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A college degree is a lousy investment

Good article, refuting the notion that life is ruined if you didn't get into the overpriced private university or declined the invitation for soul-crushing debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/o...ons-madness.html?smid=fb-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

"Midway through last year, I looked up the undergraduate alma maters of the chief executives of the top 10 corporations in the Fortune 500. These were the schools: the University of Arkansas; the University of Texas; the University of California, Davis; the University of Nebraska; Auburn; Texas A & M; the General Motors Institute (now called Kettering University); the University of Kansas; the University of Missouri, St. Louis; and Dartmouth College."

Yeah nobody outside the northeast really thinks private colleges are superior to public universities.
 
Yeah nobody outside the northeast really thinks private colleges are superior to public universities.

And there are plenty of local private institutions there anyway.
 
Yeah nobody outside the northeast really thinks private colleges are superior to public universities.

US News and World Report and the Princeton Review beg to differ. On the whole, private schools offer appreciably better education than public schools. They just cost too much.
 
US News and World Report and the Princeton Review beg to differ. On the whole, private schools offer appreciably better education than public schools. They just cost too much.

Outside of the top ten or so elite private schools, private schools don't offer an appreciably better education. Someone at wake/vandy is getting about the same education as someone at UNC or uva. Add to that the average student diversity at public schools compared to private schools and the public school students are getting a more well rounded education.
 
Outside of the top ten or so elite private schools, private schools don't offer an appreciably better education. Someone at wake/vandy is getting about the same education as someone at UNC or uva. Add to that the average student diversity at public schools compared to private schools and the public school students are getting a more well rounded education.

There are certainly aspects of public school education that offer a better overall experience. Cost, diversity, more programs, often athletics.

The rest of your comparison is bad though. The best 5 or so public schools are on par with the top 25 private schools. Past that though, there is not the same depth of quality within public universities as there is in the private education sector.

I'm not suggesting it's the right choice to go to a private school over a comparable public school. The private school humanities majors bring down the ROI of private education compared to public school engineers, certainly.

It doesn't change the equation though. Private schools rank and in actuality are better on the whole than public schools.
 
For example, only 4 of the top 25 schools in the 2015 USNWR are public. Only 16 of the top 50. And this is in the "national universities" category which doesn't even include small, regional, private liberal arts schools.

In Princeton Review, ranking 379 national universities, 71 of the top 100 schools are private.

As someone else said on this thread, it's a numbers game. I'm not making a value judgment about money, I'm only talking about quality of education.
 
Can you really get as good of an education when you are sitting in an auditorium with 500 other students, being taught by a TA?
 
Can you really get as good of an education when you are sitting in an auditorium with 500 other students, being taught by a TA?

#notallpublicschoolcourses

And TAs are better instructors an old entrenched professors in some cases.
 
The last two posts are related.

People who are willing to pay for private education are rewarded by people willing to pay for those who are private educated.

That doesn't mean private schools are better. Just means they have a better rep and draw people who have a particular background or at least can hang with people who do.
 
The last two posts are related.

People who are willing to pay for private education are rewarded by people willing to pay for those who are private educated.

That may play a small role, but I think there are three other better explanations. First, students accepted at elite private schools are, in general, motivated, competitive, and smart (good grades and test scores), so they are likely to succeed after college. Second, placement in competitive grad programs (particularly medicine) is much better at small private colleges. Third, if you look at the ROI list you'll see that many of the schools at the top have an engineering focus, which is a degree with a high ROI.
 
Discover ordered to pay $18.5M over illegal student loan practices


As federal regulators continue to probe potentially unscrupulous student loan servicing practices, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered Discover Bank and its affiliates to pay nearly $18.5 million in refunds and fines for, among other things, overstating amounts due on student loans and failing to notify borrowers of their rights.
 
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