<p>In this thread, and all over CC: poor people trying to justify their inability to send their kid to good schools. Just admit you are broke and it sucks you can’t afford your kid’s dream school, but you hope he or she will still be happy where they end up. All of the talk about “it doesn’t matter” is nauseating.</p>
<p>In this thread, and all over CC, upper middle class helicopter parents try to make themselves feel better about their own miserable lives by talking down on people who don’t want to get sucked into the prestige rat race and want to do other things with their lives.</p>
<p>Oh for heaven sakes, folks!</p>
<p>-- Riprorin, you do not need to defend your son’s choice on this thread. The fact that you do makes me worried that you’re worried. Don’t worry! Smart kids shift gears if they need to. It will be fine!</p>
<ul>
<li>Darkomi and Ghost, IMHO you’re both right to a degree, but could you perhaps aim for civil discourse? I mean, I suspect you’re both young, but have a bit of sympathy/future-empathy for some of the cc posters – it is really really is hard to be a parent and deal with all this crap/worry and this crazy “system” in need of gaming that education has become in the US and most of us are terrified for our children, many of whom will not enjoy the lifestyle we’ve enjoyed, frankly.</li>
</ul>
<p>And Bearcats, you know, I was just thinking the other day how much you’re “softening” as the ole RW sands down your rougher edges 
I think Darkomi and Ghost are aspiring to your storied thread reputation :)</p>
<p>I am quite curious about how your FOIA turns out. Please do keep us posted!</p>
<p>kmcmom is always the voice of reason…
I petition that this thread be closed. Seriously nothing here pertains to the OP; and we’ll never agree to anything meaningful. I say we just agree to disagree.</p>
<p>As for the FOIA, I just emailed it in. The usual process is that they will come back with a ridiculous fee and I’ll have to respond and accuse them of purposeful non-compliance; and they’ll drag the feet and get me the data at some point. That’s how Michigan does. I’ll probably have something in a few weeks.</p>
<p>kmcmom, am I worried about sending a 16 yr old 1,000 miles away? Yes. Am I worried about the quality of education he will receive? No. Am I worried that he will experience a regional bias? A little. But my experience is that cream rises to the top so he should be fine.</p>
<p>Quote:
UA for undergrad, Harvard for grad school. It happens all the time.
HA! Cite your source. There is not a chance that is true.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the frequency is, but a quick search turned up this guy.</p>
<p>[Joseph</a> Miller | LinkedIn](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pub/joseph-miller/a/704/817]Joseph”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pub/joseph-miller/a/704/817)</p>
<p>When we visited UW-Madison, we had breakfast with a UA grad who’s in a PhD program there. UA students go to top grad schools. To think otherwise is silly.</p>
<p>So we have two pieces of completely anecdotal evidence and suddenly to think Bama grads have trouble going to top grad schools is silly? Well that logic (or lack thereof) speaks for the school pretty well IMO…</p>
<p>I didn’t attend UA nor do I speak for the school so don’t associate my comments with the university.</p>
<p>If you are an out of state student and are willing to pay $225K, or you are an in-state student and are willing to pay $110K, U of M is a fine choice. However, if you are a top student and you are unable or unwilling to pay these amounts, you can attend UA, a tier 1 national research university, for a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p>“tier 1 national research university”???</p>
<p>How many schools are in that tier?</p>
<p>^My thoughts exactly. In what universe is Alabama a tier one school?</p>
<p>The 10 Undergraduate Business Programs That Will Get You The Best Starting Salary</p>
<p>Note the average starting salary for U of M and UA business grads: $60K vs $57K.</p>
<p>[The</a> 10 Undergraduate Business Programs That Will Get You The Best Starting Salary - Business Insider](<a href=“The 10 Undergraduate Business Programs That Will Get You the Best Starting Salary”>The 10 Undergraduate Business Programs That Will Get You the Best Starting Salary)</p>
<p>Emory’s [2011</a> starting salary](<a href=“http://goizueta.emory.edu/degree/undergraduate/career_management/placement_statistics/2011.html]2011”>http://goizueta.emory.edu/degree/undergraduate/career_management/placement_statistics/2011.html) is higher than Alabama’s and I don’t see it on the list</p>
<p>What was Alabama’s response rate to the survey? It seems awfully high for a place with such a low CoL.</p>
<p>Edit: Didn’t realize that this data used 2010’s starting salaries. Exclude Emory’s 2011 data.</p>
<p>By awfully high, I mean the starting salary. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d think that the primary companies which recruit Culverhouse grads would be based in the Southeast which has a much lower cost of living, and commiserate lower salaries than those in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, California, Washington, or parts of Texas. </p>
<p>Btw, I don’t trust a ranking that places McCombs below Alabama in terms of starting salary. I wouldn’t be surprised if the survey was only administered to a select number of top students in highly employable fields (eg accounting) rather than the general Culverhouse graduating class.</p>
