NationStates Jolt Archive

Let's say your father has important connections that can get you into Yale or or any other prestigious school you want to go to. Would you tell him to shove his connections and go to a less prestigious school, or would you thank him and go to Yale?

Let's say your father has important connections that can get you into Yale or or any other prestigious school you want to go to. Would you tell him to shove his connections and go to a less prestigious school, or would you thank him and go to Yale?

Well, I would've liked to have attended Yale because I was intelligent, not because I was rich.

I like to think I'm a smart guy, and I like my school, but I would definitely be there in a heartbeat if my parents had connections.

It's not always what you know, it's also who you know.

I wouldn't go to Yale just because when I visited, I hated New Haven. But replace Yale with a comparable school that I actually wanted to go to (i.e. Stanford) and the answer's a definite yes.

if it were something i really wanted i wouldnt hesitate to use whatever legal edge i could get.

i dont see any sense in going to an ivy league school as an undergrad. its expensive, full of obsessive students and the children of the rich. better to go to a good state school for undergrad and do the ivy league thing for grad school.

I wouldn't go to Yale just because when I visited, I hated New Haven. But replace Yale with a comparable school that I actually wanted to go to (i.e. Stanford) and the answer's a definite yes.

The only reason I used Yale as an example is because so many people complain and deride President Bush for using his father's connections to get him into that school.

I would do it if I was otherwise qualified to get into the school and wasn't taking a spot away from a more deserving candidate. I'm competitive and don't want to use an unfair edge to win. I'd rather lose on my own than win with extra help.

The only reason I used Yale as an example is because so many people complain and deride President Bush for using his father's connections to get him into that school.

Yeah, I got that. I, for one, can't criticize him for it.

I would do it if I was otherwise qualified to get into the school and wasn't taking a spot away from a more deserving candidate. I'm competitive and don't want to use an unfair edge to win. I'd rather lose on my own than win with extra help.
well i suppose Bush accepting was setting a precedent for him taking family help to get into positions.

I wouldn't, but that's more out of spite than morals. I don't want my dad to feel that I "owe him" anything. But I don't really hold it against someone if they take advantage of their connections. I would, so long as my connection was someone outside of the immediate family whom I didn't have a problem with.

well i suppose Bush accepting was setting a precedent for him taking family help to get into positions.
Yep--about the only time his family couldn't help him was when he wanted to get into UT Law School and couldn't make the grade. That's why he went to Harvard and got the MBA, after all. Daddy's money could get him into Harvard.

The only reason I used Yale as an example is because so many people complain and deride President Bush for using his father's connections to get him into that school.

Well, that is done because conservatives site that fact as evidence of Bush's intelligence. But liberals counter that claim by pointing out that he had his way bought for him. When it comes to schools like Yale and Harvard, it has more to do with money and influence than it does actual intelligence.

No way! Now, if it was U of T....

I'm lookin at West Point myself

I'd prefer to enter Yale for academic reasons, but why the hell wouldn't I go? It's Yale!

No, because I don't want to do something I am not academically prepared for. However, I do have a school function at Yale this October.

I wouldn't go to Yale. Cambridge or Oxford, hell yeah.

If my dad had any connections then I would use the hell out of them.

I think anyone would be close to stupid not to use the connections at hand if that's what they really want to do.

I don't fault him for using his father's connections to get him into Yale, but since he didn't do very well there, his Yale degree isn't quite as impressive as he makes it out to be.

If I had connections to get into an Ivy League school, bet me, I'd be busting my ass to make sure I earned the grades to prove I truly deserved to be there.

Let's say your father has important connections that can get you into Yale or or any other prestigious school you want to go to. Would you tell him to shove his connections and go to a less prestigious school, or would you thank him and go to Yale?
i got into Harvard on my own merits and still chose not to go. from what i have seen, i would feel the same way about Yale, so i would certainly turn down the opportunity you describe.

Let's say your father has important connections that can get you into Yale or or any other prestigious school you want to go to. Would you tell him to shove his connections and go to a less prestigious school, or would you thank him and go to Yale?

Both of my parents want me to go and learn some nuclear-physics or something like that.
I'm going to learn art actually, they just don't know it yet :)

Well personally I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Why go to Yale when you can go to RPI? Of course not everyone can go to RPI so Yale might be a good second choice. :p

Having connections to get to Yale is not as important as getting into Yale and wasting the experience. Don't go because you "have" to go (although you do have to go somewhere to get anywhere thesedays) but if you go, then go for it all the way!

Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to travel that far to go to school. If there were connections closer to home perhaps, maybe Ohio State.

But a semi-humorous story about Yale...
I knew a guy in High School who sent in an application to Yale in his friend's name (the Valedictorian that year) filled out entirely in CRAYON.

I wouldnt go to Yale, it would mean leaving my family and moving to the US. I want to go to Cambridge, its better than any amount of ivy. :)