This question is meaningless unless we specify whether we’re talking about sticker price or net price. That, of course, depends a lot on circumstances. At the end of the day, the net price for us was better for Stanford and Pomona then for UC Berkeley or any other public school for which she applied. In our case, that was not a hard decision.
A benefit of an Ivy education is networking. I had the opportunity to network with the children of famous and influential people, with classmates who seemed influential on their own, and professors. I did none of this and, therefore, wasted much of the value of college and grad school at Ivies. But one benefit of being at an Ivy college was that everyone, with only a few exceptions, was smart and understood the value of this, even if they were slacking. This is not the case at most colleges; you have to find the achievers. They’re there, they’re just not likely the majority. Or they’re there, but haven’t realized it yet; they won’t flourish until the next stage of their working lives.
As for academics, if you find the best professors and work hard, any school can be rewarding. If you are a hard working conscienscious student who won’t get lost in a larger school with many less serious students, if you stay focused, then a bigger state campus can provide much better value. A community college may be a great choice too.
But small private (and expensive) colleges may have a big benefit: personal attention. They really focus on serving the students, of making them feel important, of educating. This may be worth the $$.
I completely agree with your remarks. Well said. While I do not have an Ivy League education, I’ve spent a good amount of time studying and modeling this from a financial planning and advising standpoint. Ron Lieber’s The Price You Pay for College book should be a must read, too.
I was one of the hard working focused types you mentioned so I think I also got a fabulous education by seeking it out and meeting my professors and mentors with interest and drive. That helped get the best out of them so we all benefited.
In our case, the fact that one of us went to a top private engineering school made a difference to us, but our children went to our state’s flagship university since neither wanted to be engineers.
The answer depends on the reason one chooses to attend college in the first place. If the goal is to acquire a solid grounding in literature, philosophy, theology, history, the fine arts, and the natural sciences (the stuff of a traditional liberal education), one should select a school that excels at offering this type of education. Of the few such schools that still exist, only a couple are “top private colleges” (such as U of Chicago) while others are less elite privates (such as Hillsdale and the two St. John’s campuses). I think it’s almost impossible to put a dollar value on this type of education.
If, on the other hand, the goal is simply to acquire the type of vocational training that provides an entry into the professional-managerial class, then almost any accredited college will do. However, the “top private” ones may indeed be worth their higher cost because of the elite networking and signaling advantages they offer.
This question is meaningless unless we specify whether we’re talking about sticker price or net price. That, of course, depends a lot on circumstances. At the end of the day, the net price for us was better for Stanford and Pomona then for UC Berkeley or any other public school for which she applied. In our case, that was not a hard decision.
A benefit of an Ivy education is networking. I had the opportunity to network with the children of famous and influential people, with classmates who seemed influential on their own, and professors. I did none of this and, therefore, wasted much of the value of college and grad school at Ivies. But one benefit of being at an Ivy college was that everyone, with only a few exceptions, was smart and understood the value of this, even if they were slacking. This is not the case at most colleges; you have to find the achievers. They’re there, they’re just not likely the majority. Or they’re there, but haven’t realized it yet; they won’t flourish until the next stage of their working lives.
As for academics, if you find the best professors and work hard, any school can be rewarding. If you are a hard working conscienscious student who won’t get lost in a larger school with many less serious students, if you stay focused, then a bigger state campus can provide much better value. A community college may be a great choice too.
But small private (and expensive) colleges may have a big benefit: personal attention. They really focus on serving the students, of making them feel important, of educating. This may be worth the $$.
I completely agree with your remarks. Well said. While I do not have an Ivy League education, I’ve spent a good amount of time studying and modeling this from a financial planning and advising standpoint. Ron Lieber’s The Price You Pay for College book should be a must read, too.
I was one of the hard working focused types you mentioned so I think I also got a fabulous education by seeking it out and meeting my professors and mentors with interest and drive. That helped get the best out of them so we all benefited.
In our case, the fact that one of us went to a top private engineering school made a difference to us, but our children went to our state’s flagship university since neither wanted to be engineers.
The answer depends on the reason one chooses to attend college in the first place. If the goal is to acquire a solid grounding in literature, philosophy, theology, history, the fine arts, and the natural sciences (the stuff of a traditional liberal education), one should select a school that excels at offering this type of education. Of the few such schools that still exist, only a couple are “top private colleges” (such as U of Chicago) while others are less elite privates (such as Hillsdale and the two St. John’s campuses). I think it’s almost impossible to put a dollar value on this type of education.
If, on the other hand, the goal is simply to acquire the type of vocational training that provides an entry into the professional-managerial class, then almost any accredited college will do. However, the “top private” ones may indeed be worth their higher cost because of the elite networking and signaling advantages they offer.