<p>Harriet makes a wonderful point. Although a school name maybe one part of the equation, the biggest variable will always be the drive, commitment, talent and luck of the individual.</p>
<p>Hm. I would love to be one of those volunteering to inherit a fortune and would gladly leave it to my kids, and then they could spend in on whatever shiny school they could get into. </p>
<p>I hope a good portion would go to the starving billions in this world though. It breaks my heart to know that 3/4 of the world's children go to bed hungry every night. To them the different between Harvard and Podunk U must seem miniscule.</p>
<p>lisares, I don't lay claim to any global understanding, nor I am I particularly plugged into the "prestige" thing (that may be a function of being a west-coaster), so I can only speak to the specific experiences my two kids are having.</p>
<p>But addressing your question about peer culture... I wouldn't assume the peer culture at a prestigious school is any loftier to be honest. My son has been exposed to more drinking, debauchery, drugs, and crude sexuality at his shiny brand-name LAC than he has at any point before in his life, and way more than my daughter is experiencing at Regional State U. Those preppy kids can be hard-party-ers with money to burn.</p>
<p>Most of the kids my daughter knows work a job, go to school, and know they're shouldering the burdens of studying and paying for college in order to have good career options when they graduate. It's a much more grounded experience than the country-club life students seem to expect at my son's school.</p>
<p>That said, my son has made wonderful friends (the very closest of which live in the sub-free dorm with him), and has not fallen prey to worst of the social scene... however, his semester grades this year took that familiar first-year tumble due to all the social opportunities and distractions.</p>
<p>So, I would only say, don't assume a student at High-achiever Hotbed College will be in a purely positive environment, and the kid at state u is going to be living in Animal House. At least in our case, it has been quite the opposite. ;)</p>
<p>Perhaps we are unusual, but as we made our decision on college apps for my son, we outright rejected schools that did not fit our budget.</p>
<p>So, while various prestige and name-brand LACs would be dream schools for him both academically and socially, they will, alas, have to suffer without his presence.</p>
<p>We are also rejected loans of any sort, from any source. This is simply unwise, in this or any economy, to saddle children and aging parents with loans for an education. And with thousands of colleges to choose from nationwide that are both affordable and of high quality, it's simply not necessary.</p>
<p>And how do you define quality? Aren't teacher dedication and meaty courses what it's all about? Is a community college course in Public Speaking going to be THAT much less instructive than one at Oberlin? And are state or community college students that much less motivated than those at an ivy league school?</p>
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<p>In this particular field it makes not a "bif of ditterence" which school they attended. <<</p>
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<p>I think that it makes a lot of sense, if money is an issue (that is, you are not a trust fund baby or mom and dad have chosen to fund your education completely), to consider whether a degree from a brand name university would further your cause in your chosen field of employment. </p>
<p>Elementary school teacher=no; investment banker on Wall Street=yes.
Nurse=no; lawyer in big name national firm=yes (for law school).
Supreme Court Justice=better have gone to a top law school.</p>
<p>If you have the money, go to whatever school you'd like. But there's no need to go into massive debt if you know that your chosen career will make it hard to repay that debt.</p>
<p>My sons are 5th generation "brand name" college students. No generation of this family has been wealthy; we don't have fancy cars, nor do we aspire to country club membership or live in amazing homes. Each generation of parents has worked hard, saved money for their children's college educations and not needed financial assistance. While it certainly makes economic sense to allot the money to a state university-this is our one indulgence-the best education for our children-it's hard to give up this multi-generational value.</p>
<p>Nicely put B'smom. I do think family values has a lot to do with school choice. My parents did not attend college and my sibs all went to UCs. I was the only one to attend a private college and the only one to love my college experience. My sister didn't love or hate her UC, which seems to be typical, and saw her own children following in that path. She had little exposure to LACs and such. </p>
<p>She attended many of my kid's private school events over the years and started understanding what the draw was. She was pretty shocked at the resources for so few kids, the small seminars for freshmen, lack of general ed requirements that forced you to take American History again and most of all how much the kids loved the experience. Her thinking and values changed dramatically and her younger kids are headed for private colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks for this posting, too. It's really easy to assume somehow that after working so hard to get into one of the elite schools, these "superstar" students continue their serious-student ways, achieving at high levels-- whereas the easier-to-get-into state schools attract a large proportion of lower-achieving kids who are just doing time, skipping classes, partying hard and scraping by to get the degree. </p>
<p>But what you say struck a chord. I personally started out (all those many years ago) at a more upscale private university and wound up transferring to a state school (I was OOS) to pursue a certain degree program the first school didn't offer. </p>
<p>While I am still friends with students I met at the first school, and less so with those at the second -- it was so big, I was kind of lost in the crowd--I did at the time feel that the student body at the first school was too homogeneous, while the second had an interesting and stimulating mix of ages and backgrounds. I did feel that the classes and professors were just as good. The program I went into there was a specialized, competitive one, but generally the school was extremely easy to get into. I wound up hating my program and transferred to another department, so the whole thing was kind of a waste except for the few friends I made there.</p>
<p>Ironically, D is now attempting to get into my first school, which has gone up in rankings and selectivity a lot since my day, and since I transferred out she isn't considered legacy.</p>
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<p>these "superstar" students continue their serious-student ways, achieving at high levels<<</p>
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<p>Uuummmmm...not always, but that's another story. </p>
<p>The fact is that at these super-selective universities, 50% of the students reside in the bottom half of the class. Sometimes that can have ramifications when applying to grad school/professional schools.</p>
<p>It's a good point, ellemenope. I was recently schooled in this over on the law school board. My son wants to go to a great law school, but now honestly I can see it might have been a better option for him to go the state u honors college where he'd graduate very high in the overall state u class, rather than at High-Achiever Selective LAC where he might not. However, like hmom5 said, he is "loving his college experience" there and I am happy about that. It's a trade-off. It may be that by going to a higher ranked school for undergrad he'll end up at a somewhat lower-ranked law school. That's fine, too, but it's worth considering if reversing those things would have been a better option. </p>
<p>I don't get too twisted up in all this. Usually people know what makes sense when they see it. Whether it's because of opportunity, family traditions, branding, money, preferences, geography, or whatever, I believe kids will fulfill themselves to the extent they want to, they work for it, and they value the opportunities that they do have, wherever they are.</p>