# People who look down on less prestigious jobs or educations



## etre (May 21, 2012)

I've met a few people who look down on others with less prestigious jobs/education (such as lower school ranking/gpa). Their default view seems to dismiss such people's opinion with the justification that they're failures/not smart enough. The fact that they disrespect certain people based on what I view as material/shallow standards pisses me off.

Have you guys met people like this? Does it bother you?


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## strawberryLola (Sep 19, 2010)

First off, I think they're stupid for making haste generalizations.

Secondly, not everyone is privileged enough to attend IV leagues.

(Heck, half the times, you don't have to be smart to have a high GPA. In some cases, getting into the higher ranked schools can also be paid for- depending on the connections people make).

Elitest bullshit. As for lower wage paying jobs- once again, not everybody has those networks. Maybe they should not discount the economic disparity that exists with hardships and lack of upward mobility.


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## Maiden (Mar 19, 2010)

I have never really met anyone with these views, but I dislike this kind of thinking. Education becomes less about creativity and love of learning and more about the status symbol attached to going to school/college. I am not smarter than someone else just because I am in college and they are not. Intelligence cannot be tested in that way. It is superficial and doesn't take into account the skills and abilities everyone can offer, whether they went to college or not. In regards to less prestigious jobs, people should value workers for who they are and their skills, not view them as less than because they make little money. People are more than their intelligence and the money they make.


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## mushr00m (May 23, 2011)

These sorts of attitudes are incredibly damaging to our economy, think about it, girl works in factory to earn a few bucks to keep up the rent and so career elitest thinks that person is not as worthy as that human being so the girl thinks, I should not being working in factories for the sense of shame that is involved and therefore make an already struggling person decrease their sense of self worth. This happens a lot, especially in the UK where people on benefits won't accept certain work because they are afraid of being attacked on their choice of job, being brainwashed that working in a suit job is more socially acceptable. Sad that we get judged on what job we have usually by those that have been silver spoon fed since birth. People need to feed themselves and that means sometimes taking one of the first jobs that come along. Career elitests continue to perpetuate the myth in brainwashing, its damages people greatly as the evidence has shown throughout history. Social mass cruelty that inhibits progress and quite frankly an attitude that doesn't fit realistically within our modern day world considering we are in a recession.


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## Beyond_B (Feb 2, 2011)

etre said:


> I've met a few people who look down on others with less prestigious jobs/education (such as lower school ranking/gpa). Their default view seems to dismiss such people's opinion with the justification that they're failures/not smart enough. The fact that they disrespect certain people based on what I view as material/shallow standards pisses me off.
> 
> Have you guys met people like this? Does it bother you?


Yes, and it's stupid. I think as long as you have a job that does not oppose your values, and get the money you need to live, it should be awesome. 
I am tired of how we are told what we are supposed to be in order to be happy. We complicate life more than it is.


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## Liontiger (Jun 2, 2009)

I know a lot of people who are struggling with academics feel as if they're not going to "go anywhere in life." There are so many jobs, particularly trade-based, that are great and important for society. Who says education has to happen in a classroom? If you can find someone to take you on, you can make a great living as an electrician, carpenter, etc. Sure, these fields have degrees too. But that's not the only path to take. My father does a combination of plumbing, electric, etc. and I've loved having him around. I want him to teach me a few things, actually.


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## Word Dispenser (May 18, 2012)

etre said:


> I've met a few people who look down on others with less prestigious jobs/education (such as lower school ranking/gpa). Their default view seems to dismiss such people's opinion with the justification that they're failures/not smart enough. The fact that they disrespect certain people based on what I view as material/shallow standards pisses me off.
> 
> Have you guys met people like this? Does it bother you?


I think that the business world is run with people like that.

It saddens me that college/university credentials are more and more sought after. I think college and university are wonderful learning environments, but I think that with the resources out there, with the right mindset, anyone could learn pretty much anything if they put their mind to it.

