<p>Miami- how interesting about your daughter’s undergraduate education and her high rank at her small private high school! Who knew???</p>
<p>Are we there yet?</p>
<p>For top students who can take full advantage of the resources and opportunities of a top school, there is worth. In financial terms, you have to spend some money to make some money. In ‘life experience’-terms, the experience at certain top schools is not reproducible at “lesser” schools, and these experiences make all the difference in the world.</p>
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It looks like we are going to start the trip all over again.</p>
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<p>To some people - including my husband and me - these experiences are important, less replicable at “lesser” schools, and worth it. To other people, they may not be. It’s pointless to try to tell people what should or shouldn’t be worth it to them. Is going to Europe worth it for the experience? I think so - but it’s easy at my socioeconomic level to say - yeah, I can do that. Is it worth it for someone at a lower bracket? Maybe, maybe not. Who am I to judge and more importantly who am I to spend someone else’s money?</p>
<p>I do not think that anybody is making decisions based on CC advice. Reading is primarily for entertainment. Nobody can compare even if they went to both Ivy and state public. The same kid would have different status at each. At one he might be hand picke by prof for an awesome opportunity, at another he might be just a face in a crowd, one school might have great focus on Grad. studies, another one give all attention and most resources to UGs. How you can compare? Everybody realize that and every body will decide for themselves, while all others can tell the rest of the world their stories and what to do. It is OK, we are at peace, aren’t we?</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not talking just about the money, although the money is certainly a practical necessity. Many top schools provide grant and merit aid for students they think will benefit from their programs, and the richness of their programs can evidently produce a fuller educational and cultural experience. These experiences can push a very good student to the brink of greatness. And credit these schools for making changes to their endowment a few decades in advance; to anticipate having the capability to provide such opportunities. Oh, look at me – I sound like a British Petroleum advertisement.</p>
<p>“In life experience- terms, the experiences at certain top schools is not reproducible at “lesser” schools, and these experiences make all the difference in the world.” </p>
<p>Polarbear, Pizzagirl, anyone who can explain, please clarify, what is meant by “certain” top schools in this regard, what differentiates such schools from other top schools, and what is a “lesser school.” Seems important to clarify this if it could “make all the difference in the world.”</p>
<p>^^^
a list with exact cutoff points would be nice.</p>
<p>cutoff points for what?</p>
<p>^^^
Just a precise list of the certain top schools would suffice. People need to kniow where they stand.</p>
<p>Top schools for what? How would it be measured? </p>
<p>I assume this is not serious …</p>
<p>^^^
I’m not the person who originated the phrase. I’m referring to post 63. rigaudon and I are looking for a list of “life experience you cannot reproduce” schools. For reference purposes. They make all the difference in the world, you know.</p>
<p>I’ll just grab a ringside seat and some popcorn…</p>
<p>^^^
Yeah, it’s nice to have an original thread to read. I don’t think I’ve ever read a discussion like this on here before 
But if someone would actually provide their list, I think it would be instructional. 
Typically on the student threads it cuts off somewhere below the institution the poster attends.</p>
<p>Thats what I get for ckecking in at lunchtime. Missed that your tongue was firmly planted in your cheek.</p>
<p>Eh, for me, the cutoff is somewhere in the general range of 50 or so on USNWR, but that’s only a general guesstimate and I’m not going to fall into a silly trap of pretending there is some absolute cut-off where x=fine and x+1=a hell-hole.</p>
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<p>While you know me enough to know how I think / approach this, I think there is a non-quantifiable experience of attending a school with a rich concentration of smart kids, that you get at better schools and that you don’t get at schools with a wider dispersion of talents. I personally value the “thickness” of a pool of mostly really-smart kids. That’s not to say you can’t find really-smart kids anywhere, but the pool is thicker at higher-end schools. That’s all. Others might be content to know there are really-smart kids around and not be distracted by the not-so-smart ones. More power to them. That’s not how I’m built. Who knows, it may be a weakness of mine that I would have been demotivated if I hadn’t gone to a school that was thick with smart kids.</p>
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I knew you were too smart to fall for it PG. No fight club this afternoon.</p>
<p>bovertine- I think the cut off is somewhere around NYU or UMichigan. Below that you might as well just forget it.</p>