<p>riprorin, it isn’t only about starting salaries, although that is an important criterion to be sure. However, the link you provide is very incomplete. It leaves out many business programs, including Boston College, Cornell, Notre Dame, NYU, UT-Austin and several others that have starting salaries in the $60k range. Ross’s starting salary is $63k by the way. And that does not include signing bonuses and other forms of guaranteed compensation. The average Ross student secures a $7,500 signing bonus and many Ross grads receive other forms of compensation that are easily in excess of $10k. </p>
<p>[Employment</a> Data - Stephen M. Ross School of Business](<a href=“http://www.bus.umich.edu/EmploymentData/EmploymentOverview.htm?StudentType=BBAGrads]Employment”>Which MBA Format is Right for Me? | Michigan Ross)</p>
<p>By the way, I agree with Whenhen. I doubt Alabama is including all starting salaries in their average. I can’t see how companies pay Alabama graduates as much as Cornell graduates. If the starting salary for Culverhouse students is indeed $57k, it would be a major outlier. Most of its peers have starting salaries in the $47-$53k.</p>
<p>But more important than starting salaries are the opportunities afforded graduates. What companies recruit from the program? Are they mainly Fortune 500 companies or major services firms (Management Consulting Firms and Financial Institutions) with excellent development programs that lead to executive positions or top open doors to elite MBA programs? Do those recruiting firms come from all over the country/world, or mainly from the region? Do those companies recruit those students as “high potential” employees on the fast track to management, or do they hire them to fill immediate needs? On average, how many offers to graduates have to choose from? etc…</p>
<p>I have no doubt that Culverhouse is a good Business school. However, I doubt it provides students with the same overall opportunities as Ross or other top rated programs.</p>
<p>Now this is getting ridiculous. Alabama is supposed to have a good business school? … a school that’s ranked 83rd on USNWR and 73rd on BusinessWeek?</p>
<p>I second bearcats; let’s close this thread.</p>
<p>I worked for 23 yrs at an iconic US tech company that recruited heavily from Big 10 schools. I graduated from a small non-descript Jesuit college, but that didn’t stop me from spending 15 yrs as a senior research scientist in R&D. I had friends who got their PhDs from Big 10 schools but got their undergrad degrees from academic powerhouses like Oswego State, Western Michigan, St. John Fisher College, Montana State, and Southern Illinois.</p>
<p>I’m interested in who recruits at Alabama, but I don’t think it matters so much. My company didn’t recruit at my school and I was still able to have a very nice career there.</p>
<p>Bearcats, you’re a numbers guy. For an undergrad CS degree, how much of a premium do you think a student should be willing to pay for the U of M vs UA?</p>
<p>Umich Engineering Employment : <a href=“http://career.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2013/07/Annual_Report11121.pdf[/url]”>http://career.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2013/07/Annual_Report11121.pdf</a>
Alabama : <a href=“http://career.ua.edu/downloads/firstDestination/First%20Destination%20Report%20ENG%20May%202012.pdf[/url]”>http://career.ua.edu/downloads/firstDestination/First%20Destination%20Report%20ENG%20May%202012.pdf</a></p>
<p>On average UMich CS grads’ starting median salary is $21k higher and average salary $13k. The high variance between the median and average salaries for Alabama suggests that either the sample size is very small and/or that there’s a handful of students who are propping up very average salaries.</p>
<p>There is also plenty of research that shows the relationship between starting salaries and lifetime earnings :</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/business/25scene.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/business/25scene.html</a>
[Yale</a> study: Starting career during recession can damage salary for decades - DailyFinance](<a href=“Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance”>Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance)
[Not</a> Negotiating Your Salary Could Cost You $500,000 in the Long Run](<a href=“Not Negotiating Your Salary Could Cost You $500,000 in the Long Run”>Not Negotiating Your Salary Could Cost You $500,000 in the Long Run)</p>
<p>It’s difficult to base a tuition premium just on that, but depending on how much you value location / lifetime earnings / branding / choice of employer / etc. I can see people justifying a $150k - $200k premium.</p>
<p>…all that said, this is all about shifting the odds in your favor. Graduating from a non-elite school isn’t a death sentence and it’s entirely possibly to flame out after graduating from a super elite school. While it’s true that certain opportunities are closed if you don’t graduate from certain schools that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll not be successful in your career afterwards. </p>
<p>If you and your son strongly feel that Alabama is a good fit and is the ideal location for him to meet his full potential, I’m sure he’ll do fine.</p>
<p>" how much of a premium do you think a student should be willing to pay for the U of M vs UA?"</p>
<p>Even being more conservative on the difference in earnings than the articles woohoo posted, if you say you’ll earn $5000 less for 20 years and apply a discount rate of 7% (maybe what you have to pay for a student loan), that works out to $53,000 on what you lose on a present value basis. If you up the amount to $7500, that works out to over $79,000.</p>
<p>His is this even still a thread? Lol</p>