They just don't really get a chance to _show _what they know, if nobody looks past a resume. So they gotta get connections. But, what about people with social issues? There are tons of really smart, capable people, who can't get past an interview due to shyness and an inability to showcase their skills with ease.

There are tons of variables that are left without consideration. This, I think, is our current norm-structural downfall.

Hopefully, new generations can change current paradigms. But, that takes time.


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## kittychris07 (Jun 15, 2010)

I don't think I have ever really met people who look down on others who do have a lower GPA/job that is not competitive than they do. But these people wouldn't accept a job that is not as good as what they currently have. I don't think this is really a form of snobbery due to the fact that people are going to want a prestigious job (or at least some job where they earn a good salary) after they have bothered to go to college.


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## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

etre said:


> I've met a few people who look down on others with less prestigious jobs/education (such as lower school ranking/gpa). Their default view seems to dismiss such people's opinion with the justification that they're failures/not smart enough. The fact that they disrespect certain people based on what I view as material/shallow standards pisses me off.
> 
> Have you guys met people like this? Does it bother you?


I honestly don't think it's a problem. In fact, I'd say the opposite is true once you leave school and start working. No one cares about GPA or what school you went to (aside from some kind of fraternal/sorority or alumni event) in the real world. A prestigious school/high GPA is helpful for getting your foot in the door but otherwise your talent, skill and ability to network is what'll carry you for the rest of your professional life. 

Should I cite examples of people starting off as mail couriers who eventually worked their way into executive positions?


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

Sorry,as a member of a science field, I do look down on a lot of the nontechnical/less rigorous humanity degrees. The school involved can matter at first, and matters less after the person opens their mouth. It's not that a harvard degree means something itself, it's that it shows you can put your nose to the grindstone to the point that you outcompeted a huge portion of the country. It takes out a lot of chaffe that may show up in other institutions.


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## etre (May 21, 2012)

bellisaurius said:


> Sorry,as a member of a science field, I do look down on a lot of the nontechnical/less rigorous humanity degrees. The school involved can matter at first, and matters less after the person opens their mouth. It's not that a harvard degree means something itself, it's that it shows you can put your nose to the grindstone to the point that you outcompeted a huge portion of the country. It takes out a lot of chaffe that may show up in other institutions.


So, let's say there is someone who went to Harvard for her undergrad and Ph.D. in a science field. 
I don't know about your qualifications, but let's say they are "less prestigious" than hers.
Are you saying it's acceptable for her to dismiss or look down on you because she went to a better school then you?


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

etre said:


> So, let's say there is someone who went to Harvard for her undergrad and Ph.D. in a science field.
> I don't know about your qualifications, but let's say they are "less prestigious" than hers.
> Are you saying it's acceptable for her to dismiss or look down on you because she went to a better school then you?


My credentials are probably middleweight. U of Illinois, chemE. 

With the harvard gal, I'd expect her to be on top of her stuff, yes. As soon as she said something, I'd start to get a better feel for it, and judge accordingly. There'd be a lot of intellectual challenging, as I like to test and probe people that are in an otherwise superior position to mine, so this isn't necessarily a place someone would want to be. It's like having a target on the back.


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## koakuma (May 6, 2012)

I just did a quantitative research where *orderliness *was shown to be the most liked variable (among 15 others like_ music, color, material_). This means that a person who cleans for a living will give greater satisfaction than a person that repaint walls. 

I think that the people who looks down on people with less "good" jobs, are just not educated enough. They don't see the whole picture. If I come across people like that, I'll simply just tell them what those "less good" jobs are highly needed in order for the society to work, in order for tourists to come visit our town, etc. These people usually get a little angry since they did not think of this themselves, but they accept that these jobs are needed, which is good.


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## Elvira (Dec 1, 2011)

Yes, this bothers me. I can understand being a little more judgmental about GPA, but I don't understand why people place such a high value on prestige. Tuition costs just keep rising and rising, and it's only worse at prestigious schools. And I think some of these prestigious schools have a dangerous "follow our philosophy without questioning the debt you're going into" mentality. 

