Exactly. That's basically my point... even at the extreme upper end of the ambition range, you can succeed without necessarily attending an Ivy League or "elite" university. Now, stop and look at the ambitions of the more average people, who maybe want to run a local Subway franchise in their hometown, or maybe be a VP of Engineering or VP of Marketing somewhere, or who would be satisfied being CEO of some obscure tool & die manufacturing plant in the Rust Belt, or who want to own a chain of Ford dealerships in their area. All of those things still count as "success" in most books, and I don't think any of them necessitate having gone to an Ivy League school.
Nö One says anything about it being necessary, but if you think that going to one of the "elite" universities doesn't help you tremendously with your chances of being higher up on your career ladder, then this is really not worth discussing.
In that light, you don't need anything, not a college degree, not a high school degree, because you will always be able to achieve success ...
but if you think that going to one of the "elite" universities doesn't help you tremendously with your chances of being higher up on your career ladder
Depends on how exactly you define "elite", "tremendously" and "career ladder".
Anyway, I'm not arguing that they don't help, I'm arguing that the extent of the difference they make is very possibly overstated, especially for people whose aspirations don't include "being President of the USA" or "being CEO of an S&P 500 company".
In that light, you don't need anything, not a college degree, not a high school degree, because you will always be able to achieve success
Not sure if that was meant to be sarcasm or mean to be taken literally, but I actually believe that very strongly. There are lots of variables that affect what happens to a person in life, of which "what university you attend" or "did you attend university at all" are just two.
Personally, I believe determination, ambition, perseverance, work ethic, attitude, etc., matter more than either of those factors.
I mean i agree that there are many factors at work, but im not sure whether i could comfortably say for example that "what university you attend" is a worse factor (correlation wise) than work ethic/determination. Though I guess that is party because you can't really measure those other factors you mentioned.
If you do the math, you'll see that an elite school's degree really will help you get into those midrange jobs. It opens doors, so if you have the ambition, it'll give you more opportunities.
Me, I'm kind of a bum, but thanks to my UC Berkeley degree, I barely have to make an effort to land a middle class job. Granted, I am a computer geek, so that's easy.
