<p>Long ago I was given some advice about the value of a degree from a prestigious school. The value is most appreciated at those points in your life when things don’t go too well. </p>
<p>If you find yourself looking for a job mid-career and have not had stellar success in your career so far, then your “brand name” degree will make it easier to open a few doors and salvage your career. I am not saying ‘easy’, I’m saying ‘easier’, as in ‘less hard’.</p>
<p>Well, except rich kids don’t have to worry about impressing others. Which is why they may participate in prestige (e.g., going to HYP) but they don’t chase it.</p>
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<p>At the risk of contradicting my last post, this is quite true, too.</p>
<p>I would like to note that just because somebody is of lower economic status, that they are not necessarily lower class.</p>
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<p>x-posting with GA2012mom</p>
<p>I have met quite a few people people who have $$ and are low-class. At the same time I met people who are low-income backgrounds and have great manners, know how to conduct themselves in social situations and even golf.</p>
<p>“If you find yourself looking for a job mid-career and have not had stellar success in your career so far, then your “brand name” degree will make it easier to open a few doors and salvage your career. I am not saying ‘easy’, I’m saying ‘easier’, as in ‘less hard’.”</p>
<p>Well…maybe. But there are so many ways to look at this. I know LOTS of unemployed folks right now (unfortunately) - and of course there is a wide range of ages, degrees and schools represented (engineers and lawyers, Yalies and community college grads). Now, some of the younger folks have moved back home…why? Because they have HUGE school loans that they’re still paying off. It’s not pretty.
So yeah, go to a prestige school if the money is there and it’s a good fit. It just might give you that edge when you need it. But don’t extend yourself…it can come back to bite you. There’s no free lunch…even for Yale grads.
And lastly, in MY family, all of us from very modest roots, my dear brother went to an Ivy, I went to a state school. And I believe my manners are right there with his…maybe even better 
Really…</p>
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<p>Absolutely. And that’s the mistake made here on CC by a lot of high school seniors and college age kids – that the presence of money / a well-paying job is the determiner of someone’s class and worth in the world.</p>
<p>To Dbate:
You should appreciate the rare opportunity handed to you and learn some humility; very few students get to go to Yale with a SAT I score of 2070.</p>
<p>Someone like you, with 650 SAT I Math and 680 Math II, should not go around claiming physics is easy and disparaging engineering and engineers.</p>
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<p>I dont like to bash a teenager on a public forum, but I cannot help to feel exactly the same way about this kid as another poster ([hyeonjlee](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/747408-rethinking-costs-attending-elite-college-wall-street-journal-27.html#post1062966048]hyeonjlee[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/747408-rethinking-costs-attending-elite-college-wall-street-journal-27.html#post1062966048)</a>).</p>
<p>Zing!!! :D</p>
<p>No generalizations are accurate, but I’ve noticed that many prep school kids and other children of privilege have mastered a certain self-assurance and comfort in formal situations that lower class/income kids lack. Of course, these affluent kids may very well be just as boorish or more so in their behavior at the frat party, but they know how to talk the talk in an interview or at a cocktail party. Those of you who have this ability are probably unaware you have it or, if you are aware, don’t how you came to aquire it. But trust me, there are others of us who are painfully aware we lack the social sophistication you learned growing up. Maybe you learned from observing your parents and their friends at dinner parties or company affairs, but however it happened there are those for whom it didn’t happen. They may be kind and polite, but I’m talking about something different. It’s an intangible that I recognize when I see it, but have trouble explaining. And I can tell you that my S had to struggle to acquire it so he could land a job in an industry which looks for it. And by the way, S’s Ivy had several etiquette workshops and offers golf as a class.</p>
<p>^ I understand exactly what you mean. I grew up in an affluent area and someone pointed this out to me in college, and I’ve noticed it ever since. Those who grow up well-off have more of an ease in the way they conduct themselves, they’re often more assured and confident because from a young age, they’ve been told they have the potential to do anything and their parents are wealthy and well-connected. You can often determine a person’s social class just by their demeanor and etiquette, whether they grew up with money or recently aquired it. </p>
<p>This entire discuss has become ridiculous with people bashing each others careers and choices. Any moron should be able to figure out society needs a variety of professions to exist. How exactly would the modern world be able to function without teachers, lawyers, architects, doctors, plumbers, scientists, engineers, designers, computer scientists, fruit-vendors, businessmen, i-bankers, salespeople, mechanics, electricians?</p>
<p>If you work hard, contribute to society, and like what you do, give yourself a pat on the back (or a cookie!) There’s no reason to bash others because you depend on them for something or may depend on them soon. </p>
<p>Except for telemarketers. Those folks we could do without. :p</p>
<p>GFG’s post made me remember a colleague. He grew up in a very resource strained environment. His parents both had two jobs each to make ends meet. However, once a year, his parents would take him and his brother to the best restaurant in town. The rationale is, they wanted their children feel comfortable in a “upper crust world” (his words) when the time comes and not feel like poor relatives from a village far away. I thought that was an extraordinary thinking on the part of his parents.</p>
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<p>Seriously! There are many professions nearly as important as engineering, and we should acknowledge that they are all fairly worthwhile.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll stop now that Dbate seems to be gone from this thread for good.</p>
<p>So, where were we? Ah, yes, rethinking the costs of attending an elite college…</p>
<p>Dbate said:
I would like to know, with an income of 120K, how your EFC is less than 4K.</p>
<p>EFC most likely doesn’t refer to FAFSA efc but how much his family is required to pay as determined by Yale.</p>
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I don’t associate these attributes with wealth and that’s not what I’m sending my kids to college to learn. There are people from all backgrounds who have natural social ease and I’m not sure you can learn it just by watching.</p>
<p>"Those who grow up well-off have more of an ease in the way they conduct themselves, they’re often more assured and confident because from a young age, they’ve been told they have the potential to do anything and their parents are wealthy and well-connected.</p>
<p>There are many wealthy parents who put tremendous pressure on their kids by expecting them to be as successful as they are. There are just as many wealthy parents who tell there kids that they are not living up to their expectations as poor parents might. I seriously doubt that wealthy kids are any more confident than anybody else.</p>
<p>So I should consider going to an Ivy so I can talk to folks at cocktail parties? Wow. Again, I came from a poor family, and had ZERO training in the social graces. Went to an average state school and picked some things up along the way. I have no problems interviewing or attending cocktail parties. You just pick it up. A kid who has issues in these settings will probably have the same issues no matter what school he or she intended. I know some awful cold fish types who went to Ivies. I also have interviewed inept Ivy grads (some boorish- some just clueless).</p>
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<p>Congratulations you can search through someones history, now did you also read the part where I got a 34 on the ACT with a 35 on the math section. And in case you didn’t know, Yale doesn’t require you to submit the SAT or SAT 2s if you send in the ACT, so I didn’t. Do you feel stupid now? Because you should.</p>
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<p>That’s none of your business but if you must know I have three other brothers (so there are four of us) and two of us will be in college when I am a freshman, and three of us will be in college at the same time my sophomore year. So Yale allows a future savings for families that have children who will be going to college the next year.</p>