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A college degree is a lousy investment

it's not stalkerish to remember obnoxious things obnoxious people say
 
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Agreed, and UF is one of the top public schools in the country. However, I do feel how you end up after college is more about what you do while there than where you go.

UF, while a decent school, is not one of the top 10 public universities. It may not be top 15.

That being said, the UF Bright Futures program (or whatever they call it) is a pretty sick deal. My wife went to UF and many of her family members went there for free. Between scholarships and aid, some of them earned money to attend UF.

Getting paid to get a degree from UF would be pretty hard to turn down. However, if my children want to go to Wake, I want to be in a position to send them there. We'll see what happens when the rubber meets the road.
 
They are making big cuts to the Bright Future program and UF tuition went up 15% this year.
 
UF, while a decent school, is not one of the top 10 public universities. It may not be top 15.


US News has it ranked #17 among public universities, and #53 overall.

Also, interesting graph about Wake scholarships:

chart


As well, "38.0 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $26,473."

Not arguing the whole "well that's not upper-middle class" thing, just giving some stats.
 
yeah. give me a fucking break. not everyone thinks as highly of you as you apparently do.

Seriously, can you just leave me alone? I didn't start a problem with you, you started with me.
 
I don't think anyone is downplaying the value of a wake education if it's subsidized due to income of the family. Mine was subsidized by Wake at the rate of about $8000 a year.

I think lots of people are saying that all things being equal, Wake (and many other colleges, even in state) are getting ridiculous expensive trying to beat the Joneses when the real education you're getting isn't any better than the school down the road that costs half.
 
Many would say the same thing about Law School. I fucked up on my LSAT and am did not get into a great law school (Charleston Law), and now I'm not sure it's worth the $38k a year to attend versus taking time off and going somewhere better, given how crappy the law job market is.

Jut my opinion, but I think you should hold out for somewhere better. I got a big scholarship from there so I checked around. No one in NC even knows its a law school and if you want to practice in SC, everyone there went to USC. Not saying its a bad shcool or you would recieve a bad education but I don't think the real world value would be anywhere close to the price tag.
 
So let's say you plan to go to school in NC, undecided major and your options are as follows because although you'd be in the top 25% of the incoming class at UNC-CH, the NC legislature has foolishly decided that it needs to admit morons from rural counties instead of the actual best students in the state. Therefore, UNC-CH is not an option, the following schools are:

Wake
Elon
NC State
App, ECU, UNC-C, UNC-G, UNC-W, etc
USC - out of state

Should you go to Wake, which is a top 30 institution; State, which is a decent school in the top 150 and much cheaper; USC which is less specialized and costs between State and Wake; or one of the public diploma mills?

Keep in mind, none of these schools are free, and the college experience you actually sought was at UNC-CH. Where are you most likely to find it?

I have a childhood friend who did his undergrad at App State and his masters at NCSU. He lives in NYC and works for Goldman Sachs.

Where you do you masters matters far, far more than where you did your undergrad. And even that matters less than a lot of people make it out to be.

From that list - I'd pick NCSU easily. If you can't get into UNC, it's easily the best option in North Carolina.
 
All this thread proves is that most of us live in a fucking fantasy land that's far removed from the average person in this country. Reading these comments you'd think that Wake Forest was on par with Campbell. Everyone knows it's not Princeton or Harvard but being a top 25 national university is a pretty big deal.
 
UNC is definitely one of the most overrated schools in the country.
 
All this thread proves is that most of us live in a fucking fantasy land that's far removed from the average person in this country. Reading these comments you'd think that Wake Forest was on par with Campbell. Everyone knows it's not Princeton or Harvard but being a top 25 national university is a pretty big deal.

It CAN BE a pretty big deal. In the workplace, I can see it paying off if your employer values a Wake undergrad education over, say NCSU. But most employers don't even care where you went to undergrad. 1-2 years of good experience makes that line on the resume pointless. Actual job skills and the ability to communicate well further obliterate the "Education" line on most resumes. Example: I am now hiring two IT people. I have had 4 total interviews with the 2 people and have absolutely no clue if or where they attended college.

On the other hand, I can see the additional cost of a Wake degree paying off if you use the Wake degree to springboard into a top 10 graduate program in your field of choice.

The point is that while we all know a degree from Wake is more difficult to achieve and teaches you "more" than a UNC education, it's not a guaranteed path to additional compensation.
 
I agree with you Willis although I think 3-5 years of experience would be a more comfortable track record. No matter where you go to school you're eventually going to have to show you've got what it takes to do your job well.
 
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