Your Views on Prestige?

[xiaoting]

Hey guys,

I'd been prowling ibsurvival for quite a long time during my Pre-IB days. It's nice to finally sign up as I'm entering year 1 of the IB diploma next year.

Anyways, I live in Canada and have this dream of becoming a pharmacist.

With an IB diploma under my belt in two years (hopefully), I'll apply to 4 different Canadian Universities; University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Toronto and University of Waterloo. If I were to be accepted in all, I'd choose University of Alberta.

Now, everytime I tell my friends and family this, they all glare at me and question, "Why? University of Alberta isn't as good as the others..."

So I'm guessing my question is. To you guys, how much does prestige matter? :]

Sorry if this question has been asked before ><~

[Drake Glau]

You should be researching the college's programs, particularly pharmacology. I'm interpreting prestige as popularity rather than quality in this case by the way. Popularity means squat to a college really. Sure it may be popular but it might not even have what you want. I'm going to University of Missouri, which is popular for it's basketball team and football team but it doesn't have my program so I have to transfer later.

I would also consider HL Chem instead of HL Geo, just sayin'

[dessskris]

I would also consider HL Chem instead of HL Geo, just sayin'

very important.

hmmm TBH I myself think that prestige is an important factor in choosing a university.

you know, when you apply for jobs, if they see that you graduated from some prestigious university, they might favour you more than anyone who graduated from some non-prestigious uni... I think it's unfair, but if you think about it, it's quite sensible in a way that getting into a prestigious uni is more difficult than into a less-prestigious uni in terms of the requirements and competitions, etc..

anyway, in a prestigious uni, the facilities tend to be more sophisticated and the professors tend to be more professional.

however, it's not the only factor to consider when choosing a uni.

what made you choose Alberta?

maybe because it's closer to your home, or maybe because you admire some of the professors there, or maybe because your friends want to go there too... there are a lot of factors! prestige is not the only aspect to look into, although it should be one factor to be considered.

[Drake Glau]

Desy's post reminded me of my ToK/Physics teacher and what he said about picking a college.

#1, do they have your program?

#2, is it where you want to be? City, country, cold, hot, it matters.

Those were always the top priorities really. Obviously they need your program but you're also going to live there/around there for 4 years. Better make sure you like it there

[elmar]

(Refer to the quote in my signature.)

You can always use those more selective colleges to your advantage, but only so much. You can put down you went to Harvard, but when you do badly on a job and your boss criticizes you, you can't use the excuse, "I went to Harvard."

I will admit I have fallen to the fallacy of prestige - I've considered a college just based on its title. However, now that I'm able to start applying, I've definitely narrowed it down to a certain criteria when applying to colleges:

1) Do they have all the programs I'm interested in?

2) Is it in a good location (far away from home, preferably in a good neighborhood/city)?

3) Do I have a relative chance of being accepted (is it plausible to apply there)?

[Arrowhead]

I dunno, maybe I didn't do enough research when it mattered, or I was blinded by wilful ambition, but to me prestige was one of the only things I looked at when applying for my courses in the UK and the US. I applied for Law across the UK and made it into LSE and King's and Warwick and Sussex, I got up to interviews at Oxford and then got out. All of my Unis were chosen based off of League tables.

I also applied to a number of US Unis for different courses: Comparative Literature (Brown), Film (NYFA), Economics (Penn State), Undecided (Yale). Again these applications (except NYFA) were based off of the fact that three Unis were Ivy Leagues and hence "prestigious."

I like to think that these Unis do give you an edge that others, "less" prestigious ones cannot. It also sounds very impressive when you've come out with a degree from one of these Unis. Upper tier schools get a lot of opportunities that say someone at Chester University wouldn't get. For example, we had an Internal Mooting Competition at LSE just like one that my friend participated in at Chester. Both of us won our events, he received a pat on his back and a nifty certificate, I got £500 and a mini-pupillage at Atkins Internal Chambers.

Every other week we have a number of huge Law firms and Banks come and represent themselves on Campus, meet-and-greets and opportunities to network. For my Final round in the Moot, we had a judge from the London High Court come to judge us and then a social with IT Barristers from Atkins. Now I dunno how many such opportunities King's, UCL, and Imperial get (possibly the same amount), but I doubt the same is true for City or Bristol or Southampton.

When I applied for vacation working schemes this summer, I had five callbacks and four of my interviewers expressed their interest and asked me about LSE and studying Law there.

It really does make a difference in more than just job applications after you finish your degree. It also helps that the Alumni network is so well connected and the Uni actually works with the students to help them find job opportunities and such.

At least that has been my experience.

[xiaoting]

I would also consider HL Chem instead of HL Geo, just sayin'

My school is too poor to afford HL Chem

We've consistently begged the IB coordinator to create the course, but he says we won't be able to take it because he's not willing to let us "risk our future" for an exam that we might not be able to pass because of lack of funding for the teachers and the course. -sigh-

what made you choose Alberta?

Haha. I don't really know. I DID view prestige quite highly when I was a kid, and thought that was the only thing that mattered. But as I research into the Alberta Pharmacy curriculum and compare and contrast, I feel like it offers more, for Canadian Universities anyways. Apparently Alberta is well known in Canada for it's Medicine and Pharmacy faculty, but my friends and family just don't get it. Heh. They associate Alberta with the overall impression XP

Anyways. aside from that. it's strange, but i felt a "calling" to Alberta.

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

U of Alberta is a great school. Dont worry so much about prestige

Edited February 21, 2012 by Vol de Mort