's desk.

Top tiers aren't a shoe-in, but if it comes down to two potential employees with similar work history, Harvard grad. may well win out over Podunk U. grad.

When students are undergraduates, I think most students are better off going to a state school. It saves money and sanity. It is only when a student has a full ride scholarship and the ability to handle a unnecessary heavy workload that I believe the student should go to an ivy league. Top universities also have an influential alumni & social network that other schools don't have.

However, at the top universities, the faculty tend to all be the top of their respective fields. At state schools, professors could range from mediocre to genius

Top universities, especially private, are what you want to get into when you are an graduate student. Top schools often have better research experience and equipment alongside better opportunities to do some truly ground breaking research.

When students are undergraduates, I think most students are better off going to a state school. It saves money and sanity. It is only when a student has a full ride scholarship and the ability to handle a unnecessary heavy workload that I believe the student should go to an ivy league. Top universities also have an influential alumni & social network that other schools don't have.

However, at the top universities, the faculty tend to all be the top of their respective fields. At state schools, professors could range from mediocre to genius

Top universities, especially private, are what you want to get into when you are an graduate student. Top schools often have better research experience and equipment alongside better opportunities to do some truly ground breaking research.

I'd considered applying to Emory, maybe it's not an Ivy League school, but counts the Dali Lama and Salman Rushdie as residents.. But to be honest with you, 1) I don't want to live in Atlanta ensuring I couldn't leave campus (They have had a major upswing in crime in formerly "Safe" parts of town right around the Tech, Oglethorpe, Emory, State, and Agness Scott and in the Druid Hills/Virgina-Poncy-Highlands areas) and 2) I just am not interested in the sort of work load I'd be expected to cope with, and 3) I don't want to pay for it for the rest of my life.

I don't want to go to any of the 2 universities that we have in England that are considered to be the best. They're too obvious. And I don't want to go under any pressure to try and get into them. And also I don't want to go too far from home.

There's this college in my city that is said to be really good, but I don't want to go there either because again, it's too obvious, and it will most likely be crodwded as well.

I want to go to what's best for me, not anyone else.

Whether you like it or not, having a top school's name on your CV will enhance it immediately. It's one of the many tools available for pursuing a high-level career.

One of the first things senior consultants ask me in an informal setting is what school I went to. They don't ask what grades I got or who I was taught by, they just want to know what 'pedigree' I have. And what does this pedigree mean? That I can handle the stress it took to get in, survive and graduate. End of story. It's a given that I'll know what I was supposed to have been taught, it's whether I've had a nervous breakdown or not that they're really interested in.

In the words of a senior surgeon I know, "You will be responsible for killing someone someday. The question is whether you can handle it. And if you can't even handle the pressure of Uni, then there's a career in public health waiting for you."

Now, I don't need to point out that this surgeon's a bit of a b*****d (not to mention he completely underrates public health), but he's not alone in this way of thinking. You may not think there's anything great about Ivy League schools, but that's not what the head of the Financial Times is thinking. You want in? You play the game.

Not only that, but a top-level education also allows you to establish a pretty formidable network that you can utilise to work your way up the career ladder.

And that's pretty much it. You want to be the CEO of some multinational company, a senior consultant or international marketing manager? Then it's a no-brainer; get yourself into Oxbridge or an Ivy League school and pay out handsomely for the pleasure.

Don't want to forfeit a life, family and leisure time for a high-pressure career and massive debt? Then don't worry about it. Only you can make that decision for yourself, but that doesn't mean it's the best decision for everyone.