<p>I do too, except that I think the “intellectually superior” argument is often a rationalization for a more emotional reason – they’re either attracted by the snob appeal, or are simply bedazzled by the name on the front door.</p>
<p>When we attended Admitted Student’s Weekend at my D’s LAC (obviously not a state school, but less selective than the elites and little-known among the general public), I met a young lady who was trying to make the decision between the LAC versus Cornell. I asked her what she liked about the LAC, and she quickly reeled off a fairly detailed list of positives. Then I said, “And what about Cornell?” Her response: " Well… it’s Cornell." (She ended up choosing the LAC.)</p>
<p>Is he an exception? The field that he is in is technically called Sound Recording Technology and it’s an uncommon major. I don’t even know if elite schools offer
this major. David also has a considerable fine arts background and the blending
of the two makes for a formidable talent. He’s also a very good trader. I have the
feeling that he could succeed in whatever he wanted to do.</p>
<p>What is the percentage of Ivy grads running the S&P 500? I’ve always heard that
there are far more corporate heads from public universities than there are from
elite schools.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want my kid to become Bill Gates. I expect him to have a better moral
code.</p>
<p>We vacationed for years at a family camp in Minnesota where H (and then D and S) attended. We used to kid one another that it was the “One Percenters” club – the families whom we vacationed with were invariably very well to do, in the top 1% of wage earners (I think the general cut-off we had in our minds was $350K), and here were all these “One Percenters” paying money to live in conditions that, well, were comparable to the shtetls that all their ancestors escaped from :-). But to that point, there were plenty of “One Percenters” who had gone to state flagship schools and the like. This may be more midwestern than east coast, but of the well-to-do people I know at those levels and beyond, it just doesn’t seem that they <em>had</em> to have gone to top 25 schools.</p>
<p>And some of the wealthiest ones I know – people who started companies from scratch and sold them to larger companies for anywhere from $20-40 million – had extremely modest beginnings and went to directional / lower-tier colleges. So while I certainly appreciate the educational opportunities of HYP and the like – and fully cop to some snob value on them – it’s just hard for me to come up with a mindset that if you don’t go there, you won’t ever do well financially. There’s just so many exceptions to that.</p>
<p>I also think finance is so overplayed on CC. It’s just one possible profession of many, for crying out loud. It’s not a more important or more dominant profession than any other given profession.</p>
<p>Yeah, really, I mean what kinda nut job runs around vaccinating the world’s children and spending more of his personal wealth on healthcare than most nations do?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I agree that there are many ways to succeed and in addition that there are many ways to define success – higher expected average income is only one and extremely narrow. Even with that narrow definition, what we are talking about is changing the probabilities of success. Given how relatively small the elite schools are as a function of the cohort graduating high school each year, it would be stunning if the only wealth were generated by elite school grades. The only question is whether going to the elite schools increases the probability. I’d say for some groups yes. But, it would be silly and wrong to argue that one needs to go to them to succeed.</p>
<p>I come from a family with 6 - count ‘em - 6 Harvard MBAs. To say that they have a strong sense of their abilities and superiority is an understatement. They have each made their mark in different ways, but what they have in common is the sense that they have a leg-up in the world, and I agree with them. The connections they made while in business school were invaluable to their future success, and to be able to say “I have and MBA from Harvard” opens doors that have served them all very well. My H is no slouch, having gotten an MBA from USC while working full time in his 20’s, all paid for by his employer - but there is no comparison regarding the perceived value of his MBA and his siblings’. </p>
<p>Would the six of them have succeeded with a degree from another B school? Probably. Would the opportunities have been as extensive and exciting? Maybe not. But having been around this for 20 years, I can say with certainty that those who are able to earn a degree from Harvard B school, and I’m sure other top ranking B schools, are in an exclusive and elite club that they are very proud to be part of.</p>
<p>I think it’s definitely depends on where you live and what you do. If you live in the East Coast, where you go to school might make a difference. I’m currently working with a guy with perfect pedigrees(Harvard(undergraduate), Stanford(Master), UC Berkeley(Phd). I don’t think his job is any more exciting than mine.