It makes me sad that community colleges get such a bad reputation for being unprestigious (that's not a word, says Google Chrome...but was is the antonym of 'prestigious' then? :O). Getting your GEs done at a community college is a great way to save yourself money!

And if you graduate from a school debt free, what differences does it make if you graduate from a prestigious school 100,000 dollars in debt? I can understand that for some careers, prestige matters, but for most of them, I don't think it really does.


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

Blimey, and here I was thinking college is overrated and some people simply shouldn't be here, because I still hold onto the traditional view that college is the home of intellectual exploration, not pre-professional training, and many people forced into "liberal arts" education simply don't want to be there and their presence disrupts the classroom experience of those who actually do. But they're still in college even though they don't want to be because it's not acceptable to do anything else after high school. They end up majoring in a trade and going into that trade anyway, so why not go to trade schools? Many complain that "they're making us read Homer. What use is _Homer_ to me? I'm not going to do anything with it, so I'll read it and Sparknotes everything to pass the class". And so Homer becomes a classic everyone hates.

Everyone should have a high school education which is enough to be an informed citizen, but sending kids to college by the truckloads defeats the purposes and makes colleges rich. If the demand for college simply isn't as high as it is, tuition would fall, and those who don't like to go to school can go to trade schools which are cheaper anyway. University should go back to what it used to be: a congregation of people who meet to explore intellectual subjects because they _want_ to.


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## AJ2011 (Jun 2, 2011)

In the scientific community, there's a lot of snobbery, so academic pedigree becomes very important if you're interested in obtaining funding, etc.. I actually don't fault it considering that usually that the gross filter works well to filter out people who don't deliver much in the end (due to whatever reason ... reasons are not useful products). It is somewhat self-perpetuating system because people from less prestigious places don't deliver because of resources constraints due to their less prestigious background and so on.

In my experience, people from less prestigious places and under-achievers from prestigious places have been a bane. Many times students from less prestigious schools have high GPAs but their work is unoriginal and it would appear they depended on their professor for everything (so they end up delivering a substandard product that you have to fix). On the other hand, some underachievers from prestigious universities feel entitled and do not deliver on time or sometimes not at all (but they usually understand the delivery requirements). I usually see people from somewhat prestigious universities, e.g., not necessarily Ivy-league but highly-ranked, as ideal. They work hard and deliver on time. There are exceptions to every rule, and so every now and then we encounter hard-working people from community colleges that happen to be late-bloomers. It is quite uncommon.


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

bellisaurius said:


> My credentials are probably middleweight. U of Illinois, chemE.
> 
> With the harvard gal, I'd expect her to be on top of her stuff, yes. As soon as she said something, I'd start to get a better feel for it, and judge accordingly. There'd be a lot of intellectual challenging, as I like to test and probe people that are in an otherwise superior position to mine, so this isn't necessarily a place someone would want to be. It's like having a target on the back.


My class valedictorian and salutatorian could both have gotten into Harvard (Both got into Princeton and Stanford). One went to P, one went to S, and they're seriously unimpressive people. And coming from an elite LAC, our physics major is famously tough, but so is our humanities majors. Our professors here are real professors and it's well nigh impossible to BS a humanities paper and not expect a C or D. They _actually_ grade your stuff. You get a lot of reading and only insightful comments are noted. It's one reason I elected not to take many humanities in my top ranked even though I'm probably one of the best, it's because I have a harder time doing well in humanities than sciences. Humanities is bullshit in some colleges because they need some level of insightful thinking to understand, but it's certainly not bullshit here.

I've taken 6 courses with grades (3 courses each trimester. I'm on my last trimester) and my only non A courses are the philosophy (A-) and Greek Novels (B), but I submit the latter course was bullshit and she wasn't a real professor- everyone in my class agreed  In math, even if I didn't do well I can be confident it was a circumstantial mistake rather than any conceptual difficulties on my part (because I'm great at concepts), but in humanities, it's like: "what on Earth?"


