#but I’m not from the upper echelon legacy Ivy admission lot

[cactusbaseball]

The farther I get in academia the more I realize how bullshit the Ivy League and similar colleges are. I’m not saying you can’t get a good education or conduct cool research at any of those schools, but I really think the only thing Ivy leagues can offer that a decent public university can’t is the status of having an Ivy League degree, which only takes u so far if ur not already from a wealthy background. When I was in high school I was so convinced I had to go to a fancy private school to be successful. I got into some but couldn’t afford any, and ended up going to a big public school. But guess what! I graduated debt free, got a job in my field right out of college, and am now entering the same selective grad program as students who went to ivy leagues for undergrad. Idk if there are any stressed overachieving high school seniors reading this but if you are please know that you do not have to go into 100,000 dollars of debt going to Harvard or some shit to lead a successful life.