Around here where I live the rich people are not the people with income in the top 1%, that is upper middle class people, but the rich people are people who have good ideas and start a company and sell it for hundred of millions, like the ones that my husband recently had to deal with. The ones that can afford a bugatti easily. But these people spend as much as they make, so easy comes and easy goes.</p>
<p>Just don’t make your kid wear the hair shirt to compensate for decisions that you made earlier in your life (or were made for you) that you regret. </p>
<p>I love hearing that folks who can afford to pay full freight without much sacrifice want to save money by sending kid to el cheapo school since then they’ll be able to help with grad school, down payment on a house, future grandchildren’s education. You’ll pay to educate the grandkids you don’t have vs. helping out the child you’ve already raised?</p>
<p>What’s that about? And why is the downpayment somehow a better use of the cash you are currently sitting on than tuition?</p>
<p>I think everyone- no matter how affluent- gets to decide how to spend their money. But if you are affluent, don’t punish your kid by deciding that now is a good time to teach thrift and money management so you can be generous to your grandchildren.</p>
<p>Or my fave: The parents who insist on private K-12 because they’re “better” schools. Yet, when it comes to college, these same parents say instate publics are the best option.</p>
<p>My daughter is applying to both private and in-state schools and we’ll have the same problem in a few months. We are planning to have her make the decision by herself and not to talk her into anything based on tuition money alone. </p>
<p>If she chooses a school with lots of merit aid, we will then tell her about our plans of saving a certain amount of money per year (20-30k) for her to be used for graduate school or down payment for a house.</p>
<p>I was also thiniking about anything question… do you have the same tuition budget for all of your kids? In our case, DD will get merit aid and I am not not sure about our DS in a few years.</p>
<p>Blossom, I agree with you, yet I have a hard time paying $X+$25K per year for the lesser ranked private over the $X per year higher ranked, better known, public without some compelling reasons. I guess I’m not trying to get my kid to be thrifty as much as sensible; if he decides, with all the facts in hand, on “$X+$25K college” for reasons of program and fit, we’ll cough up the money, but not without some pain.</p>
<p>I have to wonder how many kids, particularly in this economy, buy into the snob appeal only to have their hopes dashed… I say this because of a conversation I had with a young bright family member who is an ivy grad still waiting for his “big opportunity” to come along. In his words, “this is just not where I ever thought I’d be at this point in my life”. </p>
<p>While he’s an ivy grad, he doesn’t come from a wealthy family with connections. That then makes me wonder if many of the elite school grads who are doing so well because of all the alum connections had those family connections to begin with. I understand you can’t generalize but it makes one wonder…and then how much of some opportunities are just sheer luck.</p>
<p>I attended a public hs but had a job in which I worked with a lot of private hs grads. <em>In this particular town / circumstances / social strata,</em> there was a great deal of snobbery from the private hs grads towards the public hs kids. Yet when it came time to go to college, only 1 of the private hs kids I worked with went to a “good” college (Vanderbilt) … the rest of the kids went off to Southwest Missouri State and Southeast Missouri State. Some of them said that their parents didn’t have any money to send them to college because they’d spent the money on their private high schools. What a silly waste of money that was, IMO.</p>
<p>Yes. Whatever their tuition costs. I don’t have the philosophy that if one twin goes to a less expensive school than the other, he or she gets to keep the difference in cash.</p>
<p>“Or my fave: The parents who insist on private K-12 because they’re “better” schools. Yet, when it comes to college, these same parents say instate publics are the best option.”</p>
<p>When the alternative is going to a complete crap K-12 school and graduating with no preparation for college, I would imagine that makes a lot of sense. My boyfriend’s parents paid 10k a year for him to go to U of D Jesuit only for him to end up with loans at Eastern Michigan, and it was undoubtedly the smartest, most generous thing they could have done for him. He might not have been able to get to college at all had he not had the advantage of going to U of D over Detroit Public Schools. I don’t really think you can go on about what a waste of money private schools are only to go to a state school without drawing that distinction.</p>
<p>On a separate note, re private school snobbery, in one of my classes this week at Umich the professor had us raise our hand if we went to a public school, and when approximately half the class raised their hands some people actually gasped. Rich kids are funny. XD</p>
<p>50% of the DD private HS classmates go to top 25/30 private colleges. Rest go to UCs because that seems to be a better option.
You don’t go to private Santa Clara University over UCB just becuase it is private. A top school can be public and can actually help you succeed better.
So the children, from DD private HS, that go to public university don’t go there because parent are not left with any money but because that public University is a better fit.</p>
<p>I haven’t read every post, so I may have missed an input but a few thoughts…</p>
<p>Almost nothing depreciates faster than a luxury 40K + car. Try selling one 4 years later… value is less than 40 to 50 %. Trying to use luxury cars as an analogy with higher education seems ridiculous to me. A valued education and diploma from an excellent university stands the test of time and has value even 30 years later. It just does. That said, it’s the individual who gets the job through inverview skills and work experience.</p>
<p>I think this is a very worthwhile thread because it questions decisions that really have no “correct answer.” My D received several scholarship offers. One was downright excellent - she didn’t choose that U. After very careful consideration…she had her heart set on the 50K school she’s at now. We, too, qualify for no FAFSA money. She worked her butt off to get some scholarships & merit money, took out the max sub Stafford and has a small job. She’s got skin in the game and knows the value of what she’s got and is doing. Not all kids would. The school wasn’t picked because of the football team or prestiege factor, but because of the major she wanted. The value of it will be incalcualble. It so depends on the maturity level and goals of the child.</p>
<p>We chose to invest in our childrens education and took out our parent loans + the monthly pay option for balance. D is contributing too. It was a carefully considered choice partially based on her effort and respect. We talked, talked, talked about the financial aspect so she would not think it came lightly. So far, we’ve not had one moments regret.</p>
<p>collegeproject - We have somewhat the same issue as you. A hs soph son who, so far, is not getting the importance of caring about grades. We will be having long talks with him for the next 3 years. I would not necesssarily make the same decision for him if he does not step up. If he shows maturation, effort and apreciation we’ll do it for him too! He can pick a U based on interest and life hopes…</p>
.</p>