I have a secret to share:  I sometimes wish I had gone to Oberlin where the students might be a bit more hippie and down to earth, i.e., more like me.  But I will never regret having a Yale degree on my resume.  It helped me get into another prestigious school (NYU Law ‘98) and has gained the respect of several employers and clients.

A recent article by Eve Tahmincioglu on msnbc.com, “An Ivy League degree no surefire path to success,” explores whether an Ivy League degree really makes a difference when it comes to how well a candidate will do in a job.  The article concludes that hard work, not the college name on your diploma, leads to career success.  Nevertheless, people with Ivy League degrees have significantly higher incomes than their non-Ivy counterparts:

“The typical Ivy League bachelor’s graduate earns about 27 percent more early in their career, and about 47 percent more by the time he or she is about 40, than the typical bachelor’s graduate from all U.S. schools,” according to compensation website PayScale.com.

I wonder:  Do employers like to hire someone from the “right” school simply because of the prestige, or do they beleive they can rely on the pre-screening that the Ivies (and other top schools) do on every admittee?  It seems to me that there’s a really good chance that someone who made it into an Ivy League school is among the best and the brightest.  That’s not to say that a huge number of the best and the brightest — and the most hard working — did not go to Ivy League schools, either because they did not get in or because they chose less pricey options.

It’s understandable that many students prefer to attend Ivies, regardless of whether this education is essential to career success.  Ivy League colleges come with a guaranteed caliber to the student body and community, to the professors, and to the education.  And of course, the degree opens up many doors with ease. 

The competition to get in to Ivy League and other top schools, as reported by Ms. Tahmincioglu in her msnbc article, is fiercer than ever:  “According to the Harvard Crimson, the school accepted a record-low 6.9 percent of applicants this year even though the number of applications actually went up 5 percent — topping 30,000 for the first time in the school’s history.”

The long and the short of it is that if you want to have an easier path to some of the most prestigious jobs in the country, a Yale, Harvard or Princeton degree will go far.  You still need to do well once you’re there, and you still need to work hard once you’re in the work force.  But the big names on the resume don’t hurt a bit.  And in my book, that’s enough to make it worthwhile to shoot for the best.

I’ve noticed a tendency in many writers to combine certain 2-word phrases into single words, perhaps thinking that the meaning doesn’t change.  For instance, “stand out” becomes “standout” (the 2-word verb phrase changes to a 1-word adjective).  One of the most common pairs of words I have seen people put together ungrammatically are “every” and “day.”  Please note:  “Every day” does NOT mean the same thing as “everyday.”  Be careful when you choose to create this compound word about what you really mean to say.

First I will lay out the basics:  What do these words mean?  “Every day” (2 words) means “happening or occurring every day.”  Technically it’s an adverb modifying a verb.  In contrast, the compound word “everyday” is an adjective meaning “of or pertaining to every day;” “of or pertaining to regular days (as opposed to holidays); ”commonplace” or “regular.”

Let’s look at some examples of proper use:

• I walk to work every day. (2-word adverb modifying “walk”)
• I wear my everyday shoes to walk to work; I change to my Manolo Blahniks upon arrival.  (1-word adjective modifying “shoes”)

• It has snowed every day for the past week. (2-word adverb modifying “snow”)
• Snow is an everyday event during Wisconsin winters. (1-word adjective modifying “event”)

• I wish I could eat chocolate all day every day! (2-word adverb modifying “eat”)
• Some chocolate sure would spice up this everyday chili.  (1-word adjective modifying “chili” – and yes, cocoa powder adds just the right verve!)

How will you remember the difference between “every day” and “everyday”?  My simple trick is to add the word “single” between “every” and “day;” if it makes sense to insert this word, then the words must be separated by a space in place of the word “single.”  If inserting “single” does not work, you’re in the land of the adjective “everyday.”  Let’s try it with the examples here:

• I walk to work every single day.  (Makes sense so it’s 2 words)
• I wear my every single day shoes to walk to work.  (Doesn’t make sense so it’s 1 word)

• It has snowed every single day for the past week.  (Makes sense so it’s 2 words)
• Snow is an every single day event during Wisconsin winters. (Doesn’t make sense so it’s 1 word)

I’ll leave you to test the chocolate chili examples.  I promise they work.

Now let’s take a look at some common ways people misuse the word “everyday.” I’ll use 3 examples from LinkedIn.

1.  In an email I received from a LinkedIn marketing expert, the following phrase appeared:  “Great discussions and tips are taking place everyday with over 10,000 members.”

There are actually two problems with this sentence.  One is that tips do not take place, only discussions do; you would not say “Great tips are taking place.”  The other is that everyday is the adjective meaning commonplace.  The author meant that discussions are taking place every single day.  Therefore the correct usage would be “every day” (2 words).

2.    A LinkedIn discussion title came across one of my groups:  “Fast way to make money everyday.”

Again, this writer means “every single day” so the correct way to express his idea would be “Fast way to make money every day.”

3.    Here’s an example from a comment on one of my postings: “You learn something new everyday.”

Do you see the error?  I hope you are now highly trained in the distinction between “every day” and “everyday”!  I also hope my article has been your new piece of learning for the day.  Please pass the learning on to someone who will benefit from it today and every day.

Need writing help?  Contact The Essay Expert

Best wishes for your success in the upcoming year.

Sincerely yours,

Brenda Bernstein & The Essay Expert

Job-Networking Tips Part 1 of 2

Job-Networking Tips Part 2 of 2