Go to a college that is affordable. College "prestige" doesn't matter.

Look up ROI metrics. Some of the best schools are also quite expensive, you pay for future earning potential and the doors that can be opened up having a degree from an elite university.

Dave Ramsey, CFA wrote:

When you visit a doctor, do you care which college he went to or what his GPA was? Of course not.

Comparing an MD to a bachelors degree is stupid. Only the best schools have MD programs anyways. Everyone I know who went to non prestigious schools are working jobs that don't require bachelors degrees and have been told in interviews that their bachelors degree is worthless because the school is garbage. It's sad, but true.

Dave Ramsey, CFA wrote:

When you visit a doctor, do you care which college he went to or what his GPA was? Of course not.

This is correct. Note that the most expensive are always democrat cesspools.

This premise is dumb enough that OP must be trolling, right?Prestige matters. It probably matters most at the top end and at the bottom end. Going to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc. will open doors for you simply because of the name of the institution printed on your diploma. Conversely, earning a degree from a joke school is a poor investment bordering on financial irrationality, since others will see your degree as worthless and rightly infer you're a dumb-dumb.

Dave Ramsey, CFA wrote:

When you visit a doctor, do you care which college he went to or what his GPA was? Of course not.

I'm willing to bet that if the average schmoe had ACCESS to doctors' grades, MCAT scores, etc., they might take that information into account when picking a practitioner.

Many of my teach for America colleagues went to prestigious schools and a few went to community colleges. Guess which ones complain about the pay and their student loans?

Which non ivy league schools are considered prestigious, which schools are affordable? I'm honestly asking. Are state universities considered prestigious?

Top state schools:

United States Military Academy

United States Naval Academy

United States Air Force Academy

University of Virginia

College of William and Mary

University of California, Berkeley

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

University of California, Los Angeles

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Georgia Institute of Technology

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, San Diego

Yes, and it's approximately $100,000 for 4 years of undergrad at the University of Michigan. Compare that to Michigan State and the prestige factor doesn't win if you do very well at Michigan State.

Good luck paying that off $100,000 for your first 4 years and what it'll cost after that. Comparing to a community college, maybe, but it depends on the field and your interview abilities, yes it really does.

But comparing MSU to U of M in the state of Michigan, that is a HUGE amount of $$$$$$ for the average student.

For most business and law jobs, the extreme cost of a prestigious university is well worth it. Lets say a guy gets a degree from a good but not renown school and tops out (in today's dollars) at 125k. Lets say the same guy pushed his financial limits and got a degree from Princeton -- his opportunities become limitless and the same guy conceivably makes 200k+ even in the same podunk small city. 75k a year for decades is well worth the extra 150k the top school cost him. Now imagine you're in the NYC, chicago or boston metro area -- your potential salary + bonus is 1m+, and with tough competition for those jobs every advantage helps. It a a risk but well worth it.

I know six people who graduated from Harvard. one from Princeton and one from Brown. Not ONE of them is doing, or has done, a couple are retired, anything that they couldn't have done with a degree from any accredited school in the country.

Yeah. That is why all the top jobs in banks and computer companies are full of graduates from "affordable" colleges.

Prestige does matter. You are paying for access, not education. You can have a terrible personality, but I guarantee you will get way more interviews and offers from top companies with "Harvard" at the top of your resume when compared to an institution such as Dave Ramsey's alma mater, the University of Tennessee.

HRE wrote:

I know six people who graduated from Harvard. one from Princeton and one from Brown. Not ONE of them is doing, or has done, a couple are retired, anything that they couldn't have done with a degree from any accredited school in the country.

No sh*t sherlock. There are people *gasp* who don't even have degrees who have gone on to be incredibly successful. Going to the elite universities definitely makes that road easier. It is up to each individual to determine if that school is right for them and if they want to spend the money.

Again, ROI should be a definite metric for kids to look at before going to school. The top schools on that list tend to be pricier but you make more money long term because you get better jobs and companies put value on someone with a degree from that university.

Moo Goo wrote:

Yeah. That is why all the top jobs in banks and computer companies are full of graduates from "affordable" colleges.

+1

The networking alone at top schools is worth the extra cost. All my friends that went to better schools than me have similar or better jobs, and they didn't work nearly as hard in college. State schools are great if you believe in a romanticized notion of earning everything you've got and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and whatnot. The Ivy's are great if you'd rather make money than work hard.

mypredictor wrote:

For most business and law jobs, the extreme cost of a prestigious university is well worth it. Lets say a guy gets a degree from a good but not renown school and tops out (in today's dollars) at 125k. Lets say the same guy pushed his financial limits and got a degree from Princeton -- his opportunities become limitless and the same guy conceivably makes 200k+ even in the same podunk small city. 75k a year for decades is well worth the extra 150k the top school cost him. Now imagine you're in the NYC, chicago or boston metro area -- your potential salary + bonus is 1m+, and with tough competition for those jobs every advantage helps. It a a risk but well worth it.

This

Real talk:

Most truly prestigious colleges are also among the most affordable. The Ivies and equivalent top private universities (Stanford, MIT, Duke, etc.) have excellent need based financial aid, excellent 4 year graduation rates, and very low rates of student debt upon graduation. They also provide significantly better access to the best paid opportunities post-graduation than other, even very good schools. If you need evidence, simply look where the top banks, consulting firms, and tech companies recruit on campus. These schools will be well represented. There is a reason these schools regularly top the various "highest ROI colleges" rankings that come out. Sticker price is a very poor indication of value when it comes to education.

Your best bets for a high value college education are, in order:

1) Elite Private Technical (Caltech, MIT, Harvey Mudd,Stanford Eng., etc.)

2) Elite Public Technical In-State (Berkeley Eng. Michigan Eng. etc.)

3) The Service Academies

4) Elite Private Non-Technical (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford Non-Eng., etc.)

5) Public Technical In-State (Cal Poly, Colorado School of Mines, etc.)

6) Private Technical (RIT, WPI, etc.)

7) Elite Public Non-Technical In-State

8) Public Non-Technical In-State

Dennis T Reynolds wrote:

Again, ROI should be a definite metric for kids to look at before going to school. The top schools on that list tend to be pricier but you make more money long term because you get better jobs and companies put value on someone with a degree from that university.

Yeah. Unless you don't which is the case with everyone I know who've gone to "prestige" schools. If you want the experience of that sort of school and can afford it that's fine. But going to a place like that and having a massive loan to pay off if you're a school teacher may not be worth it.

flagpole is fake dave

College is what you make of it.

Going to some supposedly-prestigious name school doesn't mean much if you didn't learn anything valuable while there.

Like-wise, learning a great deal in a supposedly-less-prestigious name school will benefit you far more down the road.

The textbooks are the same wherever you go. This advice applies for the vast majority of college students.

Finally, there is nothing in the world as sad as seeing a person define themselves by where they chose to attend school when they were 17, 18 years old.

C.O. Jones wrote:

The textbooks are the same wherever you go. This advice applies for the vast majority of college students.

You can read the textbooks and study anything without even going to any college.

College is not about learning per se. College is about achieving a status.