Why does PNW not have good universities ??

[chrish78]

There are plenty of jobs unfortunately that are entirely prestige driven rightlyfully or not. Wal street investment banking for example. If you want to become a successful lawyer, you have to get into top 10 law schools due to oversaturation and those 10 schools like to get people from other similarly ranked school. Academia is highly prestige driven; getting a tenure track university position is exceedingly difficult if you aren’t from well-ranked university. Medical school is more complicated. While it’s definitely possible to get into med school from any university, top 20 ranked schools have higher percentage of premeds admitted to med school. If two students have similar grades, MCAT, extracurricular, interview, etc. but one has gone to high ranked school vs other at average school, person from higher ranked school will get in due to prestige factor.

Going to your state flagship university isn’t the end of the world, but you should always consider going to a better ranked school if you are able to afford it. For example, if John is admitted to UW and MIT for CS major, and he qualifies for scholarship where his tuition is similar at both, it would be foolish for him not to go to MIT. The MIT degree will open up lot more doors for him. If his goal is to become a software developer and work at Amazon, then it won’t matter. But if his goal is to engage into research and work as a scientist, or get into management and become a future vice-president or CEO, or get into politics and run for governor or president one day, he will be much better off with MIT degree. He will also have opportunity to interact with current and future nobel laureates, future millionaires who will start their own companies, future political leaders, CEOs of Fortune 500 and being surrounded by high performers will help him grow much faster. That’s the perk of being at elite institution.

I didn’t go to prestigious university but I have turned out okay. So, no it’s not “required” to go to a good university. But doing so can make life easier down the road and provide you with opportunities that you otherwise may not have.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by chrish78

There are plenty of jobs unfortunately that are entirely prestige driven rightlyfully or not. Wal street investment banking for example. If you want to become a successful lawyer, you have to get into top 10 law schools due to oversaturation and those 10 schools like to get people from other similarly ranked school. Academia is highly prestige driven; getting a tenure track university position is exceedingly difficult if you aren’t from well-ranked university. Medical school is more complicated. While it’s definitely possible to get into med school from any university, top 20 ranked schools have higher percentage of premeds admitted to med school. If two students have similar grades, MCAT, extracurricular, interview, etc. but one has gone to high ranked school vs other at average school, person from higher ranked school will get in due to prestige factor.

Going to your state flagship university isn’t the end of the world, but you should always consider going to a better ranked school if you are able to afford it. For example, if John is admitted to UW and MIT for CS major, and he qualifies for scholarship where his tuition is similar at both, it would be foolish for him not to go to MIT. The MIT degree will open up lot more doors for him. If his goal is to become a software developer and work at Amazon, then it won’t matter. But if his goal is to engage into research and work as a scientist, or get into management and become a future vice-president or CEO, or get into politics and run for governor or president one day, he will be much better off with MIT degree. He will also have opportunity to interact with current and future nobel laureates, future millionaires who will start their own companies, future political leaders, CEOs of Fortune 500 and being surrounded by high performers will help him grow much faster. That’s the perk of being at elite institution.

I didn’t go to prestigious university but I have turned out okay. So, no it’s not “required” to go to a good university. But doing so can make life easier down the road and provide you with opportunities that you otherwise may not have.

Yes, but how many of those jobs are in the Pacific Northwest?

How many Seattle employers are going to question your credentials if you have a degree from UW or say Whitman? And in Portland, how many jobs are going to question a UO or OSU degree? Or a Reed degree?

I mean sure, if you want to land a high-priced consulting gig on Wall Street then yes, an Ivy League degree is what you need. And probably one from a top Ivy and not Brown or Cornell. But I'm not sure it is the purpose of public education in Washington to educate people to take fancy east cost jobs.

But yes, if you are a WA HS student and you are in the top 0.01% nationally then you should be looking nationally for college options at places like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. But most students are by definition not in the 0.01%.

But this thread isn't about where the very top Washington HS students should attend college. It is whether the Pacific Northwest is lacking if it does not have ultra-elite universities.

[chrish78]

You don’t have to be super rich private college with billions of endowment to be “ultra-elite”. Berkeley is the ultra-elite despite being the state school with the mission of serving in-state students first.

They sure as heck aren’t just taking top 0.1%.

[chrish78]

PS you don’t need to go to a great college (or even go to college for that matter) to be successful in life. I see many immigrant families coming to this country who barely speak any English, working two-full time blue-collar jobs, saving money and learning English as they continue, and opening up their business after 10 years from their saving and eventually becoming millionaire on a regular basis. Some of these people didn’t even finish high schools.

Good thing about America is there is opportunity for everyone regardless of your background.