| Why Your Kids Shouldn't Go to Harvard (even
                  if they could get in)
 I fear that you will dismiss me out of hand, but
                  after many years in higher education, I've come to
                  strongly believe that Ivy universities, let alone
                  less selective yet equally expensive ones (e.g.,
                  Boston U., Emory, Marquette, Syracuse, Tulane,
                  U.S.C., U of Miami, Villanova) aren't worth the
                  money. In my view, the middle class would be wisest
                  to choose a college primarily based on price and
                  geography.
 I know, I know. You're afraid that in choosing a
                  low-cost college, you'll save the money but
                  shortchange your child: she'll miss out on the
                  stellar education, superior students, and career
                  advantages that a designer-label diploma brings. I
                  believe that the evidence is clear that these fears
                  are unjustified: Stellar Education  Paradoxically, the quality of instruction at
                  brand-name colleges is likely to be worse than at
                  no-name institutions. Many professors interested in
                  undergraduate teaching avoid places like Harvard or
                  Stanford because teaching is all but ignored in
                  hiring and promotion. The Carnegie Foundation's
                  Ernest Boyer was only half-joking when he said,
                  "Winning the campus teaching award is the kiss of
                  death when it comes time for tenure." Class sizes
                  at places like Harvard are unconscionable. A
                  freshman or sophomore is likely to spend half of
                  class time in an auditorium. How absurd that these
                  places charge $150,000 for four years to educate
                  our best and brightest yet have the nerve to so
                  heavily use the cheapest, least effective method of
                  instruction: the large lecture. Fact: prestigious
                  universities are mainly in the business of doing
                  research. As one astronomy professor at the
                  University of California, Berkeley said,
                  "Undergraduate teaching is a necessary evil." So it's no surprise that the definitive review
                  of the literature (Astin, 1997) finds absolutely no
                  relationship between a college's cost and the
                  amount of learning that accrues. Perhaps more
                  surprising, a number of major studies (summarized
                  in Pascarella et al, 1996) found that students,
                  even high-ability students, learn as much at a
                  community college (where teaching is Job One) as
                  they would have had they spent their first two
                  years at a four-year college. And the U.S.
                  Department of Education (Adelman, 1999) found that
                  students who, after the first two years, transfer
                  to a four-year college, have the same chance of
                  completing their bachelor's degree as those who
                  started at four-year colleges. In short, there is
                  no evidence that attending a high-sticker-price
                  college results in greater learning. Ivy-Caliber Students  Many low-cost colleges have patches of Ivy
                  called the honors program: Ivy-caliber students
                  taught in small classes by the institution's top
                  professors. The honors program usually continues
                  outside the classroom with optional honors
                  residence halls and special extracurricular
                  activities. And because an honors program is
                  embedded in a regular campus, a student who wants
                  to moderate the pressure, can do so by taking fewer
                  honors classes and hanging out with non-honors
                  students. This isn't an option at an Ivy League
                  college. This is a more important benefit than
                  might first be apparent. The second most common
                  complaint at Harvard's student health service is
                  stress and burnout. Career Advantages  Although it's easier to make connections at a
                  prestigious college, it's far from certain that
                  you'll make connections that will actually help
                  your career. As you'll see below, many, many
                  students, having mortgaged their family's financial
                  security by attending an expensive private college,
                  graduate feeling disillusioned, even ripped
                  off. You might protest, "But look at the most
                  successful people! So many came from places like
                  Harvard and Yale." Yes, Ivy graduates are disproportionately
                  represented in top positions, but that doesn't mean
                  the college was causal. On average, Ivy-caliber
                  kids are smarter, come from better schools, and
                  have brighter, better-connected parents. You
                  probably could lock Ivy-caliber high school in a
                  closet for the four years of college and, on
                  average, they'd end up with much better careers
                  than other students. A study reported in the American Economic Review
                  concluded that even in terms of earnings, "What
                  matters most is not which college you attend, but
                  what you did while you were there. (That means
                  choosing a strong major, choosing professors
                  carefully, getting involved in leadership
                  activities, getting to know professors)...Measured
                  college effects are small, explaining just one to
                  two percent of the variance in earnings." (James,
                  et al, 1989). Loren Pope, in Colleges That Change Lives
                  (Penguin, 1996) wrote that in 1994, "the New York
                  Times reported that a quarter of Harvard's class of
                  1958 had lost their jobs, were looking for work, or
                  on welfare, just when their careers should have
                  been cresting...Many in the class of '58 thought
                  their degrees ensured career success. They were
                  wrong." The autobiographical sketches written for
                  the 35th reunion "did not radiate with expressions
                  of success and optimism" said author and Yale
                  professor Erich Segal. Quite the contrary, they
                  seemed like a litany of loss and disillusion." And
                  Harvard was not alone. Alumni groups at other Ivy
                  League schools, the author added, "are reporting
                  that their members in growing numbers are suffering
                  from the upheavals in corporate America. If there
                  is a lesson in all this it is that a degree from a
                  college like Harvard is no longer the lifetime
                  guarantee of success in careers that it used to
                  be." In addition to the money savings of attending
                  No-Name College versus Ol' Ivy, there's the
                  enormous benefit of your child not having to
                  prostitute himself to get in. It hurts me to see
                  what Ivy aspirants do in their often futile attempt
                  to get into these not-worth-it institutions. In
                  tenth grade, they may sign up for PSAT prep
                  tutors--and the PSAT doesn't even count! They go on
                  to take SAT prep courses on top of all the rest of
                  their courses, and may take the SAT two or three
                  times in hopes (usually vain) of getting a score
                  improved-enough to enhance their chances of
                  admission. In eleventh grade, they start taking
                  Advanced Placement classes that are often filled
                  with material that is hard but not important. After
                  school, they join clubs or do community service
                  mainly because it will look good to the colleges.
