<p>Does the top tier education of your child pay off ? My parents pressure me to get good grades and take all the hard courses because they believes unless I get into top tier schools, my future will leads to nowhere because I will not get a good job. Is this really true ? Do I really need to graduate from some prestigious schools to get a chance at being successful at life ? My grades are very good but the pressure of my parents and AP/IB course-load really stress me out. Ofc I don't want to go to terrible schools but I also don't want to be stressful all day just to get to a Top Tier school but if that what it takes to be rich in life, then I am willing to do it. Does anyone has a child with a high salary and didn't graduate from prestigious school ?</p>
<p>Oy.</p>
<p>Obviously, people from many backgrounds become financially successful. </p>
<p>I have a kid who graduated from TWO prestigious schools and has a low starting salary. But he is doing what he wants to do, and was lucky to get a real job in his field, since they are increasingly scarce. Without his two prestigious degrees, especially the second one, he might not have a job in his field at all. More to the point, he benefited on an intellectual and personal level from the schools in question. That is what makes it “worth it.”</p>
<p>You should try to find a school that fits you, not try to make yourself fit a school. There are lots and lots of good ones out there: I’m sure you can find a fit. Keep your options open, and good luck.</p>
<p>It is worth it to study hard and do the best you can now, because these work habits will serve you well whichever college you apply to.
If you want to be “rich in life” then you will need that strong work ethic, smart time management skills, as well as lofty goals, and the courage to try and fail repeatedly until you succeed.
Good luck to you and feel free to send me 10% of your first million! 
</p>
<p>
No.
Of all the things a child can dream of, this is your one goal?
I’m sorry about your unreasonable parents, and I am sorry that your over-the-top schedule is turning what should be years of wonder into years of pain. You can see that the path they are trying to put you on is not the path of happiness or true success.
Again with the “salary,” which you should drop as your sole criterion for success in life. Yes, the world is full of people with high salaries who didn’t graduate from a prestigious school. And a friend’s daughter who just graduated from one is working at a sandwich shop for the time being. There are 200+ colleges and universities where you can have a fine and rewarding academic and personal experience. And your measure of life’s success should include health, love, fulfillment, and service to others. A life of endless stress trying to cross some constantly moving finish line may rob you of all four of these, even if it delivers a big paycheck. Best wishes.</p>
<p>My son in law attended public schools and he earns a very good salary.</p>
<p>@snarlatron </p>
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<p>You have to understand. I was born in Vietnam and although my family economy is not the worst of the worst, it is not enough for four children to be comfortable. Growing up, I always wish I can earn a salary a that is high enough to comfortably provide for myself and my children.</p>
<p>
@long2181998 I appreciate this. I did not realize the cultural and possible language issues to your message. Certainly we all want our families to be well taken care of. When I hear “rich” I think of so many students I know today who think that life is a Rolex, a BMW, a boat, and a mansion. This can often (but not always) be a road to unhappiness. Perhaps your parents do not understand that U.S. higher education extends well beyond the elite schools. You can go to a state school or a relatively unknown LAC and still have many options for a successful career before you. Of course, you are the biggest variable. If you work hard at ANY college, you will have doors opened.</p>
<p>A top-tier EDUCATION is invaluable. A top-tier SCHOOL is a waste of money - or, less perjoratively, as PizzaGirl says, it’s a luxury good. You can get just as good an education at Northern Illinois as at Northwestern, at Youngstown State as at Yale, at South Dakota State as at Stanford, at Prairie View as at Princeton - and for a lot less money.</p>
<p>Thirty years of research, dozens of studies, have failed to find any correlation between prestige and education.</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting read:</p>
<p><a href=“Ivy League Schools Are Overrated. Send Your Kids Elsewhere. | The New Republic”>http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118747/ivy-league-schools-are-overrated-send-your-kids-elsewhere</a></p>
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</p>
<p>" unless I get into top tier schools, my future will leads to nowhere because I will not get a good job. Is this really true ?"
