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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DCUM loafers above are already showing their better than thou attitudes.

No, fit is not overrated - just wait till one of your kids is miserable and depressed at the wrong school.

Yes, super smart kids often attend the most party heavy schools. [/quote]

People focus on fit when their kid can't get into a top 20 school.  Sorry.  Poor people say money can't buy you happiness.  Of course it does.  Vacations, nice restaurants, etc.  It buys experiences which has been shown to be linked to happiness.  I don't have enough money so I am not happy as I could be.  I have some but not enough. [/quote]

People focus on rankings more than fit when the care about their own egos more than their kids' well-being.[/quote]

Or maybe when they care about career opportunities ?[/quote]

If you take full advantage of what's offered, career opportunities are the same regardless of whether you attend a school ranked in the top 10 or one ranked 50-100.[/quote]

really? top 50-100 will offer same opportunity as top 10? you believe that?

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There was an academic study that showed that people who had the same qualifications as top ranked college students when entering college (i.e. they were accepted to a top school but chose to go elsewhere) had the same average outcomes post college as the kids graduating from the top ranked colleges. [/quote]

+1 It's an important study to be familiar with if you're going to enter a discussion about college ROI. It's a longitudinal study done by Krueger and Dale done over several decades now, and no one has come close to refuting the findings. Here's a link to the abstract.....

https://www.nber.org/papers/w17159

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“ We also estimate the return to college selectivity for the 1976 cohort of students, but over a longer time horizon (from 1983 through 2007) using administrative data..”

In 1976, when the Krueger and Dale cohort entered the job market, having any kind of a college degree was a big deal. The value of a college degree has been diluted a great deal since then, making the name brand of the school more important in recruiting. [/quote]

The differentiation of just having a college degree has diminished because so many more are college educated.  And of course the top colleges are more selective.  But among those who are college educated, I think top students are less concentrated at a small number of schools than 50 years ago.  And 50 years ago they were less concentrated than 50 years before that.  It’s because of a number of factors, but the net result is that people are less inclined to assume a particular school brand on the diploma is either a necessary or sufficient condition for a capable and well prepared individual among the educated, imo.

I went to a very selective private high school.  Over half that class went to top 10 universities.  Decades later, my child went to the same high school.  Their class’s test scores are higher and their ECs better.  The school itself more selective.  Maybe 10% go to those same colleges now.  I think today’s students are more likely than those from my era to conclude “there are many great students at many colleges, a lot of the process has to do with things beyond a student’s performance” than the students from my time. [/quote]

+1 Thank you for saving my fingers a few keystrokes! Here's some hard data regarding where people in desirable jobs did their studies to support what you say.

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/page/12/
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Sorry PP, but the way you've been spamming this board with a link to a website that is literally titled "Less HS Stress" is annoying as hell.

It matters where you go to undergrad. Full stop. No argument there (unless you're pre-med or pre-law). [/quote]

So we should believe your random-poster-who-provides-no-evidence-on-an-anonymous-forum opinion vs. the opinions of others who provide links to data that supports their argument? No thanks.[/quote]

+1002[/quote]

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