Today's NYTimes editorial "The Class of 2012"

<p>The post on HBS is all wrong. That part is just the class overview. Most are employed. At very high pay.</p>

<p>Ancient CC proverb</p>

<p>Those who can afford a top 100 school ,do…those who can’t belittle those schools…</p>

<p>Still waiting for the FIRST thread about how secondary and tertiary schools are ,for the most part, a bad ‘investment’ for many who attend…i see plenty of threads saying 40+ k educations are a waste of money. ;)</p>

<p>The problem with this type of thread, is that life in general,is no different…People will say driving a Mercedes is a waste of money,when you can drive a Kia for significantly less…why eat ribeye steak, ground sirloin is a cheaper alternative…Why shop a Nordstrom when you can buy a shirt of the same color at Kohls…to each his own…i have said this often ,go to the best school you can AFFORD,but don’t cheap out on your kids education…</p>

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<p>How about this one:</p>

<p>Those who borrow through the wazoo to pay for expensive prestige-heavy school try to justify their decisions based on mythology … those who look at the data make rational choices.</p>

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<p>Even places like University of Phoenix?</p>

<p>Who’s borrowing through the wazoo, Annasdad? You seem to be equally annoyed at the wazoo-borrowers and the sailing-through-full-pay crowd.</p>

<p>The only ones who irritate me are the sailing-through-full-payers who try to justify their decision by claiming that their choice is based on quality of educational opportunities, when the data clearly shows that’s nonsense. It irritates me because it can entice those who CAN’T afford it to make dumb decisions. Those who admit they’re doing it simply because it’s a luxury good - as you have, to your credit - bother me not at all.</p>

<p>People need to take responsibility for their own economic decisions; I myself feel no responsibility or guilt that I am “enticing” other grown adults to manage their family’s finances in ways they ought not to. And I never said it was simply because it’s a luxury good. It’s a luxury good, AND I believe there are differences, broadly speaking.</p>

<p>Of course, people need to take responsibility for their own decisions. But part of rational decision-making is gathering data. And the data shows, overwhelmingly, that there is no educational advantage to a high-prestige or highly selective school.</p>

<p>But when I point that out you, and others, go ballistic and start making snide comments about my motives, and then drag into the conversation the completely irrelevant point about where one parent chose to send his kid to high school. You continue to raise these red herrings rather than speak to the data - I can only assume because the data contradicts your deeply cherished beliefs, which you are unwilling to have questioned, even though you have no way to counter the data. </p>

<p>And then when in a flash of candor you cop to the real reason you’re willing to spend a lot more money than you would need to to give your kid a first-rate education, you subsequently find it expedient to backpedal and qualify like mad.</p>

<p>Jeez, there you go Stu-ing, oops, stewing about everything again.</p>

<p>At most companies, people could care less if you have an ivy degree.</p>

<p>I am at present working as a recruiter at a small local software company. I’m currently focused on finding people for entry level positions which require some technical skills.</p>

<p>I would say what is most important to the hiring manager is that graduating seniors have some sort of work or internship experience applicable to what they would be doing in these positions – which is perfectly sensible and is probably true for the vast majority of open positions out there.</p>

<p>Annasdad, AFFORD is the key word…go to the best school you can AFFORD…getting back to secondary tupe schools, are you willing to say that a school like Kutztown in Pa is similar to say, Fordham in NY ???</p>

<p>ref #45

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<p>I don’t know much about places like University of Phoenix, but I answer will be an “Yes”. </p>

<p>I do like to argue with Annasdad a little on exposure part of UG experiences. The elite universities could offer their students - average, below and/or above average exposures a state college could not. I don’t have any published researches to cite, however. </p>

<p>For example, we were watching TV a couple years back with some Stanford students. There was a congressional debate and someone cited Taylor’s curve. A student had the ecom class taugt by THE professor John Taylor. So this student did give a much more detailed explaination of curve.</p>

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To many middle class family, handful of elites are way way way more affordable than any state school.</p>

<p>Annasdad has the unfortunate tendency to conflate “I can’t afford it” with “therefore it can’t be any better anyway.”</p>

<p>And still, PizzaGirl continues to refuse to address the evidence, repeating yet again the same, tired appeal to motive fallacy. </p>

<p>Don’t they teach basic logic in freshman rhetoric at Northwestern? Or don’t they require anything so mundane?</p>

<p>qdogpa, do you have objective evidence that Fordham provides a better education than Kutztown State for a motivated student? </p>

<p>And to your oft-repeated mantra, what evidence do you have that quality of educational opportunity has any correlation at all with the cost of an institution?</p>

<p>I will repeat a mediocre schools is medicore…top students who excel at crappy U would excel at Top U,no doubt…but the thousands of students who attend crappy U are getting a crappy eduaction…ok, i finally said it…and don’t regret it…college degrees are watered down and the lower you aspire to, the worse you get…</p>

<p>Annasdad, to even think Fordham is even remotely equal to Kutztown tells me enough about you…you are way off base…good lcuk to pyu and to those who may sip from the same cup you do…Chuckie Cheese is always recruiting at Crap U</p>

<p>Kutztown has a 4 yr grad rate of 33%, lol…you don’t think the level of student ability corresponds to level of education? Good luck with that thesis… Cheaping out on you kids education is pathetic…i would sell bottles of water along the nearest highway to pay for the best education with the best student body for my children…i assume baswd on you myriads of posts, you are content with the cheapest education you can get away with,good luck with that…</p>

<p>So I guess the answer is no, you don’t have any evidence. No matter - unsupported opinions are really good sources for making major life decisions.</p>