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[quote=Anonymous]I got a whole lot out of my ivy degree, and I can tell you  that among the Americans in my top ten PhD program the ivies were overrepresented (a combination of selection and value added perhaps?).

However, this is a very different era than when we all went to school which means all our advice is suspect.

Here's mine, that you can feel free to ignore:

Too much debt ruins lives and limits opportunities.  Kids who are scrounging around to make ends meet, who have too many jobs etc aren't doing the things they need to do to be top students.  Graduating with debt will limit graduate school opportunities.  For example, sometimes people do end up paying for the first year of their PhD, and you can't always count on being a TA.  This happens when you believe in yourself more than the school does so you take the gamble. Very often it works out.  Not in all fields.  You can't do that if you are already stretched.

I can't even imagine what it would have been like to finish my PhD, not gotten the kind of job I was looking for (happens a lot) and also been saddled with a ton of debt.

19:13 has a good perspective on the crap shoot nature of a PhD.  The additional point is that it really matters how you do in undergrad.  Harvard did not take me for grad school, but I did get in to most of the schools outside the top three and there were plenty of state school and LAC grads.  Your kid has to get the grads in undergrad. If money or experience will interfere with that, be careful.

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