Sunday, January 20, 2013

First Blog - the Value of College


Today we learned about the several advantages and disadvantages of attending an Ivy League university.  While there is great name recognition for the Ivy League schools, we learned today that name recognition is not always worth the thousands of dollars the Ivy League school are charging.   If a student has the funds to afford the college, then by all means he should attend an Ivy League school if possible.  However, for those whose parents are unable to pay for the full ride of these expensive universities, it is better to go to a slightly less prestigious college.  According to the articles we read in class, what university you attend to matters less than the fact that you attend college.  The line between a top-notch universities and second tier schools has blurred; the less prestigious, but also less expensive second and third tier schools often offer just as valuable education.  It is better for a student to graduate from a less well-known college without student debt, than have gone to a school such as Harvard but have thousands of dollars of student loans.  After reading the articles, we found out that graduates from Ivy League schools and less known schools had approximately the same average income later in life.  It is the student, not the college, which determines how successful that person will be in life.  After discussing this topic with my parents, they whole-heartedly agreed.  And it is for these reasons why they decided not to pay full ride for college.  We read an article that described how people whose college is fully paid for tend to earn lower grades.  It is because for those people who how fewer funds, that they tend to value money, and their college education more than those who have everything given to them. 

College students whose parents foot more of bill for college get lower GPAs:

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education:

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