Prestige of universities

[AmericanEagle]

Would you rather attend a university that has a lot of prestige, but offers few scholarships, and is difficult to get high grades?

OR

Would you rather attend a university that has little or no prestige, but offers many scholarships, and is easy to get high grades?

Most of my former high school classmates/people I know would rather go to the prestigious university because it looks and sounds better.

In Canada, if you tell people that you go to a non-prestigious university, they don't think that you are as smart.

Does this phenomenon occur in your country/city?

[Mathor]

I don't think it matters too much. I'd much rather get good grades, whether or not it is hard or easy. I don't see the point of going to a prestigious school unless you're gonna completely ace it. I go to a pretty small school in my area, and I don't think it's going to affect my career too much. Sure, it'd be easier to have the insurance of knowing I could get any job by having an Ivy League school on an application, but a part of me wants to work my way up.

[higley]

Sometimes history and tradition are mistaken for prestige, and it is actually the lesser known school that offers the better training for your field. I could have gone to a famous school and it'd look snappy on my resume, but I got a better education at my college for what I want to do.

At one point I really wanted to go to Yale just because it was Yale. I'm glad I didn't. :)

[Niamh]

Not really... We have the "prestigous" University here in Dublin yeah some people go "wow! you go to trinity college!" and what not. But its not that its a better education, its because up until a few decades ago, Catholics didnt get educated there. The only snubbing here is from (dare i say it) snobby upperclass and middleclass people at those that go to PLC course which are certificates and stepping stones to uni's and colleges. For the rest there isnt much of a muchness.

[papayahed]

When We interview people We look at their resume and a prestigious school might get an "Ohh they went to ______" and that's about it, there is so much more we are interested in like communication skills, knowledge set, people skills, etc.. One the other hand a prestigious school might better prepare you for those areas, I guess it just depends on your field of study and picking the program that's right for you like Higley mentioned.

[Buh4Bee]

I think in the states it depends on what careers you are pursuing and what level of clients or people you are working with. In my crowd, teachers can pretty much go anywhere and end up working at a school along side teachers that went to the ivy league. Does it matter, no because we end of making the same pay and benefits.

[AmericanEagle]

When We interview people We look at their resume and a prestigious school might get an "Ohh they went to ______" and that's about it, there is so much more we are interested in like communication skills, knowledge set, people skills, etc..

If there was only one spot left, and there were two equally qualified candidates, but one graduated from a prestigious school, and one graduated from a non-prestigious school, who would get the job?

[higley]

If there was only one spot left, and there were two equally qualified candidates, but one graduated from a prestigious school, and one graduated from a non-prestigious school, who would get the job?

Whoever gave the better interview, ideally.

[AmericanEagle]

^ What if they both gave equally good interviews?

[higley]

Gee you're determined. ;) Think about it this way. If you're an employer deciding between two qualified, personable graduates who both apparently gave kickbutt interviews, you can pick the person who went to Yale because they went to Yale, but you're probably going to have to pay them the Yale salary because that's what is expected. If the kid from Ohio State is just as good, you can get the same quality at less cost.

I'm not saying a fancy degree isn't helpful, and going to an Ivy League school is probably going to get you a good job. But a smart employer bases his decisions on more than that.

[JBI]

Would you rather attend a university that has a lot of prestige, but offers few scholarships, and is difficult to get high grades?

OR

Would you rather attend a university that has little or no prestige, but offers many scholarships, and is easy to get high grades?

Most of my former high school classmates/people I know would rather go to the prestigious university because it looks and sounds better.

In Canada, if you tell people that you go to a non-prestigious university, they don't think that you are as smart.

Does this phenomenon occur in your country/city?

In Canada though, keep in mind, tuition is roughly 5500$ plus books. In Europe, it is far cheaper than even that (in some places essentially free). In the US however, it can be far, far more. So, in a sense, it is a pain to pay more, to struggle harder, but the averages in universities tend to always be the same, and for a reason.


