Community college students can be just as smart (or smarter) than Ivy League students. amirite?

Can yes, on average no.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

All that needs to be said.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

Someone took statistics and actually understood it.

by Ok-You35 9 hours ago

It's really more of a branding culture. The Ivies are like Hermes, Chanel, Tiffany diamond rings. Expensive and exclusive but not arguably the "best" education. It's pay to play with some lotto winners. There are extremely intelligent people in poor neighborhoods, rich neighborhoods, working class neighborhoods, community colleges, trade tech schools and yes I.V. Leagues. Biggest gripe with the Ivies is the arrogance of the "prestige". Doesn't mean those graduates are brilliant, just means they have the Tiffany diamond ring on their resume. The Ivies also operate more like institutional hedge funds that "invest" in public equities with the tuition enrollment cash flow. The education they offer is secondary to the old guard money that has been funneled into their institutions for 150-200 years.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

The education doesn't make Ivy leagues worth it, its the connections. Its always been this way. If you go to an Ivy you can connect with the richest and smartest people in the world, and this will get you far ahead in life.

by Daphnecorwin 8 hours ago

I agree with you you're paying for the connections more so than the education, that is part of the problem. I have quite a few friends who graduated from I.V. League schools and I don't consider them significantly smarter than many of my other friends who did not get that education. I myself went to state university. I have no desire to push my daughter to go to an IV league school when she's older because I honestly think it's a waste of money. I think it's really funny how much I.V. School students and/or graduates get pressed that some other people view their decision as a waste of money. Sensitive guys and gals. I think 150-200 grand is better spent on other pursuits and investments, personally. Apparently so did Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I'm not like the biggest fan of any of them, in fact they irritate me. However, they clearly had similar feelings for them to dropout.

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

This is not an unpopular opinion.

by Slow-Maintenance 8 hours ago

Agreed. I am a university professor and the transfer students are just as intelligent as the four year students. Maybe even smarter because transfers have a lot more to overcome to get in and graduate.

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

The majority of cc students don't go on to transfer to university though, so the sample you're seeing is already skewed. And I'm not looking down on community college. I went through community college myself and then went to a state school. But there are a ton of people at the ccs that basically treat it like extended high school, flounder around for several years, and then drop out. Even of the ones that do end up transferring, the percentage that ends up actually completing their degree isn't super high.

by Anonymous 7 hours ago

It definitely is

by Anonymous 7 hours ago

Not really tbh.

by schinnerclyde 7 hours ago

Just to clarify, I don't necessarily think Ivy League students are smarter than community colleges students, but you hand a resume to a hiring manager (or just a random person) and 99/100 they'll just assume someone with an Ivy League education is more intelligent than a community college student.

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

Thats not the prompt tho. We aren't talking on average, it's a they can be just as smart. If even one community college grad is smarter than the dumbest ivy leaguer the prompt is correct. Hiring manager would go with ivy because on average they have higher talent. But if the job is too low quality they will worry about ivy job hopping to better opportunities.

by Queasy_Wedding 6 hours ago

They CAN be, sure. And a high school basketball team CAN have a 7 foot tall player. But on average the pro teams will be taller.

by Jevonstoltenber 5 hours ago

i'd say that they have as much potential as ivy league students. as a poor kid who went to the ivy league while kids that were brighter than me dropped out of HS and college, there was a big difference in how wealthy kids in the ivy league operate, have the skills to do well in school, the emotional regulation, etc.

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

Unfortunately, potential isn't determined by the individual kid. Kids from higher income families have better prospects of getting into more elite schools and becoming higher earners. Can the rest of us do it too? Sure, but the chances are lower, and the foundations our parents build for us as children dictates a lot. I was able to make it and go to a 4 year school, but if mom and dad could have afforded private school or a prep school maybe I could have gone to an ivy. Maybe my own kids will be able to one day. Other kids I grew up with never had a chance. Being raised by grandma, where your aunt, uncles and cousins are all living under the same roof, and mom and dad are in prison or absent, doesn't give you the best odds.