                  Kids who don't give a damn about rowing a boat,
                  suddenly in the eleventh grade, force themselves to
                  wake at three in the morning every day to freeze
                  their butts off rowing a boat so they can list
                  "crew team" on their college applications. In
                  summers, although they may be sick of school, they
                  enroll in yet more school by attending overpriced
                  college-based summer programs in the unrealistic
                  hope that it will impress the colleges. In senior
                  year, they complete 8-10 long, essay-laden
                  applications to hard-to-get-into colleges to
                  maximize their chances that at least one will say
                  yes. And as a reward, each year, many thousands of
                  these Ivy aspirants are rejected from all Ivys to
                  which they applied and end up attending a perfectly
                  fine and less expensive college to which they could
                  have been admitted without having had to endure
                  that ordeal. Just think, if your child applies only to
                  easier-to-get-into public colleges, she can have a
                  more rewarding high school life, in which she did
                  activities because she finds them interesting
                  rather than just to impress. And yes, attending
                  Low-Cost College means you're far less likely to
                  risk your financial security. How I Recommend That Your Child Select a
                  College  1. Unless your annual income is under $40,000,
                  which would make you likely to get significant cash
                  (not loan) financial aid, or are too wealthy to
                  care, your child should apply to colleges with a
                  low sticker price. He will learn as much, you'll
                  save a fortune, and you will spare your child the
                  inordinate stress and waste of time of trying to
                  get into colleges that well may not be worth the
                  money. The following, in my view, are top-value
                  colleges. In addition to a relatively low sticker
                  price, they score well, on average, on these
                  criteria: good location, good student quality, a
                  campus culture that welcomes true diversity of
                  ideas (not just politically correct ones), and a
                  name that opens career doors. The larger
                  institutions, which I've starred, do suffer from
                  being research-first/students-second institutions,
                  but their low price and desirability on other
                  factors justifies their inclusion. 
                     Rice: A Big-Oil endowment has created a
                     better-than-Ivy college at half the price.UCLA: The honors program is a patch of Ivy
                     at a State U price.Mary Washington College: Like a small
                     private college at a public price--in a
                     Jeffersonian setting an hour from D.C.McGill: A great city (Montreal), strong
                     students, and the Canadian 69-cent dollar makes
                     McGill a deal.University of Toronto: Easier to get into
                     than McGill.Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. California
                     weather, excellent students in its strong majors
                     (e.g., architecture, engineering), $1,000 annual
                     tuition. Safe, quaint town.University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill:
                     Good students, ideal location, great basketball
                     tradition, bargain price.University of Virginia: Top students in the
                     ultimate Jeffersonian, colonnaded setting.Santa Monica College: A nearly free two-year
                     college that feeds many students to UCLA and
                     Berkeley. Near the beach, near L.A. 2. Choose a college based on geography. Most
                  students end up happier attending a college that's
                  within laundry distance of home. 3. Consider the weather factor. Weather affects
                  you every day of the year, so choosing a college in
                  a warm-winter state will likely matter. 4. Consider the urban/rural question. Most
                  students are happier at urban or suburban rather
                  than rural colleges: they're closer to varied
                  recreational options and to internships. On the
                  other hand, if your child grew up in an urban or
                  suburban environment and is curious about a more
                  bucolic existence, it might be worth trying a rural
                  college although a frequent complaint at
                  middle-of-nowhere colleges is, "There's nothing to
                  do here but drink." My daughter practiced what I preach. Although
                  she was admitted to Williams College, one of the
                  nation's most prestigious, she turned it down to go
                  to an easier-to-get into public institution which
                  cost 70% less. There, as a top student, she was
                  taken under wing by professors, got appointed to
                  university-wide governance committees, and got
                  touted for terrific post-college opportunities--she
                  spent a year in the White House writing Hilary
                  Clinton's daily briefings. If she had attended
                  Williams, she would likely have been lost among its
                  many top students. And we would have been nearly
                  $100,000 poorer. This way, there was money left for
                  graduate school. References  Adelman, C. Academic Intensity, Attendance
                  Patterns, and Bachelor's Degree Attainment,
                  Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Education, 1999. Astin, A. What Matters in College? San
                  Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1997. Boyer, E. Personal communication. James, E., N. Alsalam, and J. Conaty, "College
                  Quality and Future Earnings: Where should you send
                  your child to college?" American Economic Review,
                  Vol. 79, No. 2., 1989. Pascarella, E, M. Edison, A. Nora, L. Hagedorn,
                  and P. Terenzini. Cognitive Effects of Community
                  Colleges and Four-Year Colleges. Community College
                  Journal, Jan. 1996, pp. 36-39. Pope, L. Colleges That Change Lives. Penguin,
                  1996. © 2010, Marty
                  Nemko*    *    * 
 Marty
                  Nemko holds a PhD from the University of
                  California, Berkeley, and subsequently taught in
                  Berkeleys Graduate School of Education. He is
                  the worklife columnist in the Sunday San Francisco
                  Chronicle and is the producer and host of Work With
                  Marty Nemko, heard Sundays at 11 on 91.7 FM in
                  (NPR, San Francisco), and worldwide on
                  www.martynemko.com
                   .
                  400+ of his published writings are available free
                  on that website and is a co-editor of
                  Cool
                  Careers for Dummies.
                  and author of The All-in-One College Guide.
                  E-Mail. 
  
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