常青藤学位是成功的必需品吗？

Is an Ivy-League degree necessary for success?

常青藤学位是成功的必需品吗？

(中英双语)

Elite investment banking and consulting firms like Merrill Lynch and McKinsey recruit heavily at Ivy League schools. However, major pharmaceutical, manufacturing and commercial banking companies have shifted recruiting resources away from the Ivies in favor of other Ivy-comparable institutions. Examples include the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Illinois and the University ofTexas.

像美林证券或是麦肯锡公司这类顶尖的投资银行或者咨询公司每年都会从常春藤大学录取大量的学生。但是近年来，制药、制造领域的公司、商业银行正在渐渐地将招聘的重心从常春藤大学转移向其他一些与常春藤大学能力相当的学校，比如威斯康辛麦迪逊大学、伊利诺大学和德克萨斯大学。

Generally speaking, many of these top-tier companies have found Ivy League graduates tobe intelligent and capable. However, having such attributes does not guarantee success at the work place. In other words, it is not agiven that such graduates will necessarily perform better than employees who have graduated from other universities. In fact, many employers have found their sense of entitlement to be a negative. Ivy League graduates tend not to stay on the job long and many over estimate the value they bring to our organization.

这些顶尖的公司发现从常春藤大学毕业的学生往往非常的聪明并且有着过人的才能。但是，这些品质并不能保证一个人职业道路上的成功。人们并不能保证常春藤大学毕业生一定会比其他大学的毕业生在工作上表现地更好。事实上，很多公司还发现常春藤大学的毕业生对自己所在的公司有较低的归属感—相比起其他大学的毕业生，他们保持某一工作的时间更短，而且他们往往会高估自己给公司带来的利益。

While there are 14.9 million undergraduates attending universities in the United States, less than 55,600 attend Ivy League schools. So right from the start, teenagers face horrible odds if they want to attend these eight schools: Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton Univeristy, Dartmouth College, Brown University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University.

在1490万的美国大学生中，仅仅只有约55600人就读于常春藤大学。所以，想要在将来进入常春藤八学（哈佛大学，耶鲁大学，普林斯顿大学，达特茅斯学院，布朗大学，哥伦比亚大学，宾夕法尼亚大学和康奈尔大学）的美国孩子在少年时就面临了极大的挑战。

Unfortunately, what is often missing in discussions when an Ivy League school makes the national news is whether the education at one of these elite institutions is really better than what thousands of other colleges and universities offer. The evidence suggests that it is not. You do not, for instance, need an Ivy League education to succeed in a career, much less in life. A recent survey, for instance, Ivy League graduates do not dominate the top fifty Fortune 500 Companies.  If you look at the top self-made billionaires onForbes' Richest Americans list, only several holds an Ivy League degree. Studies comparing the lifetime earnings of Ivy Leaguers versus talented graduates of less prestigious universities say it is inconclusive whether anIvy League degree offers a higher rate of return.

然而，常春藤大学这些精英机构的教育是否真的比其他数以千计的大学提供的教育更好，却避而不谈。但是很多的证据证明，答案是否定的。学生们不需要常春藤大学的教育来保证他们在事业上、生活上的成功。近期，一项调查表明在500强公司中最顶尖的50个中，常春藤大学毕业生数量并不占优势。如果仔细观察福布斯美国富豪排行榜，你会发现在这么多富豪中只有几人是毕业于常春藤大学的。通过对比常春藤大学毕业生与其他大学毕业生的毕生所得，一些研究发现常春藤大学毕业生并不一定有更高的收入。

There is also plenty of evidence that schools do not necessarily provide their students with the very best educations. For instance, The New York Times published a story that conveyed the deep concern of some Harvard University professors, who fretted about the quality of the school’s undergraduate education. They were worried because many of Harvard’s professors are devoted to their own research and teaching undergraduates is a low priority. One professor lamented that some students graduate from Harvard without ever knowing any teacher well enough toask for a recommendation. Imagine that!

也有很多证据表明了这些学校并不能保证给予学生最优质的教育。比如，纽约泰晤士报发表过一篇文章。文章体现了一位哈佛教授对哈佛本科教育质量堕落的深深的叹惋。哈佛的教授将精力过分的投注于自己的研究，却无视了对本科生的教育。一位教授惋惜道：有很多从哈佛毕业的本科生，在学习了四年之后，甚至还找不到一位对他足够熟悉的教授来帮忙写一封推荐信。

One of the biggest fallacies about academic institutions is that attendance at a big-name university is virtually essential for reaching the top later in life. In fact, students will not necessarily get better educations at more prestigious institutions with higher paid faculty-especially since a college’s academic prestige depends primarily on its professors’ research and publications.

其实要进入一个顶尖的公司就必须要从一个著名的大学毕业这种说法就是一种谬论。在更加有名的大学学习并不一定能接受到更加优质的教育。因为一所大学的名气往往与教授的研究和论文的质量挂钩，而相比之下与大学的教育质量的关系并不大。

Various studies have shown students at small liberal arts colleges doing as well as, and sometimes better than, students from prestigious research universities on tests like those for medical schools and a higher percentage going on to receive PhDs. That is not surprising in view of a study indicating that teaching takes up less than half the working time of faculty at research universities yet nearly two-thirds of it at liberal arts colleges!

同时，越来越多的研究表明那些从小文理学院毕业的学生能在工作上和那些知名大学的毕业生表现得一样的好，有时甚至更好。在研究型大学中，一位教授在本科教育上花的时间不到他工作时间的一半。而在文理学院中，本科教育占据了教授们工作时间的三分之二以上。如此看来，存在这种差异就并不令人惊奇了。