Ivy undergrad education worth debt?

shawbridge
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:39:34 +0000

The world is and has been changing. It has become much more competitive and the Ivy brands have risen in value a lot. This will not lead to higher expected income if you plan to be an artist or a composer, though you might meet more kids from families who could collect art at HYP than at a bunch of other schools. There is a good chance that it would lead to higher expected lifetime income if you went into management consulting or finance. For example, one of my friends is a partner at one of the major management consulting firms. They interview at the Ivies and at a few others (Williams, Amherst) but no more than 12 schools and probably hire most from HYP (though one office hires a lot from Brown, the NY office from Columbia, etc.). In the middle are areas like public health, where there might be a little increment in expected lifetime income because of contacts, but I don’t have a lot of experience.

I will say that I think attending one of the HYP opened doors for me years ago. Early on in my career, I am sure that I received certain offers from a combination of where I want to school and the quality of my work. I think it made getting into the best grad schools easier. Then, getting a PhD and teaching at another of HYP opened many other doors for me and continues to do so. What distinguishes HYP and a few other schools is not the quality of the education, but the horizons and the contacts. I think that being at one of those schools causes many people to raise their sights – “I want to be the best in the world at what I do.” It also provides contacts that are hard to beat. One of my friends was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and hired my firm to help with a big problem (there probably isn’t another firm that is as good, so it was a sensible choice, but another CEO might not have known of our existence). Another college friend is the dean of a high-ranking professional school and on the boards of several companies. Another is the partner of a consulting firm that has explored working with us on projects. The possibilities arise because of their judgment of my underlying competence but it helps to be swimming in the right school of fish.

How much that is worth is really an individual choice. For me, it is likely worth well more than $50K, but you’re you.