Don’t need college at all, elite or not, for 3 of those 4 occupations. The one that does require college often also requires a masters.
Lower or not, they’re not really relevant to a this-or-that college discussion.
My electrician has a masters 
@Rivet2000 I know many electricians with BAs and masters degrees, as many electricians make more than electrical engineers.
That was kinda my point. He was a teacher (masters) but was drawn to being an electrician out of desire for change and higher pay 
I love the anecdotes. I know of three finalists for a huge position at Apple. One from Harvard. One from Stanford. The last was a MIT phd that went to Chicago for the life of the mind. It all came down to what the kid from Auburn decided. (Tim Cook).
A great student at a fine flagship has countless opportunities. A great student with ambition at a LAC further down the rankings will have countless opportunities. A great student from an elite will have the same opportunities. Maybe a bit easier path. Same for a top LAC. The top schools have great outcomes because of the students. Placed elsewhere the studies show they do well over time.
It’s like the highway. There’s a lot of traffic and the top schools gets you on a bit down the road and the on ramp isn’t as crowded. Once you’re on the road, it’s up to the driver. Some kids from lower ranked schools have more gas in the tank and will get the destination much further down the road over time. Some cars breakdown, even the fastest sports cars. Some old pick ups just keep plugging away. Some just take an earlier exit and head somewhere else altogether.
And it’s a long road and we tend to judge winners on CC by who gets to the first few rest stops more quickly.
Good luck to all and enjoy the ride.
@OHmomof2 and that’s all he will ever be, there are too many coders out there and he will run into a ceiling without a degree. My advice is for him to start his own company to avoid that ceiling.
That’s good advice and a Good idea. It worked out well for jobs dell gates and zuckerberg if you have that kind of talent.
@privatebanker Of course your examples aren’t great, they all went to top notch schools before dropping out, not CC.
not sure where dell went if anywhere. Jobs went to Reed is which isn’t tougher than CC. I think cc had a 15 percent or so acceptance rate. But I was just kidding anyway. Once in a generation talents. I agree they should finish school.
Ouch, I interpreted CC as Community College, not Colorado College. 
You could be right. But I assumed col coll.
No way you are going to have the sane experience in a state flagship class as in a Caltech/Harvard class discussion. People raise many good points among them education ( big sigh) is now a luxury good. That’s sad but true. Many students attending the too 10 schools want to go for status but many of these kids want to go here to just meet others like them who want the life of the mind ( yes, this can be found at any school). Honestly kids don’t care as much about the contacts. For some jobs it us just not going to matter where you go and for dome work it’s going to matter a great deal.
Statistically there are more people at the top of every field with these top degrees. Think about that. Ten or so schools filling a large % of positions. That means either that family $ and connections makes someone a Fortune 100 CEO, or the combo of this education plus hard work ( exemplified by the applicant running the gamut to graduate from this place and work hard thereafter. ) Personally, I think its like someone said you get a little further down the highway then it depends on how you drive. For many, that extra mile us something they’ll pay for.
@Happytimes2001 what’s the basis for your no way any state flagship class discussion would be the same as a Harvard/Cal Tech? At my D’s school, the average stats for honors program students is higher than Harvard. So why would an honors class comprised of those students have inferior discussion? You can’t support your assumption. A few schools don’t have a monopoly on high level discussion.
@CU123 Not sure why you feel the need to pursue this, but the fact is he led a team at Amazon and left for more money and a different location. He is definitely more than a coder. My point in mentioning him was just as a counterpoint to your anecdote about 3 elite grads at Amazon. At a certain point, education comes to matter less than experience, in many fields. In my experience, that is.
That said, I’m a fan of elites and for those who can get into one AND pay less than a state school would cost, is there a big decision to be made there? Is anyone choosing to pay more for state U than for an “elite”?
@OHMomof2 Its nothing personal, and I imagine your nephew moved on because of the lack of money Amazon was willing to pay him. this is the reality of corporate culture where there is a serious bias against those who don’t have degrees, unless of course you ARE the CEO. Also the suggestion that they hire in coders at the same pay as top grads from elite schools is not based on any type of factual information. There simply aren’t that many brilliant people out there that drop out of CC and then find they want to work at a large corporation, it tends to be the antithesis of there own existence. In the book “Outliers”, the study on what actually happens to those brilliant kids is much closer to reality.
Re: Amazon hiring
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/which-colleges-do-facebook-google-and-other-top-employers-recruit suggest that the big computer companies, including Amazon, are not that college-elitist in terms of hiring (with the apparent exception of Facebook).
These large companies hire thousands so it make sense that they take a wide look at hires. That said, it’s interesting to note that within these companies there does appear to be some non-randomness in hiring. At two summer internships our S was with research groups in different mega-big SV companies where the team members and the interns were 90% from what most consider “elite”. Just one data point.
elite in SV is very different than elite here on cc, outside of Stanford, CMU, USC, and MIT, the colleges with most grads are all public - Berkeley, Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, GT, SJSU, UWash, UT-Austin, Cal Poly, etc… They are larger of course so you have to take that into account and when you get into non-technology roles, you will find more grads from the so-called elite schools.
@itsgettingreal17 Seriously no basis for any honors program having higher stats than Harvard. What’s the metric equation. They can count anything they want ( FA/Diversity/Really anything). Most kids if given the opportunity for X vs. Harvard where money is no object, will chose Harvard. Some for the brand, some for the classmates and some for other reasons.
If you actually attended schools at one of these places, you would realize that you are not only doing math/languages/biology etc. with other smart people, you are actually doing math/science or languages with the top scholars in the world taught by the top teachers in the world. Yes, many state schools have top educators, but many are not and never will be world class. At Caltech/Harvard etc. they are hand selected. The students are competing on a totally different level. ( This is one reason that sending a kid who isn’t qualified to a top school is a terrible idea). Not every single kid is the top in their field. But thinking the school is filled with dumb alumni children is misleading and naive.
Convincing yourself that education is equal is like thinking your Subaru is better than a Porsche. It isn’t and people know it. People who make hiring decisions and others. Doesn’t mean that you cannot be successful without this boost but it’s a boost alright.
It doesn’t end in the classroom. The speakers who come to these schools matter and so do the groups and even the jobs kids get. It’s a giant circle and people who realize it, want their kids to attend these schools-not only for the job prospects but for the entire picture. This has become a frenzy. Mainly because parents today are worried about their kids finding and keeping a good job that can pay the bills and be interesting. If there was no bonus, people would not pay a premium.
I think for international applicants is important an “elite” college, for financial aid in most of cases, and for international recognition, because, if you return to your country with a degree from a non international brand, its most difficult to get a job.
I’m sure that you can get a better college experience in some Lacs or State Universities than a many “elite” colleges.
In few years, when my daughter receive her acceptance letters, international recognition is gonna be a weight in her decision, and probably I prefer a different college.