Does an Ivy League Education Matter?

Filed in archive Careers and Money on May 25, 2006

Over at Yahoo! Finance, Laura Rowley has a column with letters in response to her earlier column on whether or not an Ivy League education is really better for you than getting your degree from a less prestigious university. She cited a long-term study from 1999 that had followed graduates from both types of schools and found their earning power to be equal, instead of any advantage for the Ivy Leaguers.

In both her original article and in the letters, the thought is that it's determination, hard work, etc. that count--that life really is a meritocracy and if you have the skills, you'll do fine no matter where you go to school.

I believe the study wholeheartedly and I believe the thought that hard work will pay off regardless of where you got your degree. I like to believe it because i went to a state school and have done pretty well.

However, we're talking about averages here--the average amount of money that graduates from the different types of schools make 20 years later. That gives the impression that the school doesn't matter, only the individual. I don't believe that.

I think if you did an (absolutely impossible) study in which you put the same person through Harvard and watched their career advancement over 20 years, then turned back time and put them through iowa State University (picking a school at random here, don't read anything into it, I love Iowa) and tracked their progress, you'd find that that person would earn more having gone through Harvard.

Why? Initial opportunity. Ivy League graduates often are taught by superstar professors (and you never know when Al Gore or some other bigwig will pop in to complement the classrom theory), they hobknob with other highly-educated kids (and their successful families), and they are heavily recruited by employers. They get good jobs right off the bat, they have connections and they're smart.

If they have the motivation, they can move up the moneymaking ladder quicker and snag awesome jobs while others are still busting their asses trying to get a foot in the door. It doesn't mean they're better, but they have a clear advantage.

Yes, the person denied the Ivy League education might be hungrier and might even the score over the long haul, but if you think it doesn't matter I think you'd be fooling yourself. If I could do it over and go to an Ivy League school instead of a state school, I'd jump at the chance, regardless of what any study tells me, and no disrespect to the school that gave me a fine education and didn't force me to pay the equivalent of a small home in order to get it.

How about you?