by Street_Tax_916 5 hours ago

No. They don't. Potential is what they measure before they admit you.

by Reasonable_Skill 5 hours ago

Not really sure if I buy the ‘harder worker' assumption. Community college kids often juggle jobs, family, and school with zero safety net. Grinding 40 hours a week and still passing classes shows more work ethic than someone who never had to worry about rent or food.

by Adorable-Theme 4 hours ago

You have a stereotype in your head of what an Ivy League kid is that just isn't true. Many of them weren't rich and didn't have tutors and support. But even for the ones that did, they still had to work their ass off, even if they did have a ton of support. And again, some of them did have to hold down two jobs and still make straight As… you're just making a ton of unfounded assumptions. I'm in grad school now with a girl who went to MIT (not an Ivy, but my point still stands), and she was an immigrant from Somalia with a single mom who grew up in housing projects. I promise she's worked harder than just about anybody you've ever met. Every kid in an Ivy worked hard to get there. A ton of kids in community college are there precisely because they didn't work hard.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

One MIT success story doesn't erase the fact that access is uneven. Saying ‘every Ivy worked harder' is just as much a stereotype as the one you're accusing me of. Prestige ≠ effort and CC ≠ laziness.

by Adorable-Theme 4 hours ago

your wrong

by Quitzondejah 3 hours ago

How so?

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

im an ivy league student because my family has money. ive never expierienced hardship and have an easy life. hes right on the money with most of the people ive met

by Quitzondejah 3 hours ago

Oh yeah? Where do you go? What are you studying?

by Anonymous 2 hours ago

You're. I feel there is some irony in this....

by Ill_Coyote_882 2 hours ago

Pretending Ivy League parents having more resources for their kids = the kids not putting in the same effort as cc students is asinine. Just because they have coaches and more resources doesn't mean they don't have to put in the effort. Having a tool doesn't mean you automatically are better. It's what you do with it. You are associating correlation with causation. Some of those ivy league kids don't make it, and some of the cc students do have the same resources and don't get into said Ivy schools. You are speaking too much in black and white and are assuming that just because someone has a job while in school means they are working harder. Those same ivy league schools also have much higher standards for maintaining enrollment than community colleges, and require a lot more attention and effort.

by Anonymous 2 hours ago

It's the safety net that Ivy League students tend to have that makes a difference. If you're rich and have resources you can afford to fail multiple times

by Capable-Winter 1 hour ago

Yeah not every CC student is struggling, but many are juggling way more real world responsibilities than the average Ivy kid. You cannot deny that. Saying it's just ‘regular people' kind of dismisses the fact that a big portion are working jobs, supporting families, or transferring in later because they didn't have resources at 18. That context matters when comparing work ethic. Matters a lot actually.

by Adorable-Theme 1 hour ago

Saying it's just ‘regular people' kind of dismisses And saying "many" without actual numbers just shows that you don't have the data to back up your statement. Which means that you didn't think about your argument as much as you should have before making your statement. The context matters when comparing work ethic Of course, context matters. But it's obvious that you don't care for it. I get that nobody can be completely unbiased but your entire argument is very much painted in very uneven biases. Like… You are praising community college students for "surviving" (which, again, is a very dramatised statement for reasons I explained above) and view their education as proof of their work ethic. But you are condemning Ivy League students for their education because you view it as "curated" due to their presumed wealth and connections. And you completely ignore the context that, if they were that connected and rich, they could just as easily choose to not pursue education and coast by through life.

by Time_Ambassador9893 1 hour ago

getting into an ivy league requires the same juggling of activities - it might be doing a long term research project while maintaining all A+s, but it's the same grind also for every cc student you described there's plenty who came from decent families but simply never cared about school and got kicked out of the house at 18

by Anonymous 51 minutes ago

Not unpopular, getting into an Ivy League or a high end college is closer correlated to wealth than intelligence. But… as someone that went to community college, there are some dumb mofos in community college and they arent smarter then the average ivy leaguer. lol.

by Anonymous 38 minutes ago

Can be. Likely? Definitely not.

by Anonymous 12 minutes ago