“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” – From the movie “Good Will Hunting”
This blog’s purpose:
Isn’t this quote from Good WIll Hunting so true! I am writing and discussing this matter in order to expose myths about an education at an elitist / status-quo / prestigious / brand name / pedigree institution and succeeding in life WITHOUT them. This is a discussion and cause for the non-status quo folks out there, those who didn’t attend a “top tier” school but are not necessarily any less educated. This blog does not question or dumb down the intellect, genuis or awesome brain power of any individual who attended or who is currently attending these prestigious/status-quo/elite institutions, but rather it questions whether an education received at these institutions is really special or just all hype. Today, more than ever before, many believe (the articles and blogs to follow) it’s all perception, smoke and mirrors, history and the brand making these institutions great, not the actual education. Many believe an education at a no name liberal arts college is much more well rounded, enlightening and life changing than one paid for at prestigious education. There are many many professors and instuctors who prefer teaching at community colleges and non-traditional schools because those students are more eager to learn, develop and apply what has been taught to them. Some of these same professors and instructors taught or still teach at prestigious institutions, yet they feel those students think too highly of themselves and aren’t there to learn but rather to obtain their $150K brand name diplomas. Do prestigious schools really deliver better citizens? Better doctors? Better business persons? Better communicators? Better teachers? Better people to represent our government and country? Does not going to a prestigious institution make a genuis any less of a genuis? If a person chose NOT to attend an elite institution but could have does it make them any less able to succeed or any less intelligent than those who do? Does not going to an elitist institution make an individual any less capable of learning and applying the very same principles and theories taught at other various schools and institutions (traditional and non-traditional schools alike). Hard to get into doesn’t mean or guarantee a quality education. There are many many great attorneys, doctors and business persons who didn’t come from an elite institution yet are they any less capable or educated than those who did? Last time I checked, students from Georgetown take the same Bar exam (depending on the state of course) as those from East Carolina State University. Some pass and fail from both schools. Filling a cavity or sewing up a cut is the same process no matter if a doctor went to Johns Hopkins or Kansas State. The 4Ps of Marketing don’t change whether someone went to Wharton or the University of Phoenix. The BA, MBA, JD, MD or PhD doesn’t make the person, the person makes the BA, MBA, JD, MD or PhD.
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A hall of fame coach once said, “it is time for us to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever, the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it.” – Vince Lombardi
Everyone has a different view or definition of success. Some equate it with salary, job title or position, zip code, car type, etc… while the rest of us (99% of the U.S. population) believe success is the quality of life we have.
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Someone once said, “try not to be a man of success, but rather to be a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
Shouldn’t a college education be about changing lives with teaching, learning and applied thinking rather than just acquiring a certain label and brand name?
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A U.S. President once said, “do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Brand name schooling does not guarantee an employer a superior employee. Brand name schooling does NOT teach work ethic, motivation, personal integrity nor character.
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A great leader once said, “character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” – Abraham Lincoln
My personal philosophy has always been and always will be: input = output.
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Someone else said, “greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.” – Henry Ward Beecher
Do you know the methodology used by U.S. News and BusinessWeek when doing their annual school rankings? You may or may not be surprised.
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“If you ask your institutional research person to tell you candidly whether the rankings have any professional integrity about them, they will tell you no. I doubt you can find even one institutional researcher across all of our colleges and universities who believes, as a professional judgment, that the rankings satisfy a minimum threshold of acceptable research practice.”
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Q: Why are “prestigious” schools prestigious?
