We often hear why a college choice doesn’t matter and how a good student can be successful anywhere.
What (if any) advantages are there in attending a selective school?
Too general a question – the answer depends on too many variables regarding the student’s characteristics and goals. (And there could also be disadvantages, again depending on the student’s characteristics and goals.)
Do you REALLY want to start another of this type of thread?
Seems like these questions are planted to generate clicks and replies for CC. I have a hard time determining if this poster is an employee, paid poster, or is an actual parent. If a parent, I can’t begin understand the obsession with the same discussions over and over again. 92 Threads started in less than a year on the site. Many unusual questions for a new member. Not many specific questions or discussions started about their actual child. I am slowly returning to CC after the redesign but this is enough to make me leave again.
To answer your question: I believe the only benefit of attending a selective college, if that is the only criteria, is to separate fools from their money. It is a fear based emotional decision rooted in feeling the need to validate, keep up, or fear of falling behind. Selective colleges have amazing things to offer, as do less selective colleges. When choosing because of a ranking or a name you are identifying yourself as a mark to be taken. Students who have the drive and intelligence to get into selective colleges will thrive and soar wherever they go. The selective school’s benefits are in their off the charts financial aid. If a low SES is the recipient, that is the benefit. If the student will not be a recipient of that generous financial aid then there is no benefit at all.
You get to go through life telling people that you went to an elite college
Not really. Some are condemned with a life sentence to say, “umm… I went to a college in the East Coast…”
Unless the elite college is MIT, your kids will have an unearned inherited advantage at the same elite college due to legacy preference.
I’m going to have to disagree. Graduates of highly selective colleges have a great track record with not only employers but grad schools and are therefore highly sought after. They also have some of the most highly selective programs (think Wharton at UPenn or Journalism at Northwestern) in the US and the world. You think there is no benefit for a brilliant finance major to attend Wharton vs Middle Tennessee State?
There is something to be said about being surrounded by a student body of very smart and exceptional students being taught by world-class faculty, with best in class facilities.
I think if we are being honest with ourselves the key point is that yes highly selective colleges have resources and opportunities that are unmatched but a student can also be very successful going to less selective colleges.
For low-income students, highly selective schools are the best, and in some cases the only viable, option.
Nah. My kids weren’t at a top 20, just outside.
Most important is they got an intellectual run for it. Tough. Deep learning that seems to have stuck, and a spirit of inquiry, willingness to stretch.
I believe many, many colleges can offer this. But it’s more than registering for classes and doing the homework, getting a top gpa out if it.
And yes, sometimes top 20 or top 10 don’t yield this. It’s one reason to choose best fit, not best media ranking.
If ever there was a need for a thumbs down button…
It’s okay. Your Avatar and your answer explained your annoyance. Thank you for taking time to read all 92 threads and making assumptions.
I agree with @ProfessorPlum168
No, I don’t think there is much advantage to have a world class faculty at the top of a syllabus but conducting research, writing books, and working with graduate students while TAs are teaching the undergraduate classes. I do not believe that top brilliant minds always know how to teach or relate to the developing minds. Teaching is an art form and many people who have an amazing understanding of topics have no understanding of how to convey that to others. In addition, I do not think that there is any measurable quality difference in the students sitting in honors college classes in State Us vs. those students sitting in the most selective schools. The honors colleges across the country are filled with peers to those in the selective schools.
Graduates of state schools also have great track record with graduate schools and top employers and are highly sought after. I personally know of state school undergraduates in summer programs in Wharton finance classrooms sitting beside HPY students and running circles around them. This is not because of any superiority but because of AP credits those state school students had already worked in upper division classrooms and were already interning with professors. I personally know of state school students who are interning in top finance BB and IB shops on Wall Street and in SanFrancisco with multiple first round offers. I personally know of state school graduates who are getting seats in top graduate schools across the country, even in finance, law, and medicine despite the insistence of many posters that top shops only recruit at T20 schools. I personally know of state school students who are living their best lives and have turned their back on the notion that their worth is dictated by the name on their degree.
Where you sit determines where you stand on issues. The input determines the output and the best and brightest students don’t need an artificial name bump because they will make sure that they land where they are meant to be. The students chosen to be at selective colleges will succeed because of what they came in with, not as a result of the school that they attend. Those students, with the exception of low SES students who would not have the means without the financial aid of HYP, would have found success at any school. Those top performers at less selective schools just do this while saving $100,000 - $150,000 and incurring little or no debt. We can all agree to disagree since this has been discussed ad nauseam.
@bamamom2021 I find it interesting that you, yourself, said that if you would do it over again you would not be ok with your kid attending UA because of their stance on abortion and that your kid will not stay in-state after graduation. One of the problems with taking the money at less selective universities, you might have to make some serious compromises that don’t get talked about much when “chasing merit”.
Look, I’m glad you found an affordable choice for your kid but if you had the money for full pay at a highly selective college, I’m sure you would have a different tune and not slander families that believe a world class education is worth the cost.
I’ll guess we’ll beat this subject to death once again………before the mods close it.
Do elite colleges only hire faculty who graduated from other elite colleges?
@socaldad2002 I find the use of the word slander interesting. I guess I touched a nerve. I am sorry that you feel that my opinion of people choosing full pay at such an extreme yearly rate as foolish is so damaging to said families. I guess prestige seekers may struggle when they don’t get the adoration for their accomplishment of being chosen to pay for prestige.
I do continue to have reservations about the political climate of where my DD chose to go to school and said that “she” would likely have ruled out the school if that national controversy were happening when she was applying. I also am not afraid to face that controversy head on and I can stand confidently on that belief without it impacting my confidence in her school. I believe in fit first, over prestige and over politics. I also said in that same post that this had nothing to do with the school or the education my child was receiving. My reservations are about the political climate that does not value the health of young women. This is not much different then my children ruling out schools that are involved in other political and ethical controversies that would shine a negative light on the school, a situation that prestigious schools have found themselves in frequently (Varsity Blues, Harvard admissions or memes scandal, free speech at Stanford, racial issues at Yale, the spotlight on Duke athletics). She is not likely staying in Alabama as that was never her plan so I am not sure why that is relevant to a discussion on the merits of selectivity. She would not stay in Nashville if attending Vandy, Houston if attending Rice, Hanover if attending Dartmouth, or Philadelphia if attending Penn so bringing up that she would be leaving Alabama is not an issue for me. My DD drove her school selection process. She is getting a world class education. The OP asked a question. Our answer is there is no advantage of selectivity beyond the financial aid advantage. Your answer is different. It has nothing to do with our ability to pay but our willingness, so our tune would not change. No sour grapes here, just practicality and confidence in our children.
@socaldad2002 Why do you always attack every poster that doesn’t worship elite schools like you do? You always say anyone who doesn’t agree with you can’t afford it. Your use of the word slander is ridiculous. Yours is a strange stance to take and obviously can’t be true. It’s ok that others disagree with you. Do what you think is best for your kids and don’t worry about what others think.
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@itsgettingreal17 ummmmmmm…because that is what we do here, and we all do what we think is best for our kids, whatever that may be.