How important is a degree from an elite school for those who aspire to reach the top of their profession?

JUNE STODDARD

President

JS Executive Search

A degree from an elite university or college sets a resume apart from the others, but progressively more responsible experience, a passion and expertise in a candidate’s chosen profession are much more important. Learning by doing is the best education.

NICHOLAS A. ROZANSKY

Partner

Ezra Brutzkus Gubner

A degree from an elite law school is really only important for those seeking employment at large law firms in their first few years of employment. However, the top lawyers in the profession come from all tiers of law schools, and there really isn’t a correlation between being a top lawyer and attendance at an elite school.

KARIM JAUDE

Chief Executive

Dynamics Capital

In my opinion, it is very important to have a degree from an elite school. The level of education one acquires, the faculty, the students as well as the graduates will all be great asset in helping advancing somebody’s career.

NICOLE WOOL

Chief Executive

Jones Social PR

Some of the most successful people in the world did not finish college: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the list goes on. Though I am a law school graduate, I believe that the school of hard knocks (aka life and experience) have taught me more about being successful than anything I learned in the classroom.

AIMEE HELFAND

Chief Executive

BabyLeague

In this day and age, I think fancy degrees make nice topics of conversation at cocktail parties and might open some doors more easily, but my experience has been that tenacity, focus and fearlessness are a lot more effective in delivering the goods. If you’ve got all of them, you’re in pretty good shape.