Ivy reputation: leg up or crutch?

The Ivy League is technically an athletic conference, but to most of the country and beyond, the name connotes so much more.

Being part of the Ivy League implies academic excellence and a certain level of prestige, but in this age of hundreds of undergraduate institutions and hundreds of thousands of students, the classification doesn’t influence people in a single dimension. In some cases, it provides an incentive for admission and pride in enrollment. But for others, the title is practically a hindrance.

“I came here because [Penn] is an awesome school,” College junior Lindsey Scott said. “But if anything, the title of “Ivy League turned me off.”

Scott believes that, after college, no one will distinguish among different types of undergraduate educations. She said she feels sorry for those who will attempt to “rest on the crutch” of having gone to an Ivy League school, thinking it will give them some sort of real-world advantage.

Many other students, though, take a completely different stance. Penn’s reputation is often considered a major leg up in graduate school and employment searches.

Cara Bumgardner, a College alumna and candidate for a Masters of Science in Criminology and self-proclaimed “Ivy League elitist” said being at Penn made a difference both in her levels of preparedness and confidence for applying for Masters programs last year, and PhD programs for next year.

Her Penn education provided “opportunities to develop my social and intellectual skills more than … other schools would allow,” she said. While acknowledging that success in any environment is “really what you make of it,” she pointed out that a Penn education is “typically of a different caliber” and that expectations and standards are “higher here.”

Patricia Rose, director of Penn’s Career Services, agreed that a Penn education can make a difference in students’ lives.

“I do believe our students have access to more employment opportunities than do students at many other top colleges,” she wrote in an e-mail.

She attributes this not only to the school’s academic strength and notable faculty members, but also because of its long-standing relationships with many employers who “have hired Penn students and know first-hand how able and well-prepared our students are.”

But Rose emphasized the important difference between going to Penn and being in the Ivy League. While at Career Services they “absolutely encourage students to say they went to Penn,” she wrote an in e-mail, “we do not urge students to talk about the Ivy League, unless they have, for example, league-based sports accomplishments.”

Yet while the distinction may have originated as an athletic one, it has transcended those boundaries and continues to hold weight for broader perceptions of the school.

Bumgardner put a lot of stake in others’ awareness of what it means to be an Ivy League student. “It’s just our social and human nature to think someone’s more qualified and competent if they came from an Ivy than a lower ranked school,” she said.

That is what motivates her to apply exclusively to PhD programs at “top-ranked” schools. Even if their Criminology programs rank better than Penn’s, she explained, the prestige affiliated with the Ivy League can be more important than numbers — “just because of what the name implies.”

Wharton and College junior Scott Lefever agreed that prestigious institutions often provide certain advantages, such as extensive alumni networks, but thinks that it is far more important to work hard than to rely on status alone.

“For better or worse, there is some advantage to name and going to a place that is known to be the best,” said Lefever. But, he added, “at the end of the day, it’s about how you perform.”

Wharton class of 2009 alumna Melissa Ho agrees. “The name ‘Penn’ opens up doors,” she said, “but by no means will it get you a job — it just sparks an interest.”

And while many students don’t come to Penn just for its aura — citing instead factors like location, programs and financial aid — that doesn’t mean it isn’t a cherry on top.

College freshman Caitlin Dougherty’s decision to attend Penn admittedly “was a lot to do with reputation,” she said. “Penn was the best school I got into and the financial aid worked out.” But once she got involved on campus, she realized she made the right choice: “I didn’t think I would, but I ended up loving it here.”

College sophomore Annie Weinstein, who is from Philadelphia, said she wanted to stay local and Penn was “kind of the obvious choice” because it was the best academic institution in the area.

College junior Sean Flanagan also said he chose Penn partially for its location, as well as its excellent academics and the sense that it seemed like a fun place to go.

“I was aware it was an Ivy school,” he explained. “The title is nice … but it wasn’t really a crucial component of my decision.”

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