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## Feelings (Dec 4, 2011)

I went to a somewhat prestigious business school for undergrad. I got my first job working retail in a bank, and honestly, I felt like I was working with mostly a flock of idiots, many of whom thought they were smart and acted like such. I had become accustomed to being around intelligent people at school, and was quite surprised. I find that those with prestigious or semi-prestigious degrees are usually very clearly more intelligent. 

I've also met a lot of very intelligent people who have no post secondary education. Overall, I would say that a prestigious or semi-prestigious degree is an indication that the person has a baseline of aptitude. Lack of an education, though, isn't an indication of anything.

I'd also like to say to those who seem to be denigrating the aptitude required to attain certain educational credentials, that although you may be correct that elitist types unfairly judge, you are incorrect to surmize that a significant portion of those with prestigious educational credentials attained such without a high level of aptitude. Ironically, you are unfairly judging those who do have prestigious educational credentials. Hypocritical much?


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

Persephone said:


> My class valedictorian and salutatorian could both have gotten into Harvard (Both got into Princeton and Stanford). One went to P, one went to S, and they're seriously unimpressive people. And coming from an elite LAC, our physics major is famously tough, but so is our humanities majors. Our professors here are real professors and it's well nigh impossible to BS a humanities paper and not expect a C or D. They _actually_ grade your stuff. You get a lot of reading and only insightful comments are noted. It's one reason I elected not to take many humanities in my top ranked even though I'm probably one of the best, it's because I have a harder time doing well in humanities than sciences. Humanities is bullshit in some colleges because they need some level of insightful thinking to understand, but it's certainly not bullshit here.
> 
> I've taken 6 courses with grades (3 courses each trimester. I'm on my last trimester) and my only non A courses are the philosophy (A-) and Greek Novels (B), but I submit the latter course was bullshit and she wasn't a real professor- everyone in my class agreed  In math, even if I didn't do well I can be confident it was a circumstantial mistake rather than any conceptual difficulties on my part (because I'm great at concepts), but in humanities, it's like: "what on Earth?"


Firstly, I wanted to say that I feel a twinge of sadness because of my agreement about your other comment, that college, ideally, is a place for intellectual exploration. Currently, it's more of an extended vocational school with some human spirituality growth add-ons. 

Otherwise, a return to some kind of grading standard would be nice. Perhaps even national testing so an A at one place doesn't mean much more or less than an A at another.


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## Devin87 (May 15, 2011)

I have to admit I dislike people who have a h_igher _GPA than me at an easier school and brag about it. For example, my mother went to the easiest school I've ever seen and got almost a 4.0. I went to a very demanding small liberal arts college and got a 3.4. She's constantly talking about how she got a higher GPA than I did, even though when she writes she can't even use proper capitalization and I had to practically do her basic algebra homework for her. And the saddest part is that a potential employer will look at her degree and look at my degree and since he probably hasn't heard of either college, will assume her degree is worth more because of her higher GPA. I think we just need more standardization in American education period. A high school diploma or a bachelor's degree should mean the same thing no matter where you got it.


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## Dig.It.All (Jun 15, 2012)

I am currently working on a BS in an engineering field. 
I also down talk most liberal arts majors. 
I do this because I feel that engineering majors go through a much more rigorous course load then any liberal arts majors. 
They can pretty much BS their way to a degree while any engineering major cannot. 
After speaking to my friend [who is a liberal arts major] I have realized that I shouldn't put other people down for their major. 
I admit that I did this to feel better about myself and to make my time spent in the library worth while. 
I would say mean things like "At least I'll have a job when I graduate" or "Even if you get a job, I'll still make more money then you"

Even though those jokes might be true. They are very hurtful and I should watch what I say. 

