<p>According to a recently released study conducted by the University of Michigan, elite college graduates don't earn higher pay or status. Here's the link: <a href="http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2006/Apr06/r040606%5B/url%5D">http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2006/Apr06/r040606</a></p>
<p>Actually that's not quite right. According to Brand and Halaby (who are from UWisconsin), attending an elite college "increases socioeconomic status of first job." There is also an income effect but it is small and ambiguous. That is what I would have expected. The biggest effect of top schools is NOT how much you earn, but having a choice of how you make a living.</p>
<p>You can go anywhere, become a doctor or entrepreneur, and get rich no matter where you studied. It's not quite so easy to become a top academic or top Manhattan lawyer from a third tier school. It is not impossible certainly. Just a little bit harder.</p>
<p>Not Quite Old:</p>
<p>First, the summary of the study published at the UMich website makes it clear that the authors are estimating the potential effects of attending an elite school. So their study doesn't provide evidence that going to an elite college would make a difference for everyone. By it's own summary, the study says that going to an elite college doesn't pay off in status or money.</p>
<p>In fairness, though, it seems logical that going to an elite college holds many benefits. As I understand your point, elite colleges open up more opportunities to its students or, put another way, a greater range of potential careers. By my reading of the study, there were minimal differences shown in pay and status and/or differences could be due to family pressure and expectations rather than attending an elite college.</p>
<p>I don't want to start an emotional discussion for or against elite colleges. My point is that the student's efforts matter more than the college. This study offers some support to that belief, don't you agree?</p>
<p>I do agree with poster #2 that for <em>certain</em> professional goals, an Ivy degree tends to enhance opportunities for that field (as well as broadening opportunities across fields). But overall, it is still the student that makes the difference. Connections combined with achievement & application to the task have been proven to be formulas for success for many careers -- from the arts to politics to business to academia. (And often those connections are non-academic.)</p>
<p>I know a gentleman from a low-performing Nowhere public high school, who went to a 2nd-tier undergrad public U, due to family finances. He attended a strong law school but not an Ivy. He is now working at a very high-producing "designer" law firm in a major metro area. He is very, very bright; most likely his employers grabbed him for that reason. </p>
<p>OTOH, I have been told by lawyers that working as an Appellate attorney depends in great measure on graduation from a high-profile law school.</p>
<p>One of the problems I have with all the high-stakes discussions about Ivy's & "elites" on CC, is that in so many cases, one's career will follow graduate school, not undergraduate. Plenty of students from "ordinary" (LOL, good but not "top-tier") undergrad schools are accepted into very fine professional or graduate schools, including HYP. One's life or one's future is not "over" if one does not get accepted to an Ivy when you are 18. Yet plenty of CC students speak as if a rejection condemns them to future "failure." I'm not sure whether their peers or their parents are telling them that.</p>
<p>I don't want to agree or disagree. I just wanted to clarify what the paper does and doesn't say and what the best way to interpret it would be. To say that it "doesn't pay off" in status is too strong compared to what the paper actually says. <a href="http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/faculty/pages/eliteF_ms04_002.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/faculty/pages/eliteF_ms04_002.pdf</a></p>
<p>Obviously one can do well from anywhere. That's a given. One can also fail in attending an elite school. The interesting questions are When does it really matter, To Whom, And What is it Worth? Each new paper provides incremental insight into these issues but no definitive answers because of the econometric identification problems that every author has noted.</p>