| | Thoughts on the Value of Name-Brand Colleges
For all the talk about US News and World Report’s college rankings, I don’t think there’s much difference in the quality of education between the schools ranked. In fact, I suspect that motivated honors students who double major at “lowly” state schools receive much better educations than some Ivy League-caliber schools. (I vaguely recall some sort of economic study about employer satisfaction some years ago about this.) This is precisely why I feel schools like MIT are, on the whole, overrated. Yes, many of the people there are brilliant, but the people the Admissions Office doesn’t trumpet are probably no more impressive than students at schools considered inferior. Rankings seem to be useful insofar as marketing ploys for the schools involved and as a sort of “minimum quality guarantee” on the students that graduate—a value that may vary greatly from what admissions offices would like you to think.
I think this analogy (cleaned up somewhat) from one of Larry’s dad’s friends sums it up nicely:
[17:34] csrjjsmp: …. Getting a bachelor's degree is like a driver's license.
[17:34] guanw86: How so?
[17:34] csrjjsmp: It doesn't matter what kind of car you drive on your exam: just get your license and you can find a nice car later….Nobody cares how you do on your driver's test, so long as you have the license.
Personally, I feel that the major distinguishing factor between colleges is the networking opportunities available. I pay twice as much for my college tuition for the opportunity to hobnob with Stephen Hawking, dine with the former head of the American Nuclear Society, and become friends with some of the brightest minds of the next generation. Now, I’m not saying this is not possible at other schools, but it is certainly much more difficult. I suspect Mary chose Stanford (perhaps unconsciously?) partially for the opportunities to tag along with world-class physicians in surgery.
These networking opportunities are the true reason you should be willing to pay a premium for name-brand schools, not the oft-quoted “better education.” Of course, depending on the field you’re interested in, the associated value may not always be worth the added price. Nevertheless, I feel that assuming state schools generally provide a worse quality of education is simply not true. So, when your parents’ friends force their children to talk with you about choosing a college, you may want to ask them why a state school isn’t good enough for them. The fierceness of their belief in the inferiority of others may surprise you.
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| | Posted 5/19/2007 5:53 PM - 24 views - 2 comments
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