No. Plenty of financially successful people didn’t graduate from “top tier” schools. Look around you. Do you really think that only families with “top tier” college graduates are “comfortable” in this country? </p>
<p>@annasdad great link; thanks. I’ll be sharing that one with friends and colleagues.</p>
<p>annasdad,</p>
<p>While I understand (perhaps) the author’s indictment, his insistence that liberal arts colleges (as if they are monolithic!) are the bastions of a pure education is without substance. People go to Swarthmore for prestige and people go to Harvard for prestige. People go to Williams for career prospects and people go to Stanford for career prospects. Some teachers at Reed are subpar, others good, as at its illustrious peer institution in New Jersey. We might find a difference of degree between elite schools and non-elites, between publics and privates, between some liberal arts colleges and some universities, but in the end, as far as education is concerned, all colleges are wastes of money. (I hope that I have absorbed the author’s knack for trenchant and provocative generalities!) Perhaps the elites are wastes of more money. In that sense, I agree with you.</p>
<p>And here’s an article from another “insider”: <a href=“David Brooks article”>http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Misc/Brooks-article.htm</a></p>
<p>Oh, and I’ve never understood why “Ivy League Schools” is a stand-in for “Elite Schools.” Has someone figured it out?</p>
<p>
The article specifically praised “second-tier, not second rate colleges like Reed, Kenyon, Wesleyan, Sewanee, Mt. Holyoke” not biggies like Swarthmore and Williams.
This is the case at every University & College in the U.S.
I agreed with the author’s take on LACs. I have drawn the same conclusion over the last decade. Those with an interest in Research U’s (They went to one or their kids do) will of course defend them. One can get a fine education and experience at a Research U but I think the flame burns brighter at LACs, especially the CCL variety.</p>
<p>Craft a life. </p>
<p>Wrong thread, please delete.</p>
<p>And, here we go again, AD. Same story. </p>
<p>What I mean is: a college degree is a prestigious object. Some people go to Centre or Sewanee or any other school because college degrees have cachet. The Yale ex-professor argues that elite schools do not offer better educations than certain “second-tier schools.” I posit that those second-tier schools do not offer better educations than one can get with a room of one’s own and a few shelves of books. Colleges and universities are built on wealth, entrenched in social and economic bubbles, and several times removed from the individual’s education. That point might not be relevant, but I wanted to try to rebut the author’s false dichotomy. The article is an interesting example of what the old professor warns against, the inability of the elite to converse with the “plebeians.” Taken perfectly literally, it sounds like nonsense – or the shoddy excuse that the self-appointed representative of the Common Man puts forth to show the snobbish and elitist Ivy League what-for – but with an eye for the hyperbole and periphrasis that professors often use… He exploits academic tropes to make his writings more appealing to the hungry masses. Clever? Maybe. (A burning Harvard flag. What is this: a Marxist-Fanonist revolution?)</p>
<p>Actually, some of the “second-tier schools” that the writer mentions do well in a certain ranking of college alumni satisfaction and success, outperforming schools like Harvard, Williams, Chicago, and Swarthmore. However, I bet that if Deresiewicz were to find out about the ranking, he would ache to knock Yale and Princeton down two hundred spots!</p>
<p>@annasdad:</p>
<p>Sure, it is possible to get just as good an education at Prairie View as at Princeton. However, Princeton is likely to give you a better network and open more doors. That said, a good state school like UT-Austin can, in some industries and geographies, give you as good as (or better) network and open as many (or more) doors as Princeton. That article you linked to was a good read, but purely anecdotal.</p>
<p>That leads me to my next point: @long2181998, what state are you in? While I would not recommend Prairie View if you have much better choices, if you are smart and motivated, in this country, there are actually a lot of schools (many outside the very tippy-top) that can give you opportunities to do well in life. Despite the emphasis of so many on CC on the fine gradations between the most elite colleges and a good state school, I believe (and I believe the research has shown) that there is a bigger difference, in terms of the boost a college can give you, between a good state school and the lowest tier of higher education in the US than there is between the most elite and a good state school.</p>
<p>BTW, the LACs do punch above their weight, so to speak, when it comes to turning out a high percentage of illustrious grads. Despite admission stats that are below those of HYPSMCaltech, in terms of grad success (percentage in to elite professional schools, PhDs produced, and leaders in business/government/arts), Williams/Amherst/Swarthmore do as well as them (though Harvard is almost in it’s own tier when it comes to pre-professional/professional success). A little below them, a good number of LACs do as well as the lesser Ivies & Ivy-equivalents (Duke/Chicago/Northwestern) in terms of graduate success despite slightly worse stats (and they do better than a school like Vanderbilt in almost every regard).</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that for those who are equipped by intellectual talent and energizer bunny like determination, there is no substitute for the opportunity to interact with faculty and students of the very highest caliber. Only a handful of institutions will give you the opportunity to have class with former cabinet members or heads of state, Nobel prize winners, members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, etc. If a student is really up to the rigors of those environments , then going to even a strong liberal arts college or most of the state flagships is not going to be as valuable as attending the very top with the very best. </p>
<p>Broadway is Broadway and class is class</p>
<p>^ Here goes Exodius again on his alumni ranking. Give it a break already…
Not every discussion on this forum has to hear about your alumni satisfaction ranking.</p>