<p>Hmm, someone needs a statistics course even more than I do! ;)</p>
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<p>When I mentioned that the results of the various studies were mixed, I meant mixed, not a 50/50 split. In fact, of the quoted studies, far more concluded that attending an elite school made little or no difference. It is bad form to make assumptions about the results when it is so easy to go and read the original paper yourself. That’s the way it’s done at elite schools, after all :)</p>
<p>The studies themselves vary in terms of their initial assumptions, their methodology, and their samples. You need to keep all of this in mind when considering what the results of the studies in aggregate are saying. You cannot treat this like some sort of random sample, where each researcher’s results are of equal weight. Certainly you can’t extrapolate and say that the percentage split between study results is the same as the probability that elite school attendance “matters”. </p>
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<p>The benefit is money saved. This might mean that the student has far less debt, or that the parents have far less debt, or that the parents have an improved standard of living, which I’m personally all in favor of 
It also means that resources (that is, money) are freed up for other opportunities for the student: grad/professional school, seed money to start a business, assistance with buying a first home, support if the student needs to/wants to take an unpaid internship or significant travel as a pathway to a desired career, etc etc etc. </p>
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<p>No we don’t: all us parents who love our kids are paying less than $10k for a car! </p>
<p>I do know that I regard a safe car with airbags as far, far, far more important than attending an elite school. Ditto health insurance. I suspect that most parents would agree. 20-somethings, though, don’t necessarily see things this way; you don’t generally see them taking on debt for boring risk assessments like this.</p>