<p>Dad II--can you expand on what you meant by "our one and only guide--US News university ranking"?</p>
<p>Does that mean that's the only thing you have looked at so far, or do you mean that you consider that to be sufficient by which to judge the merit of a particular school?</p>
<p>Here's my take on the choice of an undergraduate program...first of all, it is a bachelor's degree. I would not go so far as to say "college is the new high school" but a bachelor's in and of itself is the prerequisite for an entry level career path job--the source of the bachelor's doesn't really matter. So don't get too caught up in the "brand name" school leading to any kind of better outcome than the private label school--it's having the degree that matters.</p>
<p>The bachelor's is the starting line, not the finish line, so every family has to decide how much of a limited resource (money) they can invest in getting their kids to the starting line. This is a lot easier if you don't actually HAVE any money or if you have so much money that $200,000 (the theoretical maximum for four years of the most expensive college in the country) won't make much of a difference to you either way. For most of us it's going to be a complex process of weighing our desire to get our kid to the starting line with the best tools for success against what we don't really have a huge amount of control over--our future earning power, future performance of the markets, our future health, etc. </p>
<p>I would argue that while it is a paramount duty of every parent to prepare their children to be contributing adults and that includes providing them with sufficient education to support themselves, it is ALSO the obligation of the parent to have a realistic understanding of the economic value of a bachelor's degree and to be realistic about how much of the family's capital and future earning power can be invested in education.</p>
<p>The difference between what a $200,000 liberal arts degree will return in the market vs. what a $100,000 degree will return is not going to justify the difference in cost. </p>
<p>All that being said, there are about five schools where I think the value of the bachelor's degree is significantly higher than the value of the average bachelor's, and there are a few degrees that are in such high demand that I think it is safe for the student (note I do not say parent) to borrow more than the average amount that I would consider "safe." Those schools/programs would be CMU's program in CS, MIT, CalTech, Wharton's undergrad business degree, and possibly UChicago's economics program. In general, I think a student studying math, computer science, physics, chemistry, or engineering at any school can probably go a little further out on the debt limb than the ones in other fields since odds are high they can command a decent entry level salary and if needed pay down undergraduate debt before going on to grad school.</p>
<p>So...if your son or daughter is heading for college with the idea of earning a degree in English or psychology it isn't going to be smart to mortgage the house or take out huge loans because the odds are high that without grad school it's going to take a few years of relatively low pay to get established.</p>
<p>Giving into emotional decisions about rankings, "fit" or "heart's desire" schools regardless of cost will more often than not end in tears, loan defaults, having to leave school midway or transfer to a less expensive school, or having to defer grad school or, horrors, live with parents following graduation. </p>
<p>We looked at a bunch of DD's "dream" schools and THEN sent her to a weekend session that the State U. honors college sponsors to try to keep top students in state and before she went to the session, she looked at State U. as a consolation prize, after the weekend she considered it her solid second choice and was really impressed and would have gone there with enthusiasm had her first choice not accepted her.</p>