<p>Are liberal arts colleges worth >$200k? Can switching to Geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance?</p>
<p>It’s a yes on the Geico question, actually.</p>
<p>Ellemope, that’s a really interesting post. Is it my imagination or does the selectivity index gradually lower as the percentage of full pays rises?</p>
<p>Or is this just about the most selective schools having the biggest endowments and thus able to extend FA to more of their admitted kids?</p>
<p>Interesting.</p>
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<p>I haven’t noticed Blue Cross Blue Shield giving higher levels of reimbursement to Harvard-trained physicians vs State Flagship trained physicians.</p>
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<p>MDs with pedigrees and/or professional stature often don’t accept insurance these days, actually.</p>
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<p>Everyone is, of course, free to value what they like, but one would think that it would be more important to impress the narrow circle of cognoscenti than the drycleaner and the neighbor down the line. </p>
<p>By the same token, that should mean that well-known sports schools – such as, say, Ohio State – should command a premium, since they’re well known and all.</p>
<p>I can see this thread opened up quite a vein of bitterness and resentfulness. Time to close it down.</p>
<p>Thanks to the many who posted thoughtful advice. The others of you . . . I hope whatever is eating at you stops.</p>
<p>sewhappy… most doctors around here accept insurance…you have to to survive…some elective type doctors dont accept all…ie a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon…but not too many patients are willing to pay out of pocket for tests or procedures if they have insurance… in our office we dont accept some insurances…and as soon as the patient is told that they cancel their consultation and find someone who will. Perhaps in larger centers that is happening but i wouldnt think that where they got their degree is the reason… if harvard dr says he wont file but state u dr in the next door office says he will i think you will find most patients go to state u doctor…its the economy not the degree. and there is no difference in reimbursement based on degree by insurances</p>
<p>shoot, i was liking this thread.enjoy seeing different approaches to the app process…there is no right way or wrong way…but i think most would say they were happy with how they did it whatever way that was</p>
<p>^ parent56, that’s interesting and makes sense. I recently moved to New Jersey (about an hour from NYC). Many around here seem to go out-of-network and file claims in order to go to the physician of their choice. I just did that, paid by credit card to have an ultrasound performed and read by a very respected radiologist. This was actually suggested by my gynecologist (who is in network). I submitted the claim and it seems to be processing fine. I’ll get 75% reimbursement; the radiologist does not have to handle any paperwork. My sense is that some specialists with really big reputations can do this. Also have heard of a few primary care practices where insurance is not accepted. These places have such a devoted following of patients that they can apparently get away with it.</p>
<p>I did not bother to check the education credentials of this radiologist, btw. He was described to us as a “physician’s physician” and that’s all I needed t know!</p>
<p>The choice isn’t between full-freight or loans and state universities, even for parents who are full-freight and just. can’t. swing it. There are GREAT LACs and universities that offer merit scholarships to talented kids. And there are outstanding public schools (Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin, etc.) that are still pricey for full-pay OOS kids, but more affordable than the top need-only schools.</p>
<p>I don’t hire anyone for anything, and so I can’t know that the top LACs might somehow be less worth the sticker price in terms of employment than their counterparts among research universities. I don’t SEE how that can be possible, though. In our district, the most talented kids go about equally to top 20 unis and top 20 LACs. Around here (upstate NY) people consider Amherst, Swat, Williams, etc. as being on par with HYP.</p>
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<p>I am not so sure that the analogy works that well. Some of the most expensive and exclusive brands sell at a huge premium over their manufacturing costs because they are well known by a narrow circle of cognoscenti, but mostly unknown by everyone outside that narrow circle. Who builds the best lon-range sailing boat? Who makes the best saddles for polo players? The best bows for Olympic archers? How large is the market for Eddy Merckx frames?</p>
<p>Apple has been rewarded for bringing products to the market that are perceived as must have and carried a status symbol. The company has also spent year upon year surviving through sales in niche markets. I think that Apple success with graphic designers could be seen as a “narrow circle of cognoscenti.” </p>
<p>I believe that it is quite misleading to confuse reality and signaling effects in education as the perception of prestige remains entirely in the eye of the beholder, especially when it comes to undergraduate education. As an example, you could poll 100 “commoners” with a question about the best undergraduate BUSINESS school, and find out that a majority of answer would point to an Ivy League school that does not even have a business school! </p>
