Is it worth paying for a top ranked university?

I have always answered this question by saying yes, you should try to go to the best school you can get in to. I have my own justifications for this, but I wanted to hear the opinions of everyone else. The reason I’m asking is because I’ve been around a lot of people recently who have gone to cheap, low ranked schools but gotten very high paying jobs. Is this just luck and due to connections? Future income isn’t the only reason I’d go to a good school, but it’s definitely one of them. Also, I know you can get pretty much any job regardless of what school you come from and that it’s more what you do at the school that you go to, but still.

It depends on how it affects family finances and/or if the student is a fit into the college’s culture. If you are going into $200K worth of debt I would say that is really stupid. I also wouldn’t say a school is good based on rankings alone. There is so much more to college than just academics, and there are plenty of jewels out there that are not top ranked. In the end where you find happiness is where you will more likely excel which is the ultimate goal. If you are hating life you are not going to do well no matter how great a school is or supposedly is. College is what you make of it no matter where you land. I think sometimes college rankings is like getting caught up in the Black Friday frenzie. You get sucked in with all the mania and later have regrets because you made the purchase for all the wrong reasons.

Affordability is my first criterion. As a professor who has put 3 children through college and advised many students, it is possible to get an excellent education at many universities as long as you put in the effort and do the right things to position yourself for a good career. This is why the people you know have gotten high paying jobs even if they graduate from a 'low ranked" school. It tells you a lot about what these rankings really mean…

OP, is that money that you are talking about yours or your parents’?

It depends on your goals as well as your circumstances. But in the US, the main determinant of your success is you.

That question’s answer is going to be 100% dependent on who you ask. Your observations are completely valid. Many students go the affordable route. It is a solid path to a good job. Good grades, good recommendations, job experience…those matter. Make the most of the opportunities you are given.

This notion of “best school you can get into” is somewhat misleading. For starters, it implies that college quality is directly proportional to difficulty of admission, which is not always true. Colleges can set the level of quality they deem necessary to fulfill their mission, stay competitive, and attract students. They can do this independent of the national rankings.

Second, the “best school you can get into” should really be the one that fits you the best from an all-around perspective, and is respected in your desired area(s) of study. You may find that the schools you like best are NOT the schools that best fit your SAT/ACT scores.

I don’t think it’s important to go to the “best” school you can get into. I think it’s important to get into a school you can be your best at. Your future is going to be much more impacted by what you do than by where you go.

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Future income isn’t the only reason I’d go to a good school, but it’s definitely one of them.


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For most careers, it won’t matter. Sure a top pricey school might yield a higher income than a podunk one, but for most careers, going to a state flagship or similar vs a top pricey school won’t make a difference income-wise.

Going to the best school you can get into can backfire if your goal is a professional school where GPA is paramount. Every year we see pre-med kids who by-the-skin-of-their-teeth got into their high reach school…and happily enroll. But, then after the first year or so, they’re posting that they don’t have med-school-worthy stats because (likely) the stronger students at their schools (the ones with stats in the upper 25%) grabbed all the As.

And if you think that med schools will forgive a good-but-not-high GPA from a top school, then you need to spend some time on the premed forums. There is a parent this year posting that her 3.5 GPA student from an elite univ hasn’t gotten one interview invite from a MD med school…even tho she applied to 20+ MD schools. I am certain that if she had gone to a “lesser but very good school” her GPA would have been a bit higher and she would have gotten at least some interviews, and likely a couple of MD acceptances.

IMO the answer is generally “yes” if the school has a highly ranked program that the student is interested in, if one has the ability to do the work successfully, and if it means you and your family do not have to go into debt.

If it means going into substantial debt, then for most people the answer would be “no.” Debt affects many people’s lives in significant ways, and in ways that not everyone can foresee. It can mean having to rent much longer than your peers, because a down payment is impossible to save and because there is already too much debt to obtain a mortgage approval. It can mean having to delay saving for retirement (which in turn puts you behind your peers because you have lost out on compounding from saving early in your career), delaying marriage, or not being able to take a better position in a different city because it is just too expensive to move. Substantial debt can mean missing out on vacations, or further educational opportunities.

So it is a process of weighing the benefits against the possible detriments. The fact that you are asking a serious, important question now means that you are very likely to make an excellent decision based on your situation. Some people don’t consider this issue, and spend decades digging out.

Great point by @fractalmstr‌. How difficult a school is to get in to could depend on a lot of factors and have little to do with how much a school can help you succeed.

For instance, UNC is much harder to get in to out of HS OOS than as an NC resident. Is the UNC education and experience much better for OOS than NC residents?

As another example, Lawrence isn’t that difficult to get in to. Yet in terms of physics PhD production, they’re in the top 10.

New College of Florida also isn’t very difficult to get in to. Yet a really high percentage of the students there get PhDs or other grad degrees and they do impressively well when you look at some alumni achievement metrics.

There’s no hard-and-fast answer to this question. It depends on what you’re paying, and what the alternative is (both in terms of finances and reputation), and what the family can afford.

Pay only the federal loan limit ($27,000) to go to Harvard when the other option is full pay (CoA = $25,000) at the local regional university? Sure, of course.

Pay the federal loan limit to go to Harvard when you have a full scholarship to Wash U or Duke? No, why on earth would I? But what if the full scholarship is to the state flagship, University of Minnesota or UGA? That’s a more murky decision. (Personally, I would still say take the scholarship, because $300/month for 10 years is nothing to sneeze at and those are excellent schools. But not everyone would make that decision.)

Pay $60,000 to go to Harvard vs. $30,000 to the state flagship? Some people would say yes, and some people would say no. It also depends on how that $60K is getting paid - are mom and dad wealthy and can pay it out of pocket with little impact on their health and retirement? Is Junior going to have to borrow that entire amount from private lenders (co-signed by the parents)? Are mom and dad going to take a PLUS loan for whatever Junior can’t cover with federal loans, and if so, can they afford that PLUS loan? What’s the state flagship - UVa, or West Virginia or North Dakota State?

What if the expensive school in each example is NYU or Boston College instead of Harvard?

You can see…the combinations are endless.

You seem to hold the belief that schools do something to make people successful and accepted without question that the “best school you can get in to” will do a better job than all your other choices. Having seen people not attending “top” schools do well but still stuck in the same mindset, now you are starting to invent other causes that don’t rock your beliefs. Was it just luck? Did they know someone that helped them out?

Let me suggest another cause. Individual drive and effort makes things happen. Kids that go out and get internships, study hard to get good grades, make a good impression so they get good recs, set themselves up for success.

Many HS kids share your beliefs, leading to the brand worship (especially Ivy) seen on these boards. You have counter-evidence right in front of you, yet you want to explain it away. Hmmm…