Is a prestigious undergraduate degree worth it?

[CU123]

@MWolf

@CU123 So you are talking about comparing theoretical Wisconsin students to theoretical Chicago students? Or are they abstractions? Neither say anything at all about the actual individuals who attend either college.

Moreover, since you are talking about “objective measures”, there are Chicago admits whose SAT scores and GPAs are below the average of Wisconsin students. Since the SAT score range of Chicago was 1020-1600 and the ACT range was 20-36, I am pretty sure that there were any number of students who were accepted to Chicago with an SAT or ACT which was below the average SAT or ACT of Wisconsin. Since Chicago does not provide the range of UW GPA of their incoming classes, nor does UW, I cannot say for sure, but, based on the unreliable self-reported data on various sites, there also seem to be again, any number of students who were accepted to Chicago who have GPAs that are below the UW average.

We can also compared other “objective” criteria. The average family income of Chicago students is higher than that of Wisconsin, the percent of students from Wisconsin is higher at U Wisconsin than at U Chicago, Wisconsin has more Ag and Engineering students than does U Chicago, they eat more cheese at U Wisconsin than at Chicago, and they attend more football games.

What does all this mean? It means, is that talking about “average Wisconsin student” is nonsense, unless you are looking to sell cheese snacks to Wisconsin students to eat at football games and want to know how much they are likely to eat. the comparison will tell you whether you would make more money selling cheese snacks at foot ball games at U Wisconsin or at U Chicago.

Are you British perhaps? I have a British friend who also likes to write paragraphs in what could be said in a few sentences.