The Dangers of an Elite Degree

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“With a degree from Harvard, you can write your own check in life.” “Michigan is just a school that if you get in, you go.” “It doesn’t matter how expensive Cornell is, it is worth it.”

Young people are fed the narrative that with a degree from an elite university, they can land whatever job they want in life. Oftentimes, they start hearing this from a very young age. Students at average public schools will hear this from teachers as early as middle school. The entire prep school industry is built around parental anxieties that feed off this line of thought — to say nothing of the collegiate entry exam prep industries.

Students believe that a degree from an elite university will help them land any job they want. Oftentimes, it can be incredibly helpful. Getting a job at Goldman Sachs is much easier with a degree from Penn than one from Bob Jones; ending up at Google is easier with a Michigan degree than a Liberty degree; and getting into an excellent undergraduate institution can help you get into a top law school.

But to say that getting a degree from an elite university will help you land any job you want is simply not true. A graduate coming out of an elite university who applies for a job whose primary candidates are going to have less-elite degrees may stand out from the crowd, but likely in a negative way. This graduate is not just credentialed for this position, she is overcredentialed*. 

To use an example of overcredentialism in my own life, I recently spoke to a friend who holds a degree from a top-10 undergraduate university that is consistently praised as one of the best in the country — if not the world. She recently returned to her hometown and applied for several jobs whose qualifications she clearly met. Company-after-company told her that though she met their qualifications and was an impressive candidate, they could not hire her because she was “overqualified” for the position. Though she passionately desired the positions, had the skill sets and credentials necessary to succeed in the roles, and was happy to devote herself to growing into more senior positions, the companies still said no.

Why could this be?

This friend is overcredentialed. Overcredentialing happens when a candidate on the job market has a significantly better credential than the ideal candidate for the job..

“But wouldn’t the ideal candidate be the person who has the best credential, thereby signaling that they meet the highest standards of all available candidates?”

It is true that an elite degree signals that a candidate meets some pretty stringent requirements, but it also signals more things that the candidate may not want signaled.

Ideal candidates for smaller firms are defined by much more than a credential, enthusiasm for a job, and a skill set. They are also defined by a likelihood of staying around on the job. Training new candidates takes time and resources, and a high turnover rate can increase those needs. Even if a candidate is very likely to excel in their position in the short term, if they are unlikely to stay in the long term, they may be a less-ideal candidate than somebody whose credential signals lower-quality output over a longer period of time.

Graduates with degrees from elite institutions often have high aspirations and standards for their careers. They want to go to firms that bestow upon them both the salaries and the prestige that their degrees bring with them. Many students attend these schools just for these opportunities, while others are pushed to these opportunities because anything else would be considered a waste of an elite degree.

Employers know this and can expect it. When a candidate from an elite university applies to an entry level job at a smaller firm, the managers are right to raise eyebrows. This candidate, despite having a degree that well-qualifies them for the job to which they are applying, is not an ideal because they are more likely to leave the firm for a more prestigious, higher-paying job elsewhere.

In short, the candidate from an elite university signals not only that they met higher standards at an earlier stage in the game but also that they have a higher flight-risk. The firm is taking a larger long-term risk by hiring this candidate than by going with the candidate from a lower-ranking institution.

This can be particularly dangerous for graduates from elite universities who lack discernible skill sets (as is often the case with liberal arts graduates). An entry level job at a smaller firm may be the best opportunity they have to gain the skills and experience necessary (and that they should have gained prior to graduation), but they won’t have this opportunity due to their overcredentialing.

They are trapped in a position where they feel they have been misled. They are told from a young age that a degree from an elite university will land them any position they want, but are passed over for candidates from more run-of-the-mill schools. Even worse, they lack the skill sets and experience necessary to get through the first stage of the review process at larger firms.

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* I use the phrase “overcredentalied” rather than “overqualified.” Though these candidates have a better credential than what the firm is looking for, they don’t necessarily possess the qualifications in skills and experience they may also want. Credentialing is only part of the qualification process.

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