As you may know, I’ve been accepted to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Getting in was my top priority for the past year, and I can barely contain my excitement for September. SAT mock tests on Saturdays, countless essays, test interviews and resume building comprised my schedule, and as decision day approached, I became increasingly attracted to the school.

The campus is ideal, with a compromise of urban/college lifestyle. The academics, unparalleled. The community and networking opportunity, promising. And, the brand, priceless.

Wharton is recognized as the country’s leading undergraduate business school. That acknowledgement opens doors, with companies and business moguls looking to associate with such an institution. It’s an amazingly powerful brand.

The way I approach life is by building my own brand. To build my own brand, I need to associate it with other powerful brands, building a reputation of quality.

The power of a school, as a brand, is unlimited. It seems to me like you have to be from an Ivy League school, even more specifically, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, to be president or a supreme court justice (6/9 went to Harvard, 2 to Yale). Because these positions are selected by the people, or in the case of the supreme court justices, have to be received well by the people, there is an inclination to limiting our options to those from such schools.

Which brings me to the question, is the prestige that comes with a well-known school merited? I was reading an article in the Times that questioned the bachelor degree’s worth from a highly-ranking school.

One could make the argument that in the past, it was easier to get in to the nation’s best schools than it is now. The people that get elected now set the standards for our future, elevating the level of importance of the prestigious degree. So, while it’s getting harder to get into Harvard, the demand for it goes up.

A lot of people that don’t make Ivy League school’s are much stronger than those who have in the past. So, in this sense, it isn’t fair that we place so much influence on where a person went to school.

That brings up another point. When someone says he graduated Yale, do we grant him the prestige for getting in, or for the education he received? Does college admission serve as a competence test, or does the actual training increase one’s value? I would hope that it’s prestige is associated with the education, because I don’t think it’s fair to judge someone based on whether they go in to a school or not.

I could have easily not gotten into Wharton, had the circumstances been different. If I were Asian (the “over-represented minority”), lived in Philly, or was applying along an ultra-competitive crop, I would have had a much lower chance at acceptance.

The argument against that says that if the person doesn’t get into Harvard, but is “Harvard-material,” he/she will get into Yale, or Princeton, or Penn, or Columbia, et cetera. There are a number of options in that top tier, and if a truly top student is rejected by one, he will get into another.

So, what do you think?

Joseph Cohen is a part-time blogger on freecasts.net and a full-time blogger on jmcblg.com.