Reply to Middle class families - Are you willing to take on a ton of debt for a top college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What I find telling about the college board is that it's often obvious when it's a kid posting or an adult posting. As in this thread, where it's clear it's kids who don't understand the realities of $140k. Or what it takes to be able to come up with that money. Even a successful dual income couple with household incomes in 300ks will find that a substantial sum of money. It's not just the figure itself that causes pause but the opportunity costs that comes with spending the extra $140k for a college degree. Adults understand that $140k can go a long way for retirement savings especially when set aside in long-term investments. $140k is a substantial sum for a down payment on a property. $140k goes a long way towards professional / graduate degrees or pays for it outright.

As an Ivy graduate (undergraduate and graduate) I can confirm there are plenty of people who go to the Ivy League and who don't have a remarkable life afterwards. And there are plenty of people who go to state universities and become extremely successful. I loved my Ivy experience but I'm not foolish enough to think it was that much more of a life changing experience compared to if I'd gone to the flagship state university. It did open some doors for me, but you know what, I still ended up working with graduates of state universities and other non-Ivy private colleges. I did well out of life but I don't owe that to the school but more my own abilities, and that's true for most successful Ivy graduates I know. And UVA is still a big name in itself. UVA has a lot of cachet especially in the South.

[b]Going to the Ivy League to hobnob with the elite is laughable. The kind of people who will become "elite," whatever it means, are the people who will always become elite regardless of the school they attended. An Ivy diploma will not magically take a middle class dullard and transform him into a jet - setter elite. 
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What about people like Barack Obama? You honestly think he would have ended up POTUS if he hadn't gone to Columbia or somewhere similarly elite? No one thinks going to an Ivy makes *every* single, regular Joe Schmo MC kid into a super star. But it gives them the chance. It's a foot in the door to a world they wouldn't have had access to otherwise. They still have to walk through and do the work. It's about giving your kid every opportunity you can.[/quote]

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