Prestigious colleges aren’t necessarily better schools. That’s an over-arching theme of my blog and of our work at Collegewise. It’s why we encourage students to work hard to give themselves as many college options as possible, but not to define their success based on whether or not a highly-seletive college says yes. What students do in college is much more important than the name of the school where they do it.
Non-believers should take a close look at the results of a new Gallup Poll, summarized in this NPR article:
There’s plenty of anxiety in the U.S. over getting into a top college. But a new Gallup poll suggests that, later in life, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as we think. In fact, when you ask college graduates whether they’re ‘engaged’ with their work or ‘thriving’ in all aspects of their lives, their responses don’t vary one bit whether they went to a prestigious college or not.”