For instance, generally the averages in every course will be in the C+ - B- range, in Canada anyway, no matter where you go. That means, that, generally, if you go to a less prestigious university, chances are, you're likely to do better, as the competition is less intense. On the other hand, if you are likely to do well anywhere, the percentage of people who get in the A range is the same at any institution, meaning those who can do that well, will do that well.

So, for someone who isn't that bright, lets say, but wants some grounding in order to get a good job when they are older, institution matters very little. For someone, on the other hand, who is likely to do well wherever they are, generally, prestige will help them later on in life.

In addition though, certain institutions offer better programs, or a wider range of programs.

Someone interested in, for instance, Italian studies, in Canada, would likely wish to go to The University of Toronto, as they have the largest department outside of Italy, whereas someone interested in East Asian Studies may perhaps consider going to The University of British Columbia, as they have a larger program.

Then there are other factors - various universities, especially the less prestigious ones, won't have any department in certain subjects - Linguistics, for instance, isn't really taught everywhere, and many foreign languages aren't either. It really depends what one wants to do.

But yeah, I think I'm snobby and here if people tell me they don't go to a prestigious university I feel all smug and proud - hell, my professors make references like, "At York, you would get a 90, but here, you're only worth a 70" and stuff like that.

[AmericanEagle]

But yeah, I think I'm snobby and here if people tell me they don't go to a prestigious university I feel all smug and proud - hell, my professors make references like, "At York, you would get a 90, but here, you're only worth a 70" and stuff like that.

Do you go to the University of Toronto - St. George? There is a sort of "friendly" rivalry between UTSG and York. For those outside of Canada, York is known for accepting students with low entrance marks, while UTSG is known for its high/strict entrance standards.

But, yeah, most Canadians do tend to make a big deal out of what university one attends.

[JBI]

Do you go to the University of Toronto - St. George? There is a sort of "friendly" rivalry between UTSG and York. For those outside of Canada, York is known for accepting students with low entrance marks, while UTSG is known for its high/strict entrance standards.

But, yeah, most Canadians do tend to make a big deal out of what university one attends.

Yeah, I go to U of T - York though... every year they send every U of T student an email that says, "It's not too late to switch to York." Though, I think after their huge strike, no one is really in the mood anymore.

[AmericanEagle]

^ I heard York was desperate for new students.

[papayahed]

^ What if they both gave equally good interviews?

That happens very rarely.

From my experience an Ivy League school doesn't matter but then again I'm not in an industry where it matters.

[islandclimber]

I'm from Canada too, I never really noticed or thought about the prestige of schools I was going to.. I got into Ryerson, U of T, UBC, Carleton, McGill, Queens, and Calgary for engineering and ended up going to Calgary as they offered me the best scholarship... I didn't really care about the reputation of the school as long as it offered a "good" program... although I did end up leaving U of C after less than a semester for other reasons..

when I went back a second time for Philosophy/humanities double major I got into most of the same schools but went to Simon Fraser because of better scholarships offered.. I guess that paying my own way I was more inclined to look at what would help me pay for school than just reputation of the school...

[*Classic*Charm*]

Yeah, I go to U of T - York though... every year they send every U of T student an email that says, "It's not too late to switch to York." Though, I think after their huge strike, no one is really in the mood anymore.

Can you blame them for not wanting to go there? What a mess!

I think some of the prestige within Canadian universities is degree-specific to an extent. That is, it is getting a specific degree from a certain school is more prestigious. For example, no one really cares if someone gets an arts degree from Queens, but they tend to be impressed by an engineering degree from Queens.

Prestige was definitely not something I considered when applying to University. The school I go to is definitely not known for having high entrance standards, but it's only one of two universities in the province with my specific degree. I was accepted to schools with more "prestigious" science programs but they were all more general degrees. My science programs at my school also have a first year course with an accepted more than 40%-failure rate. No matter what the entrance standards are, that tends to week people out.

[kratsayra]

Would you rather attend a university that has a lot of prestige, but offers few scholarships, and is difficult to get high grades?

OR

Would you rather attend a university that has little or no prestige, but offers many scholarships, and is easy to get high grades?



