<p>^who defines prestige… US news?</p>
<p>Defined any way you like. I know you’d like to find a way to disagree with that statement, geeps. Can you?</p>
<p>Of course, the only problem comes in when you are talking about $100,000+</p>
<p>redpoint, I am confused. You just said this
and now you are saying you didnt say that?</p>
<p>Red point…my point is that what one person views as important or prestigious varies. And so does the cost value.</p>
<p>Jym: Yes, but I didn’t say EVERYONE was posting that.</p>
<p>Thumper: to that I concur. Im sorry, I thought you were “Nuff saying” as if you thought the whole issue was done with. And maybe it was, after eastcoastcrazy’s great post a while back. Yet there is still something that eats at one . .</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Depending on how you define prestige - I disagree.
There was a serious discussion in our household as to whether someone is ever seriously disadvantaged by a “prestige” or “elite” education.
But that is not what annasdad is talking about as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>I feel annasdad has been unnecessarily confrontational and perhaps deliberately misleading. This is a board parents go to for advice. Annasdad sounds very authoritative and cites all these “sources” to back up his opinions which he tends to present as absolute facts and truths. Some things he states as facts are true. Some things he states as fact are false. But parents who have no experience as to the difference between various types of universities and colleges may not be able to detect the false statements. This bothers me. </p>
<p>If your kid wants to be an art history major and reading annasdad, you decide UConn = Yale/Williams, you may be misled. It is not clear to me an art history major at UConn is necessarily disadvantaged compared to an art history major at the other schools, but the educational opportunities on campus are not the same. Obviously this is true with many other majors as well. However, would Yale or Williams be the best place to study engineering? If engineering was your sole focus and you weren’t too interested in electives? </p>
<p>Figuring out which school is best for each student is a very complicated discussion with a lot of variables. Annasdad is into generalities. imho ymmv</p>
<p>I don’t have anything else to add to this discussion</p>
<p>The thing that eats at me is: It is very hard to say something that is not the best is good enough for one’s child, who one would give one’s life for. One wants to do all that one can do for him or her. But what is too much money?</p>
<p>And it does get complicated because I would want to dig out all feelings of personal pride (being able to say, “my child goes to x school”) and just focus on the kid.</p>
<p>This is making my head spin. No one said you said that “all ccer’s” said that one should “always” send a kid to the prestige schools. There is a subset of posters who may believe that, but it is IMO, a minority of posters, and it certainly isnt Thumper’s belief system.</p>
<p>Its too much. I think we have to give this up jym and realize we might be misunderstanding each other.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Each family needs to answer that question for themselves. No blanket answer…</p>
<p>(re: # 315) On that we agree, redpoint.
I also wholeheartedly agree with alh’s post #312. Spot on.</p>
<p>I’m just not that worried that many people here will think that the third or fourth rate institution is as good as those that are first rate, no matter what Annasdad cites. (It’s the first rate vs. second that I am murky on, given the cost.) so I am not bothered by it.</p>
<p>Ive been around here for 7 years now and have read and participated in this particular discussion a number of times.</p>
<p>What I have learned is that there are a number of posters who have MUCH, MUCH more money/assets than I do. We will never see $250,000 in the same way. Therefore the discussion is meaningless between myself and those with a great deal more than I.</p>
<p>carry on…</p>
<p>As a parent whose been through this two times I didn’t find this all that difficult to nagivate. I asked my kids to ignore costs and to ignore exterior rankings (USN or otherwise) and to rank order their options for school and to decribe why schools were higher on the list on not. SecondToGo was particularly interested in bringing net cost into the intial ranking … I advocated he did NOT initially. First, lets discuss what you believe would be the best undergraduate experience for you … then we can layer on cost and discuss if the advantanges of a school you like better is worth the incremental cost.</p>
<p>FYI - at the end of the day neither of my kids went for the “highest ranked” school among their options and one did end up at a full pay option when lower cost reasonable alternatives were available. I must add, both picked the school which I called Mom3ToGo during our tour (before talking to my kid) and told her this is the best fit school for our kid … in our case it was easy supporting their choices … (not so easy being full pay)</p>
<p>Yes, exactly, sax. And I will say it gets harder when one’s kids go to school with other kids with a lot more money.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html</a> might help better than random quips heard in a college visit. However, the survey methodology may vary (e.g. how far after graduation are the graduate surveyed), so exercise care when looking at the results.</p>
<p>This type of discussion always gets heated because it gets down to the core of how we view ourselves as parents. It has nothing to do with if one type of school is better than another, and whether a school is worth it. Most of us would want to do everything we could for our kids. It is hard sometimes when we see other people who could possibly do more. I could be dispassionate about having the nicest car among my friends, or eating at the best restaurant, but when it comes to my kids I want to believe that I am providing them with the best care possible. When I can´t, I try to rationalize what I am doing is the best, and what I can´t provide is either unnecessary or wasteful. I see many ccérs say “we shouldn´t care about what other people do” (Pizzagirl is one of them, and she is one of my favorite posters), but we do when it comes to our kids.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Were you able to comfortably pay full list price for any reasonable choice for all of the kids? Seems like if there are budgetary limitations, the net cost after non-loan financial aid should be an early screen (don’t apply to definitely unaffordable schools, and treat only possibly affordable schools (e.g. depending on uncertain big merit scholarships) as reaches) to avoid the student getting to enamored with a school that is unaffordable. There have been threads where parents overpromised and underdelivered money for college, causing family conflict after the student could not attend his/her “dream school” that s/he always thought s/he could go to until April.</p>