At least I’ll be Paid…
This past summer on a lunch break at my internship, I came across an article “Don’t send your kid to the Ivy league”. As I read through the article, I couldn’t help but think about why I had chose cornell. Why the Ivy League? Often in the midst of high stress times I wonder if I would be happy somewhere else or if my interests and passions would be better explored at a school that left time for me to be me, because of its less strenuous curriculum. The overarching question was, if the IVY league didn’t warrant so much awe and acclaim with a simple utterance would I be here or would I be at another institution? I think its time I am honest with myself, I chose Cornell for the the same reason a basketball player may choose to sith the bench at Duke instead of being a star at another school and for the same reason someone may accept a job at Google instead of taking time to develop their own brilliant idea. It is the popularity and prestige of the IVY League that initially draws people , the selectivity and the opportunity it provides. We imitate the greats, famous and extremely successful graduates hoping that our four year struggles will put us closer to six or more figures , to the white house or at least capitol hill , closer to the operating table. This tendency to draw rational inferences from limited information can be explored further in Chapter 16. Its isn’t our fault that we don’t choose always the decisions that make us the most happy. If information cascades are considered I didn’t mindlessly choose the Ivy League, in fact no one did, the success rate of an ivy league education is undeniable. If we graduate we will be successful in at least one measure of success. Thus the rational inference is clear, if we graduate we will be successful. Thus it all makes sense, upon graduation I will be successful but did I consider if I would be happy? Is the percentage of graduates actually happy in their line of work actually ever considered, researched, and published? …
The article stunned me when it questioned the confusion of Ivy League graduates, as about a third of students at top schools go into finance or consulting.
‘“What Wall Street figured out,” as Ezra Klein has put it, “is that colleges are producing a large number of very smart, completely confused graduates. Kids who have ample mental horsepower, an incredible work ethic and no idea what to do next.”. h fields have disappeared from view: the clergy, the military, electoral politics, even academia itself’
Let’s face it, I don’t believe graduates are confused. Students want stability, money, eventual power and fun. If all set goals are fulfilled by finance or consulting in a major city, why consider another path. When deciding to go into finance or another common field, one incurs an explicit benefit when one aligns his or her behavior with the behavior of others. If one student doesn’t take the great pay and signing bonus, some other eager and desperate graduate will gladly take his or her place. After All, students have families expecting to see their ROI from the cost of an Ivy League and the student better deliver. We all have values,needs , and responsibilities, to choose values over fulfilling needs is extremely difficult. Why choose moral values as a full time job, when you can focus on that on the side? Maybe there is an option to teach bible study on the side or participating in community service through a company facilitated program.
So maybe I and others alike just have to accept that when we graduate we will be successful but maybe not happy, and that this success may cater to our needs and our values. Implicitly by “falling” into the information cascade and capitalizing on network benefit we may not be happy but at least we will be paid. I guess I am content with being paid but now my question is , Who suffers more from this system us or the world?
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118747/ivy-league-schools-are-overrated-send-your-kids-elsewhere