<p>Health professional schools are expensive, and it is not unusual for a graduate to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
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On the other hand if you have a degree in public policy or business degree your life experience is likely to be greatly by having it from an Ivy vs good old Directional U.*</p>
<p>YMMV.
The only person I have known who was ever a member of a Presidential Cabinet, graduated from a lower ranked ( not even directional) public college.</p>
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<p>OP stated this thread was about undergraduate degrees only.</p>
<p>What is a “health professional school” in this context? OP argues against paying for a “well-known private” undergraduate college as opposed to a reduced priced public college. What existing “health professional schools” qualify as well-known private undergraduate colleges?</p>
<p>OP is now saying that the $200K debt arose partly from an advanced degree in Chiropractic. It would be courteous to use honest examples of the situation one is attempting to discourage.</p>
<p>Bay, my original thread was for undergrad degree only as you noted. It also compared that of an expensive private school vs. an almost free ride from a good state university. As for the lady with the 200K+ amount of debt, as I noted, I don’t know what caused it. Maybe it was primarily for professional schooling. However, I also noted in my original posting that going to the best graduate/professional school is best. I am not faulting anyone from incurring large amount of debt for medical/law/ other top notch professional or graduate schools. My post was solely related to undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Another post telling us what we need to do, with ideas that I have seen over and over on CC. Perhaps if my kid was going to med school, I would agree with taking the full undergrad scholarship. I may be paying full fare for my youngest at an LAC next year, due to a change in family financial circumstances. Oldest 2 each got about $16,000 in scholarships from their privates, will graduate with no debt. Many grad programs are fully funded, especially in sciences. We have been living in the same house for 25+ years, paid off, and have plenty for retirement, so if we want to pay for our kid’s LAC, really, what’s it to you? Your bottom line is not true for us.</p>
<p>IMO, if you want to pay, pay, if you do not want to pay, do not, find the UG that will give full tuition Merit or better. It really has nothing to do with having money or not. if some are desparate to get their kid into specific school, they have already decided that financial part is NOT a criteria. I know that because, that is how we decided on D’s Med. School. I believe that some families feel the same about UG. I did not care which UG D. would attend, I knew that she would do very well at any.</p>
<p>Does anyone have statistics about how much “prestige” of institutional affiliation affects the job prospects of young adults today? The only proper study I know was conducted on mid-career professionals who graduated several decades ago. A lot has changed since.</p>
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<p>I’m not at all defensive. I find these discussions very interesting. I am simply responding to your claim in your initial post that you could not “fathom” why someone would pay full freight at a private. You also said that kids who weren’t academic superstars “needed” to go to a public school. Your language in your original post seemed pretty absolutist, and your response to ClassicRockerDad was patronizing. People who have the income and assets to send their children to privates without FA generally are not that stupid about money, or they wouldn’t have it in the first place.</p>
<p>I certainly do not believe that anyone should go 200K into debt for an undergraduate degree anywhere. I also do not believe that families should endanger their economic stability to pay for any school.</p>
<p>^It will largely depend on major. Many specialties/departments hire locally. These includes many engineering firms/ IT departments.</p>
<p>"I certainly do not believe that anyone should go 200K into debt for an undergraduate degree anywhere. I also do not believe that families should endanger their economic stability to pay for any school. "
-I believe that each individual family should do whatever this family wants to do. They will not listen to anybody anyway…seems to be a great waste of time to tell them otherwise…</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, do you understand the difference between having an opinion on something and offering advice? If people never expressed opinions, this forum would not exist.</p>
<p>'Should" seems to imply “advice”. Opinions are nice too. Let’s express opinions…</p>
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<p>The effect of prestige likely varies lot based on college major, type of job, industry the job is in, and the region one is looking for a job in.</p>
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Your point being?</p>
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<p>Though, unlike NJSue, I do plan on providing my kids with a car after they graduate from college, I agree with her main point. I desire to spend this money, that I’ve worked hard for / saved for, on a college education. I don’t see a down payment on a house as being anywhere near as valuable. If you give me the choice between fully-paid-for private college or not-so-good college and a down payment, I’ll choose door A every time. A down payment on a house isn’t part of what I see as my responsibilty towards my kid. A college education is. </p>
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<p>Absolutely. Since it’s my discretionary income, and since I’m still well situated for retirement, etc., who is someone else to tell me what I should and should not do?</p>
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<p>Where on earth do you get off suggesting that those who are paying for these kinds of colleges must only be concerned with the present, future be damned, etc.? How do you know that? My H and I have worked out tails off precisely so that we can do both of these things – fund our children (through grad school if need be) AND enjoy a comfortable retirement.</p>
<p>Here in our Midwest state, there’s our 32,000-undergrad flagship university, with an ACT admissions range of 28 - 31 (except for recruited athletes, of course), and then a handful of regional universities, all with far lower admission standards, lackluster academic performance, low graduation rates, and party-school atmospheres. Even the most elite in-state high schools here can place no more than about 25 seniors with stellar academic records into the flagship. Those elite students don’t want to go to our regional universities. All the campuses here are underfunded, and the flagship overcrowded. We don’t have public liberal arts colleges here, only big “big campus” schools with extremely large entry-level lecture classes, etc.</p>
<p>For the parent of an in-state student here with an ACT of 28 or less, private colleges are attractive because our in-state public university options for that student aren’t good. If that student strategically applies to flagship as a General Education applicant (rather than Business or Engineering or Arts, etc, which probably won’t happen), it could result in a 5-year or 6-year odyssey of unavailable classes and elusive majors. Only half the students graduate in 4-years at our flagship, so calculate in the cost of the extra year (or two) and the parents’ are facing a tuition total similar to private school (particularly if student gets merit money and/or financial aid, which for many Midwest colleges is a strong possibility for most households.)</p>
<p>In my income bracket, where I live (CA) , “almost free rides” from a good state university don’t exist, so this not particularly useful advice. The reality of my situation is my non-superstar D got a merit scholarship making her LAC just slightly more expensive than a “mid-tier” UC. She’s happy; we can afford it; and we have absolultely no regrets about spending more than we really need to on education. Frankly, I see no reason to save money now so I can buy her something she neither cares about (fancy car) or, in the case of marriage, may never do.</p>
<p>I completely agree with NJSue. Value is in the eye of the beholder, and what looks “exorbitant” to one person, someone else is happy to pay.</p>
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<p>That there is no one-size-fits-all answer about the value or lack thereof of school prestige.</p>
<p>higgens2013 --</p>
<p>Illinois?</p>