In order to be successful, you need more education than a high school education,” Career Center Specialist Dawn Allison said. This concept is behind all of the actions and thoughts of McLean students.
In the bubble of stress, anxiety and achievement that is McLean, a huge emphasis is placed upon the reputation of schools that McGrads attend. For those who attend schools that don’t have the biggest, best facilities or legendary reputations, there is often a sense of shame or lowered self-esteem.
The desire to go to a school with an illustrious name is not necessarily unfounded; employers do like to see potential employees with quality educations, and an Ivy League or Ivy-caliber school is a good indicator of that. However, the colleges people attend do not decide their whole future—what they do with that education does.
“For some students,” said McLean counselor Barrett Kashdan, “a prestigious name is the cherry on the cake. However, you can get an excellent education at a lesser known college.” Kashdan went on to say that “paying for a name does not mean you are getting the best education,” furthering the idea that the name of the school students choose to attend is not all-important.
Unfortunately, choosing schools solely based on their prestige is not uncommon at McLean. Many students find themselves worrying excessively about a school’s reputation, the success rates of the graduates and having to make a choice between the elite schools and lesser-known schools they’ve applied to.
“In this community, everyone seems to feel like they have to go to these prestigious schools,” senior Emily Karl said. “I’m pretty self-motivated, and my parents just want [the school] that’s best for me.”
However, a commonality among many McLean students is the pressure they receive from their parents. Many already look internally to find motivation; the combination of the external and internal sources of pressure can be debilitating.
Many of these feelings of name-brand importance are simply a product of where we live. It is absolutely possible to attend a school without a big reputation, attain an excellent education and succeed in life. Additionally, most of the smaller, less ‘prestigious’ schools are more financially accessible than those in the upper echelon.
“A Lamborghini is a high status car, but it is costly to upkeep. A Honda is a good, safe car [that] will save you money and will get you to your destination as fast as a Lamborghini,” Kashdan said.
In essence, a school’s attractive qualities should not just be its name and reputation, but its safety, cost and reliability. Another good thing that comes from ‘buying the Honda’ is that it’s affordable and dependable.
One such example of a reliable and cost-friendly school is Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). The tuition is roughly $4,853 per year, compared to the tens of thousands of dollars that various other schools charge per year. For reference, Princeton’s tuition is about $41,280.
Those who choose to go to NOVA have an option to complete their freshman and sophomore year there, then transfer to a four-year college or university in order to complete their junior and senior years. Their degree will come from the school they attend in the last two years, meaning they were able to pay a fraction of the cost for the same degree as their classmates. To all of the shopaholics out there, consider the NOVA program like bargain shopping at Marshall’s—the same designer goods, but at a fraction of the price.