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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Value.

I have two kids going to private college (1 at a SLAC ranked in the 30s and 1 will be going to a top 10).  In both schools, their class sizes and ability to get the classes they need mattered a whole lot to both students.

The student going to the SLAC ranked in the 30s also got into two top 30 ranked state universities.  We are in DC so no good state schools in state and the highly ranked state schools were a wash on cost for us.   She also could have gone to lesser ranked state schools for half the price of what we are paying.  We let her choose where to go to school.

The value of a name brand on a students resume is real when trying to get a job or applying to grad school.

The value of small classes and other niceties that come with a private school are also real.

This is a personal choice, I valued my kids getting a good education and being in a supportive environment.  There are definitely schools I would not have paid 90K/year for.

You are also going to learn that admissions is more complicated than you realize and your kid may not do as well as you presume.  It is a hard lesson for us parents.

We are similarly situated financially to your family.  This is a personal choice.  What opportunities do you want for your kids?[/quote]

There are so many different routes to success and top of the pile outcomes and the Ivy degree is just one among many. I have double Ivy degrees but in my F500 workplace I'm the outlier. Most of my peers (SVPs, EVPs, Group Heads etc) went to flagship states, and some from even more minor schools. Success in professional life isn't just working hard, it's based on workplace smarts, hustle, grinding, networking, high emotional aptitude.

I find questions around "value" when it comes to the Ivy league or other top colleges much murkier than many want to admit. I'll say that Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford are in a league unto themselves, especially the first three. Brown, Penn outside Wharton, Dartmouth, Duke, etc, not so much if the goal is to land in a solid upper middle class lifestyle as you'll still get there from UVA or College Park. The much vaunted "connections" to very specific financial and consulting gigs is a narrow route and only a small % of elite Ivy grads ever pursue it.

If OP's son is hungry for a certain kind of prestige outcome and has the aptitude, drive and smarts to hustle for it once on the Ivy campus, and knows exactly how to take advantage of the specific sets of networking available, then maybe it could be worthwhile to commit to a prestigious Ivy degree over a cheaper flagship or midrange college with merit. But if he's just a kid who wants to study something and not sure of what he wants to do afterwards and has a good chance of just drifing through for four years before falling into some master's program, then the value of the college degree is markedly less. Other than a good education, but you can get that at many schools.[/quote]

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