In the US, I do not think the prestige of the university necessarily relates to the difficulty of the courses. It really varies by the school itself, some having bigger problems with grade inflation than others. I went to an ivy league school with what I would consider a pretty big problem with grade inflation. There were numerous courses where I did virtually no work and got an A, and 90% of the class got an A as well. When 80 - 90% of the class gets an A, it is not because everyone is a genius, it is because there is grade inflation.

But I will say this for my classmates - a seemingly HUGE number of them got into the top law schools of their choice. Even the kids who were mostly goofing off in college. So, if you want to get into a top law school in the US, it seems that starting with the ivy league is a good place to start.

I went to graduate school for a PhD in literature, though. And my colleagues come from all different schools and all different backgrounds. Where you go to undergraduate does not predetermine the rest of your academic career, if you choose to engage in one. It might make a slight difference in getting into programs, but in the end it's the work you do and the essay you write.

I learned a lot at the school I went to - I had a lot of wonderful professors and small classes. But now that I'm a graduate student at a state university, I'm fairly convinced that I could have gotten an equally good education in terms of courses and professors for considerably less money. I probably would have had to work harder too. But I would have had to be in large classes perhaps more often, and not be able to get into the classes I wanted all the time, and for that a smaller private institution can be valuable.

No matter where you go there will be good classes and bad, good professors and bad. I'm certain there are wonderful professors and classes, challenging and educational, at institutions of all different ranks.

[Virgil]

When We interview people We look at their resume and a prestigious school might get an "Ohh they went to ______" and that's about it, there is so much more we are interested in like communication skills, knowledge set, people skills, etc.. One the other hand a prestigious school might better prepare you for those areas, I guess it just depends on your field of study and picking the program that's right for you like Higley mentioned.

I agree. I have not seen in my work experience how graduating from a prestigous school has translated into a better job. It may get an Ooh and ahh but that's it. Actually we have one engineer who graduated from MIT, which is probably the most prestigous engineering school in the country and he's rather mediocre. I was shocked when I had learned he was from MIT.

[Nightshade]

I have to say I know of more than one case where the uinterviewers have turned down the cnaditdat with the first class honors for someone ith a second and even a third in one case. It was because the second and thirds people came across better in the interview and could demosntrate better cmmunications skills.

I mean sure there is prestige involved if you take manchester fore instance there are 3 universitys and ManCat whihc is the city college. Manchester is the most well known and redbrick highly respected for the courses it offers, mostly the medical scince type ones and maths whihc it is most well known for. MMU whihc used to be the polytechnique but is now called a 'metropolitan' university, is known for its buisness, creative writing, teaching, sports college and design schools. More hand son practicle type stuff frankly I dont know why they bother competin with Manchetsr in the law field but they try.
Salford Uni Im not even sure about something to do with biochemical engineering and enginerring in general I think is what they are famous for.

So O suppose if you go to a uni thast famous for something say you go to Durham or Warrick for maths its more impressive than say teh University of Chester for maths. I dont know but I think it would be more realvant if you were persuing acadmic work than normal work.

[JacobF]

I'm from Canada too, and I do notice the attitude that attending a prestigious university makes you appear intelligent. Plenty of people in my grade and this year's graduating class want(ed) to go to Queens, McGill, U of T, etc. mostly for the novelty of saying "I go to a prestigious school." Yet a lot of them probably won't get into those schools or will settle for a program that won't help them after they graduate.

Of course, there are schools where the prestige actually means something. The quality and commitment to certain programs is definitely greater at some universities than others. My friend's sister goes to Queens to study medicine not only because it's a good program but will vastly help her land a good job. I want to go to Carleton U for journalism when I graduate simply because it's the best journalism program in the country. I've visited and the atmosphere of the journalism program was, as I had expected, pretty cut throat and snobby, and many leave after the first year. But it's a better program than say Ottawa U's or even Ryerson's.

So yeah, I think there's a stigma attached to not attending a prestigious university. But prestige is usually gained by certain universities for a reason, and it often has more to do with quality of education than a reflection of the people who go there.