What's more telling? School or Degree Program....From the other forum

[Leherself]

I think some of this might be an attribution error. Part of the reason people from top tier schools make more money than the average is because they're the sort of people who go to top tier schools - i.e. exceptionally academically qualified, well connected, more affluent than average, etc. The reason they do better is the reason they got into a school like Harvard in the first place - they don't do better because they attended, they were already likely to do better before they even got in.

People like to talk about how attending the Ivies is a networking opportunity - but why? College students can network with other college students at any college, right? Part of what makes the Ivies different is where the students come from - their families, friends, colleagues, etc. The average Ivy league student already has a better network than most Americans before they ever go. The caliber of the students themselves matters also, of course, but it's hardly the only factor.

Honestly, even what you major in isn't all that predictive of your future. Sure, if you get highly qualified in a up and coming technical field, and then you're a go-getter in your career, then that'll matter. But someone with the fanciest degree in the world will fall on their butt if they don't know how to work, and someone with no degree at all can go out and kill it. If anything, some of the people who have dropped out of the Ivies are perfect examples of my earlier point. Elon Musk (Stanford), Bill Gates (Harvard), etc. got into those schools because of the kinds of people they were - and they succeeded beyond all reason without even graduating.

People keep wanting to hold up a university education as a pat answer to everything. "Just go here, and do this, and everything will work out for you." Life's just not that simple.