In today's extremely competitive job market, does having an Ivy League Education disclose one to more job opportunities than most? More importantly I care to find out if it pays to go to one of the Ivy league schools both quantitatively and qualitatively? Quantitively I am going to be looking at the amount of students loans the average student has to take out to attend the elite, the average amount of time it takes for Ivy students to find a job upon graduation, the average salary of an Ivy graduate compared to that of a state school or private school graduate, and things of that nature. Qualitatively I am going to look at the difference in the education program as a whole, what makes an Ivy so great in the first place? Also I am going to research the stress the Ivies have on their students and recent graduates and see how it compares to other non Ivy schools.
Image: http://www.americanthinker.com/legacy_assets/blog/assets/Ivy%20pennants.jpg
This could be a great topic, but I think you have to find some deeper questions about Ivies, which I am sure you will do as you develop the topic. After all, there is not much controversy on the "quantitative" dimension of your question (if by quantity you mean money and not number of students educated): from a pure money perspective, the answer is that, on average, graduates of Ivy League institutions have less debt upon graduation and get higher starting salaries than graduates of other schools. I think the research on that is pretty clear. The "qualitative" dimensions (if you get beyond the usual measures of "quality") that might be most interesting to explore.
ReplyDeleteAs you think about this topic, you definitely should look at Karen Ho's "Biographies of Hegemony" from our readings, if you have not done so already. That is really a great article and will give you at least one interesting model for how you can take the "jobs" question in a different direction. Along the same lines, you should look at Excellent Sheep by William Deresciewicz.
At least one student has taken on this topic, and her blog might help you:
http://sophiescollegeblog.blogspot.com/
I think she neglected to include her final bibliography, which was excellent, so here it is from her paper:
Bastedo, Michael. Jaquette, Ozan. “Running in Place: Low-Income Students and the Dynamics of Higher Education Stratification.” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 33.3 (2011): 318-339. Web.
Bruni, Frank. Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2015. Print.
Deresiewicz, William. Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. New York: Free Press, 2014. Print.
Deresiewicz, William. “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.” The American Scholar (June 1, 2008): 1-9. Theamericanscholar.org. 12 Oct 2015. Print and web.
Deresiewicz, William. “The Neoliberal Arts: How College Sold Its Soul to the Market.” Harper’s Magazine (September 2015). Print and web. Available:
http://harpers.org/archive/2015/09/the-neoliberal-arts/
Golden, Daniel. The Price of Admissions: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges--and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006.
Print.
Griswold, Alison. “Malcolm Gladwell's Fascinating Theory On Why You Should Be A Big Fish In A Little Pond.” Business Insider (October 2013). Web.
Ho, Karen. Liquidated. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.
Hobbs, Jeff. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace. New York: Scribner, 2014. Print.
Liu, James. “The Admissions Race”. The Amherst Student. N.p. 24 November 2013. Web. 15 November 2015. http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/?q=article/2013/04/24/admissions
-race.
Paul, Pamela. “Being a Legacy Has Its Burden.” The New York Times. 4 November 2011.
Race to Nowhere. Dir. Vicki Abeles. Reel Link Films, 2009. Film.
Radford, Alexandria. Top Student Top School? How Social Class Shapes Where Valedictorians Go To College. Chigaco: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. Print.
Saunders, Daniel. “The Impact of Neoliberalism on College Students.” Journal of College and Character 8.5 (July 2007): 1-9. Print and web. Available: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2202/1940-1639.1620
Stevens, Mitchell. Creating a Class. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2007. Print.