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Reply to "Princeton vs Alabama"

"An Ivy League education will get a person a lot of contacts to advance their career, and that's really about the only advantage they have over many other colleges."

A 100 mph fastball will get a person a lot of [opportunities] to advance their career, and that's really about the only advantage they have over many other [players].

Yup.

If the point was, a person can get a great education at many schools, that is correct. But, I don't know if you are aware of some actual graduation requirements which really put an exclamation point on their studies. EVERY student writes a one semester junior paper which prepares him/her for the capstone senior year thesis. The senior thesis is a year long independent novel research paper (over and above from senior year course requirements). I have included the two senior year thesis' from my kids - can you guess which was the baseball player and which wasn't? imageimage

Employers are fully cognizant of these papers; most other schools don't require that EVERY student complete one to graduate.

If the point was meant to assert that contacts aren't really that important, I disagree. For example, an engineering grad (or any other discipline) who has a great idea has immediate access to her/his contacts; those contacts may be financial, engineering, legal or any other field needed to take the idea into practice; one contact directs to another contact throughout the network. Princeton, in particular, makes those contacts available EVERY year through its weeklong graduation ceremonies. During that week, EVERY graduating class participates in not only a huge parade, but also several nights of partying on campus in what is reputedly the largest beer drinking fest outside of NASCAR. This means that Princeton takes great pains to weave every graduate into its network; new graduates are free to, encouraged to, and do mingle with older graduates knowing that he/she can call that graduate for help. That is one component of its "secret sauce."

There were many aspects of Princeton's educational experience I wasn't fond of; but at the end of the sausage making process, the output was superb.

 

 

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Last edited by Goosegg
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