Therefore, no one should look down on any other major for any reason. The reason we have English majors is because we need to write things down in a clear, concise, and cohesive manner. The reason we have history majors is so we don't make the same mistake twice and to record everything! 
Every major has a purpose. 
Everyone picks up each others slack. 
This is why we have teams and are different! 
Just like ENFJ, INTP, INFJ and etc. 
We're all here to make a difference and to help each other out.


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## hairyhunk (Jan 16, 2012)

etre said:


> I've met a few people who look down on others with less prestigious jobs/education (such as lower school ranking/gpa). Their default view seems to dismiss such people's opinion with the justification that they're failures/not smart enough. The fact that they disrespect certain people based on what I view as material/shallow standards pisses me off.
> 
> Have you guys met people like this? Does it bother you?


i haven't met many of those people, but it does bother me because i usually interpret those kinds of views as stemming from unawareness of one's own privilege, which essentially is a lack of self-awareness. the resources and connections that they're privileged to have, they take for granted. it's not like the education system is perfect, anyway. it's not somebody's fault, for instance, if they only had access to subpar schools and educational resources as a child, and in so many cases that childhood education is where it all begins.


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## Temur (Jun 14, 2012)

too bad these people are a reality of life, just dont get too hung up over it


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## goesupinward (Jun 11, 2010)

Just do not pay attention to them. A degree is a degree anywhere, doesn't matter where you go, Ivy school or a 3 tier college. Yeah, the Ivy schooler will probably get a more "prestigious" job but you have to do with what you have. In the end, you two will have the same degree with the same position.

I'm studying to get a BS in nursing, one more semester left. I do not look down at the LPN or CNA that works in the hospital. I see no point in that because they are there to help out the patient get better which is the number one priority. If you feel the need to make yourself feel more "superior" to others, more power to you but I feel like you're joking yourself to think you're better than another human being just because you have a more "harder" degree. No one told you to go major in something hard, you could have easily major in something for easier to obtain if you felt like it.


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## Stephen (Jan 17, 2011)

etre said:


> Have you guys met people like this? Does it bother you?


Yeah, I've seen a lot of this, and it really bothers me a lot. People who judge an individual by the work they do are just barely worth my disgust. We are not what we do for a living. Part of my job is occasionally sorting and delivering mail, and a portion of my building is staffed by attorneys. The way some of them turn up their noses at me is pretty ridiculous, considering all the judgmental hate out there for lawyers. You'd think they'd have some empathy for this shit. I was treated like crap sometimes while I was making copies for a living at Kinko's, too. And don't get me started on people who think less of people just because they work as entertainers, like dancers. People are so petty and insecure. They'll come up with anything they can to place themselves above others.


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## firedell (Aug 5, 2009)

For university this year, I had the choice to choose from a polytec or one of the red brick universities. Durham in the league tables is the 3rd top university in the UK, and Cardiff Met is 78th. I had to choose which one was my firm choice, and which was my insurance. I made Durham my insurance simply because the course at Cardiff Met is what I want, more than the one at Durham.

Plus I prefer a more laid back atmosphere while I work. I don't want to be in a "posh" high class university, because I'll feel like I must act a certain way to belong there. Sure, I would love to go there but prestigious education isn't everything.

But saying that, if I get in this year (results pending) and I pass the course, I will be looking for a Masters degree (and maybe PhD but that is YEARS away) at a red brick university.


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## Kat91 (Mar 27, 2012)

It's silly, but sadly it's an extremely common view, specially here in England. 
For example, I am currently studying to be a Beauty Therapist and for this very reason, I am ashamed and embarrassed to tell people, because I am afraid that they will judge me and think that I am stupid and a failure...that I'm some shallow, stupid bimbo with no real qualifications. The funny thing is, I went to college before...and I studied biology, philosophy, psychology, photography and art, but to be honest none of them really took my fancy. This is what I really want to do and I hate being ashamed of it because of the stigma it carries.


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## geekofalltrades (Feb 8, 2012)

My parents look down on me because I have a degree in biotechnology, but my life's ambition is to teach ballroom dance.


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