So just how hard is it to get into Harvard, Princeton, Yale, or some other uber uni?
 

I've been entertaining some silly thoughts of going to a top-notch university. My undergrad GPA is quite dismal :( but I redeemed myself in grad school and graduated with a GPA that is safely above the GPA requirements of the doctoral programs at many universities. I'm thinking of a PhD in Medieval lit but lately I've been having some really fanciful thoughts of one in philosophy. I'm insane. Or maybe I just don't know myself!

I've never tried getting into grad school, much less a PhD program. I managed to get into Georgia Tech for my undergrad, and I did it with a 1320 SAT and a GPA above 4.0 with the silly weighting business.

I'm a little sour on higher education at the moment, since I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and have never made over $40k/yr with my degree. When I was overseas, I met a lot of guys who went to work after high school and are now plumbers, welders, fabricators, etc, who make a lot more than that.

It's extremely difficult.

Why would you want to attend one of them?

I'm not very serious about going to an Ivy league; I'd be delusional if I were! However, the idea of entering a doctoral program is something I'm seriously considering, but not super serious yet. I still need to do some major introspection and reaccess some things.

Anyhow, I would go to, say, Harvard just for the "bragging rights"! Heck, even being accepted is worth bragging about right thur! Ah, but I doubt they'd accept a riffraff like me!

I think it partly depends on who your graduate professors are, who they know, and whether they'll write convincing recommendation letters.

I have a friend from high school who ended up getting a Doctorate in aerospace engineering, and has a job with a contractor who works with JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

He makes big money. Real big.

That ain't going to happen with a degree in Medieval Literature or Philosophy.

Sounds like have personal experience with this issue. :D

And the best man at my wedding has a Ph.d. in Medieval English Literature.

I'd be looking for which school offers the best economic incentive to attend.

My lil brother has degree's in Cultural Anthropology and Marine Biology.

He works as a warehouseman.

Neither of the fields you mentioned are any more employable.....

Best way to get in is as a legacy.

I think it would be more worth it so you could go drinking and hang out with the right people.

Come job finding time its nice to have your friends dad on the board for the company that you want to work for.:D


Back in HS my history teachers daughter graduated from Yale with a degree in ancient peoples or something like that. After not being able to get a job for a year she decided that making money was a good thing, so she went back and got a finance degree; now she has a Porsche...:D

Get into top-tier school only for terminal degree. If it's an undergrad degree then work your bootie off to get in.

In the long term, if you have an MS (or even better, a PhD from CalTech), nobody's gonna give a ***** where your undergrad (or MA/MS) degree came from.

B

Where you can get in may depend a lot on what subject you're pursuing, you're success in that particular field. I think when you're applying for an undergraduate program they look across the board ... i.e., even if you want to be an English major, the fact that you were meddling in math and science will still hurt you. I think when you go for a PhD they look more specifically at your talent in that area. I could be wrong.

Even if it sounds cool to say "I went to Harvard," keep in mind that a lesser-known university may actually better serve your needs if you're pursuing a certain specialty.

I don't really know what I'm talking about, as I went straight into the workforce after undergrad ... probably a mistake, if for no other reason than I simply wasn't ready to handle the "real world."

FWIW, I went to Bucknell, a very good university that folks often joke is for "Ivy League rejects." I never wanted to go to Ivy League and never tried, but I got right into Bucknell's undergraduate program with 1460 SATs. My high school grads were good but unspectacular. I did much better, grade-wise, once I got to college. I wish I'd gone right ahead and taken the GREs, and churned ahead to grad school right after graduation. It woul dbe very hard to go back now.

Harvard denied me when I applied to go there....