--- title: Poll: Going to Top Schools Won't Make You Happier description: A Gallup poll found that the biggest factor in post-grad satisfaction was engagement in college — no matter whether you went to a state school or an Ivy league college canonical: https://time.com/89186/gallup-poll-college-happy/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-06T13:43:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:14.622Z og:title: Study Says Going To A Prestigious College Won't Make You Happier In The Long Run og:description: A Gallup poll found that the biggest factor in post-grad satisfaction was engagement in college — no matter whether you went to a state school or an Ivy league college og:url: https://time.com/89186/gallup-poll-college-happy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7ff27b19da19876/69868e11169ab0e0da2792af/169667949.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3595 og:image:height: 2022 og:image:alt: Harvard University Commencement 2013 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study Says Going To A Prestigious College Won't Make You Happier In The Long Run twitter:description: A Gallup poll found that the biggest factor in post-grad satisfaction was engagement in college — no matter whether you went to a state school or an Ivy league college twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7ff27b19da19876/69868e11169ab0e0da2792af/169667949.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Going to a Top College Won't Make You Happier, Poll Says > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 6, 2014 1:43 PM UTC  Harvard Law School's graduation Harvard Law School's graduation Boston Globe/Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 6, 2014 1:43 PM UTC The agony of college applications is often endured because of a supposed light at the end of the tunnel: Entrance into a top school will ensure a life of happiness ahead. But [a new Gallup poll](http://www.gallup.com/poll/168848/life-college-matters-life-college.aspx) suggests that attending a prestigious college has almost nothing to do with a person’s happiness in work or life after graduation. Gallup paired up with researchers at Purdue University, Ind. to track the longterm well-being of over 29,560 college graduates of all ages who attended all types of higher learning institutions. According to the study, “The schools these college graduates attended—public or private, small or large, very selective or less selective—hardly matters at all to their workplace engagement and current well-being.” A total of 39% of college graduates said they were “engaged” at work and 5 out of 6 claimed to be thriving in at least one area of well-being, ranging from close relationships to physical health to financial security. But these statistics remained constant whether someone had attended a school at the very top or very bottom of the _U.S. News & World Report’s_ list of ranked colleges. In fact, people who attended schools with 10,000-plus students were found to be more satisfied. [Gallup’s Brandon Busteed told _NPR_, ](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/05/06/308382912/poll-prestigious-colleges-wont-make-you-happier-in-life-or-work)“If you can go to Podunk U debt free vs. Harvard for $100,000, go to Podunk. And concentrate on what you do when you get there.” The most important factor for being happier later in life, the poll found, was being engaged throughout college through internships, relationships with professors, and extracurricular activities. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/89186/gallup-poll-college-happy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/89186/gallup-poll-college-happy/"},"headline":"Going to a Top College Won't Make You Happier, Poll Says","datePublished":"2014-05-06T13:43:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:14.622Z","description":"A Gallup poll found that the biggest factor in post-grad satisfaction was engagement in college — no matter whether you went to a state school or an Ivy league college","url":"https://time.com/89186/gallup-poll-college-happy/","keywords":["Living","Education","College","Happiness","Ivy League"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7ff27b19da19876/69868e11169ab0e0da2792af/169667949.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7ff27b19da19876/69868e11169ab0e0da2792af/169667949.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harvard University Commencement 2013","caption":"Harvard University Commencement 2013","creditText":"Boston Globe/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/89186/gallup-poll-college-happy/","name":"Going to a Top College Won't Make You Happier, Poll Says"}}]}] ```