<p>Plainsman… I agree on follow passion BUT be practical … tough global competition becomes even tougher if you owe $225K at starting gate ! Try for a balance between passion and practical… </p>
<p>IMHO a plan A and plan B plan may be a useful approach … </p>
<p>So if your passion is accounting then your plan A and B could be the same ! If your passion is musical theater well then a plan B may be a good idea</p>
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<p>I don’t disagree, but most of these kids have their parents covering that 225K, or most of it. The kid won’t owe anything. And extremely poor kids are covered with huge grants.</p>
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<p>To your point, though, I’m coaching my Obie kid right now to start thinking about a Plan B, to hedge her desire to emerge from her expensive college education with what the practical crowd calls a “useless liberal arts degree.”</p>
<p>Forbes Top Colleges Rankings have Oberlin at No. 75.</p>
<p>See [America’s</a> Best Colleges List](<a href=“Forbes America’s Top Colleges List 2022”>Forbes America’s Top Colleges List 2022)</p>
<p>That 75 is for the hypothetic non-existent generic college applicant, decided by some magazine editors. How many kids fit that mold?</p>
<p>The Forbes ranking is based on extremely dubious data. Just as an example: 15% of the rank is based on “Salary of Alumni from Payscale.com.” As a professor at Oberlin for 35 years, I don’t believe I know a single alum whose salary is included in that database (which focuses on corporations). 10% of the ranking is based on “Listings of Alumni in Who’s Who in America”–again, a data source unreflective of the many, many Oberlin alums who are teachers and social workers and musicians and scientists not represented in “Who’s Who.” This is a ranking system invented by the editors of Forbes, a conservative, business-oriented magazine. It’s no wonder that it’s not in sync with Oberlin.</p>
<p>Since Forbes’ criteria look (in part) like this…
… I’m not surprised that we didn’t top the list. Most Oberlin alums don’t make career choices with an eye toward earning a six-figure salary or making it into a Who’s Who. A prospective student who measures success in that way could easily find 74 American colleges where they’d be happier than at Oberlin.</p>
<p>Forbes ranks us #75; the College Sustainability Report Card has us in the top eight; the Peace Corps lists us #3. Different rankings, different values.</p>
<p>Edit: dave72 beat me to it 
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