It’s Time to Tell Your Kids It Doesn’t Matter Where They Go To College

[Anonymous]

What do people think of this article--baloney, or does the author have a good point? He cites some research and essentially states that going to an elite college has little bearing on one's income, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction, and so we're focusing on the wrong thing when we push our kids towards attending an elite school as an end goal.

"We’ve all heard the familiar anxiety-inducing nostrums: That a screw-up in high school will follow you for the rest of your life. That if you don’t get into Harvard or Yale, you’ll never reach the c-suite. That the path to success is narrow and you’d better not take one false step. I have come to think of this unfounded belief system as what we psychologists call a “shared delusion.”

http://time.com/5210848/prestigious-college-doesnt-matter/

My kids are much younger, and so I'm interested in what parents who are facing these decisions currently or who have BTDT think.

[Anonymous]

This is akin to it's doesn't matter which restaurant you eat at, you'll be full once you've ate. But sometimes you want the best food you can afford, or the best food for your money.

I do believe how a kid turns out has to do with her/his personality and work ethic more than the college s/he attends though.

[Anonymous]

I think this might be true in some fields. I work at a consultanting firm and it seems like most people went to pretty good schools.

I don't judge anyone as that much better for going to Georgetown instead of UVA or Johns Hopkins instead of Maryland because I understand the reality of in state tuition.

I would be less excited to hire someone who went to Salisbury instead of Maryland though

[Anonymous]

It matters but it's not the only factor. But to say it doesn't matter at all is foolish.

[Anonymous]

Then again, I can think of classmates who went to UMBC instead of Maryland and make more money than me (I assume) as computer programmers

[Anonymous]

It might matter in law, at least initially. Otherwise, I don't think it matters at all. But I do think parents really, really want it to matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might matter in law, at least initially. Otherwise, I don't think it matters at all. But I do think parents really, really want it to matter.

I can think of a couple industries where it matters a great deal (investment banking, law, the high end management consulting companies). But for most people/industries, it matters way less than people want to think it does.

[Anonymous]

I work in an industry where it doesn't matter at all (social work).

My husband works in finance. He does pretty well, makes around 750k with bonus. He went to a school ranked in the mid 30s by US News school with a big scholarship. Left with no loans. He could have gone to UChicago and would have left owing $80-100k. Assuming he entered the same industry, would he be making more money by now? I think yes, he'd be into the 7 figure range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in an industry where it doesn't matter at all (social work).

My husband works in finance. He does pretty well, makes around 750k with bonus. He went to a school ranked in the mid 30s by US News school with a big scholarship. Left with no loans. He could have gone to UChicago and would have left owing $80-100k. Assuming he entered the same industry, would he be making more money by now? I think yes, he'd be into the 7 figure range.

Why do you think that he would have made more?

[Anonymous]

Well, I look at it this way... just like how a 4.0 at TJ isn't the same as a 4.0 at Random High School, a degree from Virginia State University isn't the same as one from UVA/VT/W&M.

I see this first hand right now. My niece is at Shenandoah University and graduating with a degree in Psychology this spring. The work she's had to do to get that degree is about 1/4 the amount of work I had to do to get my Psychology degree from UCLA.

She had the grades/scores to go somewhere better and got accepted to many, but she got the biggest aid package from Shenandoah. My brother & SIL are paycheck-to-paycheck people, so she had no college savings. I admire that she realized at such a young age that she didn't want to saddle herself with debt to go to a better school, but I worry now about her grad school prospects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might matter in law, at least initially. Otherwise, I don't think it matters at all. But I do think parents really, really want it to matter.

I can think of a couple industries where it matters a great deal (investment banking, law, the high end management consulting companies). But for most people/industries, it matters way less than people want to think it does.

This. For the vast majority of fields it does not matter. It's about the student and what you make of your experience when you are there. If you can go to one of those elite schools for very little money (i.e. you have lower-income parents) or cost is no consideration (i.e. you have rich parents), then sure, enjoy what they offer. But for families in the middle, if you have a child who has the academic stats to get accepted at an "elite", they will do perfectly well at another school and are better off there with a good merit award to keep the cost down. Save any need for school loans for grad school. There is really no reason an elite-caliber student should have to pay a lot of money for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might matter in law, at least initially. Otherwise, I don't think it matters at all. But I do think parents really, really want it to matter.

I can think of a couple industries where it matters a great deal (investment banking, law, the high end management consulting companies). But for most people/industries, it matters way less than people want to think it does.

Those industries are full of shallow people who move money around but don't accomplish much that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I look at it this way... just like how a 4.0 at TJ isn't the same as a 4.0 at Random High School, a degree from Virginia State University isn't the same as one from UVA/VT/W&M.

I see this first hand right now. My niece is at Shenandoah University and graduating with a degree in Psychology this spring. The work she's had to do to get that degree is about 1/4 the amount of work I had to do to get my Psychology degree from UCLA.

She had the grades/scores to go somewhere better and got accepted to many, but she got the biggest aid package from Shenandoah. My brother & SIL are paycheck-to-paycheck people, so she had no college savings. I admire that she realized at such a young age that she didn't want to saddle herself with debt to go to a better school, but I worry now about her grad school prospects.

I agree with you. I went to a no-name B state university because I didn't want debt and my parents couldn't afford anything more. I do regret it even though I managed to work my way up to earn six figures. There was a lot of struggle before I reached this point.

I'm very fortunate and glad that we can afford to save money for our kids' colleges. I will encourage them to go to the best college for them, irrespective of the financial costs, even if they have to take out a loan, though not a huge loan.

[Anonymous]

As long as we, and employers, buy into this illusion of prestige, it will continue to matter. The difference in an education received at an Ivy as compared to the education received at a different reputable school is miniscule. It is only the perception of superiority that keeps the schools in demand.

[Anonymous]

I think those very elite schools can serve as a launching pad to the very elite circles of this country. But it can come at a very high cost in both dollars and personal happiness if you aren't really that competitive but instead feel like you have to go there because of the name or because parents want the cache.

I went to a big state school in the South, and that helped launch me in that state. Then once I had experience, that's all my employers cared about.