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Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#71

Post by nomoresecrets »

J_McQuade wrote: post #15

Well, it may be a little different in the UK due to our many-tiered higher education system (Oxbridge, redbricks, ex-polytechnics and a moderate spectrum in between), but I'll chip in my two copper pence either way. Actually, this is a question I've thought about a little too much, I'd wager, because, as a prospective undergraduate, I actually turned down an offer to read mathematics at Cambridge and decided to study…

Even Bristol probably has issues. When I was choosing Universities I heard that for Bristol, the filtering for remaining places on the medicine course (i.e. for people who didn't make the grades the University asked for) was rumoured to start with these two questions:

1. Did you go to public school? (i.e. privately educated) 2. Was either of your parents a doctor?

If you answered either of those with 'no', then the concensus was you could kiss that place goodbye.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#72

Post by quellhorst »

I feel superior for not following the system and even going to college to rack up debt to get a piece of paper.

People rarely ask what college you went to. A name-brand degree is just a pissing match that doesn't matter.

4 years of outdated assignments won't much of a difference further out in your life. The value of the paper you went into debt to get is going down every day.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#73

Post by wglb »

johnnybgoode wrote: post #11
rdr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all of these name-brand colleges are private, so if the state has a role in all of this, it's quite indirect, right? of course the government has a role in accredidation, grants, laws, etc., but it's hard to imagine eliminating those ... sorry, i don't want to get into a debate on libertarianism ;)

Well, they are private in name only. They are massively funded by the state, both directly and indirectly through exclusive student funding grants. The degrees they grant have the same special status as those granted by "public" schools, and they are regulated the same way. I don't think this is an exclusively libertarian issue. Your original question could be generalized to include all titles of nobility, and that s…

Except for hillsdale college in Michigan which makes a point of taking zero government dollars for anything, including scholarships. Not huge, but truly private. http://www.hillsdale.edu/support/default.asp

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#74

Post by ovi256 »

udekaf wrote: post #33

I feel inferior reading this article instead of coding.

Upmod, but you should feel inferior for not thinking, not for not coding. You are not a code monkey, but a thinking problem solver, whatever your label is (engineer, scientist, technician, CEO, whatever).

That remembers me Sir Popper wrote a book "All of Life is Problem Solving." Got to read it some time...

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#75

Post by notauser »

quellhorst wrote: post #72

I feel superior for not following the system and even going to college to rack up debt to get a piece of paper. People rarely ask what college you went to. A name-brand degree is just a pissing match that doesn't matter. 4 years of outdated assignments won't much of a difference further out in your life. The value of the paper you went into debt to get is going down every day.

Every time I apply for a job, my engineering degree cuts out two or three annoying questions (which they might not even bother to ask before throwing my CV away).

I'm thinking about moving to Hong Kong. A masters degree makes immigration trivial.

Sometimes I find that an interesting problem is related to something I studied in college and so I know where to start.

When I meet the parents of the girls I date I start with a few extra points of reputation in hand.

Each time I sit more professional exams the whole process is well within my comfort zone so I can concentrate on the material rather than stress about the outcome.

Not a bad investment if you ask me - although no one has asked me where I went to school in years either.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#77

Post by gambling8nt »

vomjom wrote: post #58
gambling8nt wrote: post #54

I wouldn't say I've felt inferior. I've occasionally felt significant regret over my collegiate decision. But then I remember that most such people wind up paying $200k more than I did to go to college. Going to an MIT or Harvard might have gotten me somewhat better connections and opportunities, but it is difficult to see those as adding up to that large of a difference.

Rarely do most people who go to top schools pay full price. Only those from extremely wealthy families do. All (yes, all) the top schools are need-blind, meaning they don't look at your financial situation when deciding whether to accept you. A few of them (Stanford, Harvard I think) are offering completely free tuition if your parents make less than $100k. For other situations, you typically would get around 75% of…

Most of these pro-rated tuition policies are very, very new; until very recently, even students at top schools were expected to take out loans to cover some medium-sized fraction of the tuition costs. By comparison, going to a rather good state school, I got paid a net of around $8k per year to go to college.

The financial equation is different for every person, but the value add of a name-brand school over a state school is typically a hard sell--for a motivated student a decent education is available everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#78

Post by IsaacL »

J_McQuade wrote: post #15

Well, it may be a little different in the UK due to our many-tiered higher education system (Oxbridge, redbricks, ex-polytechnics and a moderate spectrum in between), but I'll chip in my two copper pence either way. Actually, this is a question I've thought about a little too much, I'd wager, because, as a prospective undergraduate, I actually turned down an offer to read mathematics at Cambridge and decided to study…

Currently a Warwick student. It's a great university, and I'm glad I chose to come here than try to apply for Oxbridge - I believe they are the best universities in the UK, but not by such a massive margin as people make out. If you say you're an Oxford student, anyone in the country will be impressed. Many people will not have heard of Warwick or Bristol university, or will assume they are just bog-standard institutions.

I have to disagree, though, with the comment that anyone with brains can get into Oxbridge - from what I've heard, they seem much more obsessed with preliminary interviews than other UK institutions - potential applicants stay for several days of interviews IIRC. Many private school kids get special tuition to pass these tests, which is an advantage that state school kids don't have.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt inferior for not being from a name-brand college?

#80

Post by anamax »

stonemetal wrote: post #24
anamax wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Examples include [degree] credential requirements for many different occupations, licensing laws, and job eligibility. Many? I can come up with law, medicine, professional engineer, architect, and CPA. What else do you have in mind?

Teachers have degree requirements for licensing. I am sure there are others.

How about some more? Adding "teacher" to my list leaves us closer to "few" than "many".

Note that the vast majority of engineers aren't licensed....

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