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Old study (2003), but shows that that college peers can influence performance</p>
<p>Link to full article <a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w9501.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nber.org/papers/w9501.pdf</a></p>
<p>Someone please tell annasdad to read this. He claims not to read my posts. Lucky for me!!!</p>
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<p>Bet the evidence of this is about as good as the evidence that NU’s science courses are NOT as strong as one poster’s kid’s high school courses.</p>
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<p>Good info.</p>
<p>Just FYI annasdad, I was just reposting that information from someone else who posted it. It is a very well written article (the one I posted).</p>
<p>I agree with the generalization that any good student can acquire an excellent education at almost any college. I think the same student could probably acquire an excellent education without college.</p>
<p>It becomes a different question with an individual student.</p>
<p>annasdad: Have you ever addressed Blossom’s post regarding the difference in opportunities for an Art History Major at UConn, Yale, and Williams? Where does that particular student have the best chance at an excellent education? And will the undergraduate school matter in graduate school admissions?</p>
<p>Obviously Art History is just one example of many when you talk about individual students. For your individual student you wanted the very best HS education available. For your individual student, what will be the very best college education available? What are the important factors you will look for? </p>
<p>edit: posting this on 2 threads because I don’t know where it belongs :(</p>
<p>If my son hadn’t gotten into his first choice school (with a silly/undignified name), his second choice might have been one that had a very weak major for him. A lovely school in all other respects - but a serious, non-specific answer is “I wouldn’t want my kid to go to a school where his major is barely supported.”</p>
<p>@Collegealum314 - Reading this thread late - lol - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13813507-post326.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13813507-post326.html</a></p>
<p>There is little peer effect at selective colleges… From the Carnevale study jym cited:</p>
<p>“It is in the consideration of peer effects that the consensus on the standard model for the current system of selectivity begins to unravel. Hoxby’s explanation of the effects of affluent peers on spending in selective colleges does make intuitive sense. But the view that there are peer effects that improve individual learning, persistence, graduation rates, and subsequent career success are more muddled in the data. The notion of campus-wide peer effects on learning loses considerable authority when researchers look at actual students and their peer relationships on college campuses. The evidence of peer effects on persistence and learning shows up not in college class cohorts, but in more intimate relationships, such as those between roommates and friends. Peer effects are hard to find in the data. To the extent they are measurable, they do not tend to matter much, especially among the most-qualified students, but they do matter to some extent among less-qualified students.79”</p>
<p>BTW that report is full of interesting stuff regarding real impacts of college–especially elite vs less elite.</p>
<p><a href=“http://tcf.org/publications/2010/9/how-increasing-college-access-is-increasing-inequality-and-what-to-do-about-it[/url]”>http://tcf.org/publications/2010/9/how-increasing-college-access-is-increasing-inequality-and-what-to-do-about-it</a></p>
<p>Yes, it is an excellent article but annasdad seems to miss the point. Maybe he should read the whole article/chapter and the book it is from. Its all linked, just like he asked for.</p>
<p>Looks like the only way for these two threads to end (this one and the Top Tier one) is if posters stop responding to the ONE poster who continues to argue and argue on this thread. I vote for NO MORE responses…let the threads die.</p>
<p>Yeah, but the original topic was kinda fun. It was the hijacking that killed it.</p>
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<p>Maybe we can just start a new one in a few days. I enjoyed following it too.</p>
<p>Posters shouldnt have to start a new thread, which itself runs the risk of being hijacked again by a poster bent on antagonizing others. It was an entertaining thread.</p>
<p>Maybe everybody putting that certain person on ignore might help. Can we take a vote?</p>
<p>Not trying to demonize any one person because a handful of people together took this way off topic. But I do wish they’d take it somewhere else.</p>
<p>re the post by you know who that was deleted, and now is back, sigh…
just like a bad penny…</p>
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<p>Agreed…</p>
<p>ohiobassmom
Many attempts were made to get this thread back on topic, only to have it derailed and jump the shark over and over. Its a fun, semi-serious thread, with clever chatter. Hope it can remain that way.</p>