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Getting the Ivy League degree may not be that difficult at some of the Ivies once you get in; the problem is you have to get accepted first.
Of course. The real problem is that a lot of people see an Ivy acceptance as license to slack off. Those who do put their academic studies on "cruise control" are often in for a rude awakening when it comes time to find a job or apply to graduate school.
If you read some of the regulars they all are Ivy Leaguers. You know, the ones who say no degree is worthwhile unless it's from a top tier school like theirs is.
It's quite possible to get an Ivy degree without undergoing much rigor. There's usually enough grade inflation to go around that you can easily coast if you pick the right major.
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Originally Posted by HeavenWood
Most liberal arts degrees. It's pretty easy to get up to a 3.3 at an Ivy in such majors without putting in much work. Getting truly good grades, of course, does take effort.
You have to be smart enough to get in to begin with. While some students no doubt are admitted for one unscrupulous reason or another, the Ivies admit the cream of the crop. We are talking about the kids who went to the best prep schools and academies, Catholic schools and other privates, or the top public school in their city at the least. If they did not go to a top K-12, they were tops in their class.
As for grade inflation, yeah, some do it, but keep one thing in mind: you are being graded on a curve against students who are at the least just as smart as you. And someone has to get low grade. Good luck getting the A.
Not to mention that different Ivies practice different grading policies. At Dartmouth they report the median grade on your transcript (along with your own grade). Some also have grade deflation, so a 96% could equal a B.
To round it all it students do get kicked out of Ivies for underachieving academically. As for the courses, the Ivy League's have some of the most difficult courses around.
And no, I did not attend and Ivy (but I am considering Brown for grad school).
If you read some of the regulars they all are Ivy Leaguers. You know, the ones who say no degree is worthwhile unless it's from a top tier school like theirs is.
You have to be smart enough to get in to begin with. While some students no doubt are admitted for one unscrupulous reason or another, the Ivies admit the cream of the crop. We are talking about the kids who went to the best prep schools and academies, Catholic schools and other privates, or the top public school in their city at the least. If they did not go to a top K-12, they were tops in their class.
I'm not saying Ivy kids aren't smart (even the legacies, etc. are usually "qualified;" they simply have their app thrown at the top of the pile) but all too many of them squander their opportunities and turn lazy as soon as they get in.
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Originally Posted by K-Luv
As for grade inflation, yeah, some do it, but keep one thing in mind: you are being graded on a curve against students who are at the least just as smart as you. And someone has to get low grade. Good luck getting the A.
Not to mention that different Ivies practice different grading policies. At Dartmouth they report the median grade on your transcript (along with your own grade). Some also have grade deflation, so a 96% could equal a B.
Unless you're in business, engineering, or a hard science major, you are probably NOT being graded on a curve. It's not uncommon to find courses in Ivies and non-Ivies alike where few (if any) students score worse than B.
Quote:
Originally Posted by K-Luv
To round it all it students do get kicked out of Ivies for underachieving academically. As for the courses, the Ivy League's have some of the most difficult courses around.
No one gets kicked out for coasting by with a 3.2 in sociology. And I'm not claiming Ivies don't offer difficult courses. Getting top grades at an Ivy is not easy. But given the nature of Ivy grade inflation, it is relatively easy to find a major in which one can barely lift a finger and get by with a B-B+ average.
Ivy League scools are expensive and it is very hard to get in. but once you in, there is not much difference in academic rigor between them and a lot of very good quality / serious public universities (that also happen to have very fancy campuses, excellent traditions, and ranked very highly in terms of academics).
if you want to dig deeper, there are rankings for most academic disciplines and no, Ivy League schools are not always ranked in the top 5.
if you want to get into Law School or Business School - of course an Ivy League is the way to go, mostly for network building. but if you want to become, I don't know, a pharmacist or a chemical engineer you will not get most education for your money.
I also think the East Cost bias is also a big part of the equation. you cannot possibly be serious when you say that a Stanford or Berkley or UCLA grad student is inferior to a Brown or Columbia university grad student, you will be laughed out of the room...
PS: dont even get me started on overwhelming amount of douchebaggery oozing from Harvard graduates (it is especially humorous when they are social science majors).
Last edited by pzrOrange; 08-09-2012 at 07:42 AM..
I know many people who went to Ivy League schools. I'm Asian and I grew up on the East Coast.
About 30 of my Facebook friends went to Columbia.
Getting into any Ivy League is not THAT impressive. A few students from my HS turned down Ivies to go to other schools as did some of my other friends. There's many schools on a similar level.
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton sit well above the rest as far as I'm concerned. You have to be a monster to get into those places.
And grad school doesn't really count. Some grad programs are relatively easy to get into.
Being from an Ivy League school other than those three doesn't really get you that many concessions in life either. Especially for Brown and Dartmouth. Considering how hard they are to get into, their rep in the real world isn't that high.
If you're looking for work straight out of undergrad, Ivy Leaguers have a nice advantage, no doubt about it. But when you move on to advanced degrees, having an Ivy League bachelors matters much less (and sometimes not at all).
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