When Desperation Hurts

We meet hundreds (maybe thousands) of parents in focus groups that are desperate to get their high school student children into an Ivy League or near-Ivy university. Each and every one of them should read this Washington Post article and reflect deeply on the wisdom of that wish.

"The bad news: This year only roughly eight percent of students who applied got into Ivy League schools. The good news: Those eight percent probably won’t be more satisfied professionally than the kids who went elsewhere.

When it comes to engagement at work — or whether you’re involved or enthusiastic about your work– where you attended college isn’t as important as the experience you had there, according to a new Gallup-Purdue University survey of 30,000 college graduates nationwide."

It's what you do that counts, not where you go.