CollegeReflections.com

As an editor here at College Reflections (CR), my sole job is not to just read articles and tell the original author when there is a mistake that needs to be corrected, but to also voice my opinion when I feel an article is a little too biased or needs to take another approach to the subject matter in an attempt properly represent and address the diverse demographic that is our readership. Well, a few months back one of our main contributing authors penned what I believe was a slightly biased piece on factors to consider when choosing a college. But instead of rewriting the article to be more bipartisan, the original author suggested I just write a rebuttal to his article – so here we are.

To give a little background, I currently attend an SEC school that is known for partying, I’ve been able to watch a Heisman candidate for the past two years, and I happen to be very involved in the Greek scene at my campus – so don’t get the impression that I only came to college to hit the books. Furthermore, I have been able to accomplish most of my career goals coming from such a school (I’m going to be an Investment Banking Summer Analyst this summer in NYC). But despite my satisfaction with my college experience thus far, I have no problem admitting that there are better options out there and I will NOT encourage my future children to attend a comparable college. Now onto the rebuttal . . .

1. Money

A few decades ago, maybe financial issues were a legitimate excuse to not attend the school of your dreams, but with the plethora of resources available today, if one has the intelligence and/or drive to attend a certain college, money should not be holding them back (fact: despite 5 people in my graduating class having higher GPA’s and higher ACT scores, no one raked in more scholarship money than yours truly; over $90k when it was all said and done). Furthermore, many of the most elite universities in our nation are currently in a price war to ensure they are getting the absolute brightest and best students available to apply without financial concerns holding them back.

2. Location

Nothing to argue here – I completely agree.

3. Career and Major

If you are one of those people that is dead-set on being a doctor, a lawyer, a marine biologist, or an astronaut and have been since you were seven, then I have news for you: you’re probably going to change your mind in college. When I entered college, I had a near suicidal devotion to becoming an attorney and running my own law firm. That’s all I could think about and all I could imagine doing. By my sophomore year of college, I realized I wanted absolutely no part of courtrooms, case studies, affidavits, dockets, contracts, and everything else that is associated with being an attorney. Therefore, don’t pick your college based on what you want to be when you graduate or what you want to major in, pick your college based on where you think you fit in the most and what gives you the most options post graduation, regardless of what you major in. If you are a Harvard graduate, no one cares whether you majored in Philosophy or Art History, all they care about is that you attended Harvard.

4. Prestige

There are definitely smart people everywhere and I am also a believer that intelligent, driven people will succeed regardless of which school they attend. However, there’s something to be said for attending a school where you are surrounded by the smartest people in the country versus attending a school where you are consistently the smartest person in the room. For example, when I am at my SEC school, I am usually one of the smartest people in the room no matter what the make-up of the room is. But when I go visit one of my friends at a top Ivy, I am probably average (maybe even below average) in raw intelligence. I don’t know if you can really put a value on being immersed in a truly academic environment where you get smarter just from daily interaction with your fellow students, whereas, it’s fairly easy to become complacent in an environment where your 80% is better than most people’s 100%. Furthermore, going to a prestigious undergraduate institution will add instant validity to every endeavor you wish to pursue – for the rest of your life. People are much more willing to give money to (either as an investment or when buying a product) and to try out a product, when it was created by a Princeton, Harvard, Wharton, Yale, Stanford, etc. graduate (or current student) versus one from Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, and Auburn. Additionally, I think those in the world of business that attended an elite undergraduate institution have the opportunity to bypass an MBA later down the road because they already have that incredible network and already have that polished pedigree on their resume. Unlike myself, who will most certainly need to go get an MBA from a top school later down the road to add some prestige to my resume and help assure those who would doubt me due to my not-so-academically-intense undergrad.

5. Social Life

Attending a big party school will definitely give you more willing participants for a wild and crazy spring break trip and I will be the first to admit that when I stayed at one of the more elite Ivy League universities for a week, I was aghast at the lack of partying (and social interaction in general) during the week. But this brings me to what I want to be the main takeaway of this article: you can find a balance. There are schools that excel in academics, offer you major sporting events to attend, and have huge Greek and/or party scenes – they do exist. These are the crème de la crème of the universities in the U.S. in my opinion. They give you all the recruiting you could want for your future investment banking or management consulting career, while also giving you more beer and vodka than you can handle. We’re talking about the University of Texas, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Duke, Indiana University (to an extent), and UC Berkeley to name a few. These are the sure-fire, can’t-go-wrong college choices that offer the best of both worlds and won’t have you taking sides on the classic Ivy versus state school conundrum (i.e. a lot of my Ivy League friends feel like they missed out on the college experience and wish they attended a party school, whereas a lot of my state school friends feel like they missed out on a true college education and wish they had better job opportunities).

In summary, pick the school where you feel like you will have the best fit and will have a solid collegiate experience, but don’t discount the value of solid exit opportunities (law school, med school Wall Street, Madison Avenue, etc.). Additionally, don’t let schools hoodwink you into thinking they are a prestigious university because some worthless magazine ranked them 24th among public schools. Not only are published school rankings complete rubbish, but when is the last time you honestly heard someone brag about finishing 24th in a race? That should let you know there’s something fishy going on from the start. If you want to truly know how prestigious a university is, look where like-minded graduates are going post-college. Meaning, if you want to be the next Clarence Darrow, see how many students from the pre-law society are going to Yale Law School; if you want to be the next Gordon Gekko, see how many former finance students are working in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs come July; if you want to be the next Mitt Romney, see how many business students are working at Bain next fall.