| Curmudgeon's critiscisms may be crusty but his witticisms and sharp barbs make darn good points that are directly related to the topic of this thread. Most people, on and off CC put a different kind of value on post-secondary education and do not hold that "marginal differences between schools do not offset large differences in costs when there are not large differences in outcomes." This POV is worth repeating because it fuels the fires of the admission frenzy. The message is "Ivy or Bust". The 4 year college "investment" is "logically" analyzed in terms of money in and money out to come to the conclusion that "lower" ranked colleges are not just worth the investment of time, effort, and money. Obviously from that point of view any college will give the benefit of a higher paycheck - but not just any college will give the best education - and thankfully in America, this is a matter of choice and a highly personal one at that. I know parents of students who were and are willing to pay full sticker price for Harvard and Princeton but I also know families who are willing to pay full price for Hobart and William Smith, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Franklin and Marshall, Notre Dame and the list could on and on. Whether the choice is a four year liberal arts education (at an Ivy, a LAC, or a research university) or for pre-professional training programs in pre-med, pre-law or international relations, this is at its best a highly personal decision that students should make on the basis of a college's programs and faculty, and even campus culture - not merely on a list ranking power, influence, and prestige. As I mentioned in a previous post on this thread, Princeton administrators strongly advise that students who are merely looking for a "payback" in terms of money and prestige ought to look elsewhere than Nassau Hall.
Most of the people I know who share Vienna Man's kind of thinking are European - most often students (or their practical minded parents who foot the bill for their education) will opt for prestige and pragmatic payback when choosing a school or program - a prime example is Ponts et Chausse for engineering in France because grads get snapped up for prime positions in the work world.
The range of educational opportunities in the U.S. are simply phenomenal and offer an incredible choice of programs as well as campus culture. Just by way of illustration, even a quick look at Georgetown's stellar faculty will show that professors at this top college benefitted from a wide range of educational opportunities, both public and private, such as: the Univ. of Houston, UCLA, Bowdoin, U. Conn, Middlebury, the College of William and Mary, Brown, Univ. of Michigan, James Madison University, University of Illinois, Pomona, Boston University ... |