<p>There is a LOT of white noise in the signals! :)</p>
<p>I think the answer to your question has a lot to do with what you think are paying for. If what you are paying for a big name, then a small LAC may not be worth the price. If you are paying for a quality education, then it may well be worth the price. We have a daughter who graduated from Yale and we have a son who is a rising senior at a top LAC. We feel he has gotten just as good an education as she did and we are very happy he went there. It remains to be seen how many doors the name of his LAC will open, but we may never know since he plans to attend medical school (as opposed to going into the job market) and the degree patients will care about more will be his medical school degree. Ultimately, where he did his undergrad may not matter in his career as much as it has seemed to in hers. But I believe in education for the sake of being educated and that LACs offer an outstanding educational experience. My youngest has now assembled his final college list – half are “big name” schools and half are top LACs. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.</p>
<p>Certainly the size of the endowment of a college can make a difference in how many families to whom a college will give financial aid/scholarships. It’s difficult for most colleges to give financial aid to middle class parents on the par with Harvard.</p>
<p>lol sewhappy…we’re moving to where you live!!</p>
<p>Well to the original comment on Amherst’s name recognition, I was sitting next to Paul Volker at a picnic lunch the day before the graduation ceremony when President Marx dropped by and complained to us that Christine LeGarde will not be here since Sarkozy forbade her from leaving Paris when the IMF was so close to making an announcement.*Sarkozy called to say that he recognized it is a great honor for LeGarde but duty must come first. So, have I dropped enough names?</p>
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<p>Well, they should. After all, doesn’t TOSU stand out with its level of professionalism in amateur sports? :)</p>
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<p>Well, Christine Lagarde could have asked Bernard Tapie to replace her as an Honored Guest for Commencement Weekend. Rumor has it that he owes her quite a few million favors.</p>
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<p>That’s very true. After all, how many people are impressed with HYP because they’ve extensively studied / understand the great things they have to offer, versus “well, I’ve always heard that HYP are the best schools, and I really can’t articulate why”?</p>
<p>It’s rather like asking people what’s the best painting and having the Mona Lisa come up as the answer. Is it because the average person really knows enough about art and art history to speak intelligently about the Mona Lisa relative to other famous paintings, or is it merely that we’ve always heard that the ML is the best painting in the world so it must be? But I’m veering into Platonic form territory here …</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Colbert(6).jpg[/url]”>http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Colbert(6).jpg</a>
the greatest painting in the world</p>
![http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Colbert(6).jpg[/url]](http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Colbert(6).jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
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<p>I can understand wondering whether prestigious colleges in general are worth the premium over good public universties or next-tier-down privates offering discounted tuition. I guess I can understand thinking that HYS and maybe P and MIT deserve some premium because of the universality of their name recognition, here and abroad (which, in practice, might mean that one would be willing to pay sticker price for Harvard, but not Penn or Brown or Duke). I think that kind of name recognition is way overvalued, but I can understand how someone else could disagree on that.</p>
<p>But in the world I inhabit, which is a bi-coastal world of educated professionals and academics, there is no lack of name recognition at all for top LACs, and the value of their brand is at least equivalent to, say, Cornell, Brown, Penn, and of course Dartmouth which mostly IS a top LAC. And it’s absolutely clear that, by somewhat different means, top LACs do a job that’s every bit as good as top research universities in turning out educated, plugged-in, successful alumni. Cellardweller – a poster I respect tremendously – is dead wrong if he thinks top LAC grads are at any kind of meaningful disadvantage in any kind of marketplace that matters to them. </p>
<p>Now, objectively, is any of these colleges “worth” so much more than a public flagship honors program at half the price? Probably not, although I think the question is a lot closer than people admit. But is there any justification for a difference between Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore (and some others) and Columbia, Brown, Duke (and their ilk)? No way.</p>
<p>^I know it’s just semantics, but I’m curious: why do you think HYS have a better reputation than Princeton? Usually if only three are included in the acronym, it’s HYP and Stanford is left out.</p>