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Yes, I think there is a huge problem when the people who are applicants are providing this kind of advice because it may be misinformed. Do potential applicants really have the knowledge to say it is worth passing up $$$ to attend another school? If so, where is this opinion coming from? When I gave similar advice as an applicant, it was purely based on perception as an outsider, not any true factual knowledge.
But as a current student, I assure you, within the top ten schools, there is not as much difference in opportunities as you might think. Current students really appreciate this because we see that companies A,B,C recruit at ALL the elite schools. We see that tons of schools have experiential learning programs, etc.
I think that's a really good point. Whenever I see the School X vs School Y threads, I make the following assumptions:
1) It's the original poster's responsibility to figure out whether the advice is coming from a current student, applicant, random member. It's pretty easy to see the post count, schools list on the avatar and go from there. I would hope that opinion wouldn't be swayed just because a brand new member posts "Yale sucks".
2) The purpose of the thread can vary. I think in some cases people use those threads to make sure they've thought through the different factors impacting that decision (e.g. alumni, concentrations, etc etc). In others, original posters sometimes have already maybe made a decision and are curious about how people would react to their decision.
3) If someone really wants the opinion of random people on the internet about an expensive, potentially life-changing decision - I'm happy to share my two cents
I would just hope that people don't actually make decisions solely based on those threads and do their own research in speaking to alums/current students/employers.
Cheerio,
isa.