What Matters More

This fall I was applying to a handful of colleges, and it seemed like for at least a little while, my whole world revolved around the stressful admission process.  Coming from a well-off suburb of Chicago there is a lot of pressure placed on students to attend highly selective schools. This got me thinking about why there is so much emphasis on the college you attend? I wanted to know if the school you attend makes a difference in overall success in life? So over the past few months I have researched the areas of success in terms of financial, but also overall well-being, the preconceived ideas about the name of schools and the benefits of a college degree.

Where you go to school does not necessarily determine financial success. More selective schools do, on average, give people a better chance at financial success.  The “Ivies” do attract big name recruiters, and have some of the world’s top professors, but according to the Forbes article, “Do Ivy League Schools Still Matter?” a degree from an Ivy League school mostly raises an employer’s perception of that person’s initial performance. Typical graduates that attended an Ivy League school earn more than twice as much as people who went to other schools.

Does attending a selective school generate higher earning potential and is the benefits of getting a four year degree outweigh the burden of debt? College graduates on average have higher employment rates, larger salaries, and better interpersonal skills than someone with just a high school diploma. The demand for quality college education has increased; the modern job market puts a lot of emphasis on degrees.  People who attend college have a far better chance at finding a job and being “successful” in life.  The earnings a person receives with a bachelor's degree still trump the student debt in most cases. “When you add up the premium that college grads benefit from, which can amount to upwards of $10,000 each year, and multiply it by a career that lasts for about 45 years, the cost of a college education is well worth it.” says Carnevale.

Success after college is determined by your personality as well as ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead.  All these characteristics are who you are as a person not the school you attended.  There are numerous examples of people attending average schools and achieving great financial success and it had nothing to do with the name of the school he or she attended.

The college you go to for the most part does not matter as much as the types of experiences you have while you are there.  This is true for not only your experience while at school, but also the overall satisfaction with life after graduation.   This made me think, what was it that people are looking for from a higher education other than just money? People go to college to obviously earn a degree so they can get a job, but there is so much more that goes into a college experience. People grow and really find out who they are as people.  In all my research the following study confirmed my intuition that there was something more than school reputation or earning potential that matters in life… According to the Gallop Purdue Index served 60,000 college graduates of all ages on their success not in dollars but, instead on engagement in their jobs and overall well-being.  The index measures success not in dollars and job titles but in graduates’ engagement in their employment and, separately, their own well-being, as determined by their reported satisfaction with five dimensions of life: their relationships, their physical health, their community, their economic situation and their sense of purpose. The study uncovered four key activities or experiences that had lasting impact after graduation and drove higher engagement at their jobs and overall well-being.  If graduates did any one or more of the following during college 1) developed a relationship with a mentor 2) engaged in a semester or longer project 3) participated in a job/internship that related to the field they were interested in 4) got deeply involved with an organization or cause there was a significant difference in their scores on the well-being index.  An additional factor mentioned was being a part of a diverse community, which was a deeper belief in their specific school as a unique place. 

My overall conclusion after learning about this topic is that you should chose a college that is a good fit for you and not worry about the name of the school.  Because a person’s success comes from within not the school he or she attended.