<p>^Well I am just talking personally I live in oklahoma and our state schools have good programs but nothing compared to those of the top ranked schools. Also lets be realistic someone who goes to a top-ranked school will have a better chance at getting a good job which ultimately is what everyone is going for.</p>
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- What is a “good” job?</p>
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<li><p>No cite or warrant.</p></li>
<li><p>I believe Dale and Krueger found that attending selective schools is a poor predictor of future income among those who are admitted.</p></li>
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<p>Didn’t see any response to points 1a, 2, or 3.</p>
<p>Let’s just agree to disagree because i don’t really feel like answering all your questions</p>
<p>Well, obviously I can’t force you to keep posting. I won’t grant legitimacy to your beliefs simply because you are unwilling to attempt to defend them, but if you aren’t in the mood that’s okay. </p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck at whatever school you end up attending :)</p>
<p>I take what you just said as a challenge and I never turn down challenges!!!
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<li><p>There is nothing proving other wise so your point is? Its obvious, think about it top ranked schools are top ranked for a reason! They have really good programs. Logically one would most likely learn more from the better program (top ranked) as compared to a state school.</p></li>
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<p>1a. Okay I respect that they want to get the best out of their education so here it goes why don’t they go to a better college?! </p>
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<li><p>Not always…especially at mine. They have everything prefigured if you want this much money you have to do this so just having a 4.0 doesn’t help</p></li>
<li><p>If it does why don’t they expand those feelings by going to a top ranked school?!</p></li>
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</p></li>
<li><p>One that pays enough for you not to go in major debt and have enough money to buy things for yourself just because. Also a job you enjoy. If you get a top ranked education you options to which jobs you can get become bigger making more of a chance for you to get a job you like.</p></li>
<li><p>You haven’t either so please stop saying that crap! Use your logical mind! </p></li>
<li><p>Idk who they are and what they proved…</p></li>
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<p>
Different ranking methodologies produce different results. USNews uses peer review, retention/graduation rates, counselor review, test scores, “faculty resources,” financial resources, and alumni giving. The burden is on you to prove that those represent effective proxies for educational quality.</p>
<p>If you look at a ranking scheme such as the NRC rankings for graduate programs - or even the USNews graduate ranking - the results are very different.
How are you defining “best”? The word has a distinctly values-based connotation that is not necessarily applicable to all people in the same way. And why is getting the “best” out of an education necessarily a universal good?
Depends on the state, obviously, but achieving National Merit standing - for example - is easier if your grades are solid. Not necessarily a 4.0, but solid.
Maybe they don’t buy that top-ranked schools actually offer them - personally - more opportunities.
- Engineering, accounting, premed, prelaw, and many other careers are generally believed to be relatively low-prestige focus fields. I’m mostly basing this conclusion on CC conventional wisdom - there have been some other good threads on this topic.</p>
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<li><p>Turn: If the lower-ranked school is cheaper, that might be a good way for the student to avoid debt and actually end up financially better-off in the end.</p></li>
<li><p>This is just your opinion on what constitutes a good job. Once again, you are applying your personal values to others.</p></li>
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<p>Did someone who teaches at-risk kids make a bad career choice because they don’t earn a lot of money?</p>
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<li>Everyone has different spending habits and therefore different financial needs.
My only advocacy is that you should stop judging other people for making up their own minds and choosing options that fit with their personal values and interests. I’m not saying that all schools are equal for everyone - for example, I would agree that students interested in working in elite finance or management consulting industries would do well to attend prestigious schools, as evidenced by the schools where those firms recruit.<br></li>
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<p>The burden is on you to prove that someone is “dumb” for not choosing to apply to top-ranked undergraduate schools. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t automatically conclude that they are “dumb” when they may in fact be doing what is best for themselves according to their own set of values.
Basically, Krueger and Dale found that most students who had the choice between a more and less selective school and chose the less selective school ended up earning comparable salaries to those at the more selective schools.</p>
<p>There are some legit criticisms of the study, but I think it is still a valuable piece of evidence in this context.</p>
<p>EDIT: I leave town in a couple hours and may or may not be able to check CC for about two weeks. I won’t forget about this thread though, so I will check back upon my return.</p>
<p>In response to the original post, I feel the same way. My counselor and teachers all know me as an excellent student, but my worst fear is that when senior year comes along, they’ll just laugh right in my face when I say that I want to apply to schools like Yale and Columbia. Hell, I feel like they’ll laugh at me even if I tell them that I want to apply to my state school, even though I know that they won’t. </p>
<p>But in all honesty, I don’t want to go to Columbia just because it’s an Ivy and just because it was ranked number four. Of course, those two facts played a small role, but I mainly want to go there because I’ve been obsessing over it ever since my sister was accepted, and because I’ve done a lot of research and I feel like I’d fit in perfectly there. And I don’t want to be stuck in Virginia or North or South Carolina for the rest of my life like most of my classmates. But I feel like if I even mention the fact that I want to go to one of the top five Ivys, all of my friends and teachers and counselors will immediately think it’s just because of the name and the reputation.</p>
<p>^Yeah that’s my problem too! I did a lot of research and stuff but I don’t think anyone would believe me</p>