A: (1) Most prestigious institutions are well known because they are a RESEARCH INSTITUTION. These schools are really insitutions where medical, legal or business research is conducted. They’re known for their favored and respected research. There are many schools (100s) not known to the common person because they don’t publish medical, legal and business reviews, journals, case studies etc… (ex. Harvard Business School case studies, the Princeton Review, the Kellog Institute). Ever wonder why HBS is the only one to write/publish business case studies? Answer: no other institution dared to compete or challenge and thus, Harvard is the author and dictator of the world reknown business case studies. (2) Universal society perceives and accepts them as the elite. Thus, PERCEPTION. These schools have mastered branding with consumers (students, parents, businesses). Who’s going to say Stanford isn’t a good school. No one, it’s just known it is (3) Most prestigious institutions have been around a while. IVY League schools were founded in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. Many famous Americans have been associated with these schools as a student, faculty member, trustee, frequent lecturer, etc..Thus, an affiliation and connection with American HISTORY. The IVY league dates back to the early 1900s as it was originally an intercollegiate athletic conference (still is today). Thus, they are the most well established and known schools in the country (ones that we have heard of anyway). Of course a few non-IVY league schools such as Duke, Stanford, Berkley, Northwestern, Chicago, MIT and Georgetown have made their way into the elitest club as well (4) Younger or newer schools don’t receive much credibility from their senior brothers and sisters because they are younger in age, have smaller endowments, less infrastructure, fewer star athletes, vary their approach in teaching, have fewer alumni, have less media attention or don’t follow the educational protocol of TRADITION. However, times have changed for education in the United States. Not every American can attend a traditional 4 year school anymore as the price/cost for college increases 6% a year. For most Americans, college is still a dream. The average American cannot attend a traditional 4 year university or college for any number of reasons. Thus, many non-traditional schooling options have popped up everywhere providing and filling a consumer need (an affordable, accredited education). In doing so, these non-traditional schools have provided other options for Americans to obtain an education but have drawn bad press and scrutiny from the grandfathers of education. Frankly, the way consumers can obtain an education today is vastly different than 10 years ago. However, time will tell if the elitist club will actually support or embrace change themselves or continue placing themselves on an ivory pillar only to be attended by the super wealthy, connected and priviledged (5) Prestigious schools have huge ENDOWMENTS. Millions and billions of dollars are raised, donated and given to these schools each year for their campuses, libraries, housing facilities, faculty salary, staff salary, landscaping, research faciliites etc…and yes, some money trickles over into athletics. Brown and Harvard have the largest in the world ranging in the billions. (However, not nearly as much money goes into athletics at the elite schools when compared to the much larger brand name schools who spend millions of dollars on one individual to coach football. See the article on The Business of College Football below). (6) Who would think the number of ALUMNI GIVING money back to their school would be a big deal to rankings? Well, it is. The number of alumni giving back to their institution sometimes and oftentimes is a ranking criteria for states and the Federal Government use as they allocate funding to schools (grants, financial aid, general ed funds). Thus, school grant funding can be affected with a low %’age of alumni giving. It is much better for a school to have 80% of their alumni body giving at least $1 than it is for a school only have 15% of its alumni giving even if they give $100. However, bigger schools with more alumni and those alumni with more attachment to their school’s brand name tend to stick with giving and help their school’s overall reputation. Alumni boosters and booster clubs are a huge reason for some school’s naming success (7) One of the most weighted criteria in Business Week’s School rankings has to deal with a school’s faculty. Not the number of full time faculty teaching, not how many years they’ve taught, not how they’ve positively influenced lives but rather how many times they’ve been published, where they’ve been published and how frequently. No doubt it is good reading but do these same faculty members spend any time teaching students? The short answer is no. More Specifically, a school is ranked higher or carries more prestige if their faculty is busy publishing articles rather than teaching. Thus, the elite schools have PUBLISHED FACULTY and are known to write articles in scholarly journals and in the general media. However, being published and known for their academic research doesn’t make them a greater educator nor does it do anything for the students because they are not being educated by these faculty members but by graduate students (a.k.a. teacher’s assistants). Prestigious schools may have faculty publishing in prestigious publications, yet they are not the ones educating students who have to deal and live in the world outside of academia. Non-traditional schools or community college will never or rarely have any of their faculty publishing papers or writing articles, but it doesn’t mean they can’t educate students better than those who “teach” at perstigious schools. Most likely, these teachers at community colleges and non-traditional schools have real world working experiences to share with students, making their lessons more applicable and effective for students Lastly, a school’s (8) SELECTIVITY is a source of a school’s reputation. A school’s selectivity is a key measure in school rankings and is calculated by taking the number of applications received comapred to the number actually accpeted. If school received 2,000 applications accepting only 50, they have a selectivity rate of 2.5%. So, for example, let’s say Harvard, Princeton, Penn and Yale all received 2,000 applicants. Yale accepted 5%, Penn 2%, Harvard 3% and Princeton 1%. The school rankings would say Princeton is #1 followed by #2 Penn, #3 Harvard and #4 Yale. The rankings would then go on to say (this year) Princeton is the most selective and most prestigious because it rejected 99% of the applicant pool. Some know this and many don’t but you have to wonder how the rankings shift from year to year. The highly rumored truth is these selective schools get together and collude with each other to fix the rankings. They determine who’s going to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. Therefore, before looking at the school rankings and making a decision based on nationally published rankings, please do your research as you’ll find hundreds of fine schools left out of the rankings because they were a) not included b) rejected by the ranking system or c) not invited to participate. The bottomline is, do these prestigious schools really care to educate and develop tomorrow’s leaders or are they more worried about their brand name, image, research, faculty publishings, selectivity and ranking? Please see the article below titled “The College Rejection Bonanza.”
Q: So, is an education at a prestigious institution really that much better?
A: How does an Economics class differ from let’s say University of Florida to Stanford to a small liberal arts noname college? I’m guessing not much. In addition, while students take that Economics class at a prestigious instituion or a big name U their class is most likely being taught by a part-time graduate student rather than a full time faculty member. Well, the full time faculty member is not required to teach most of the class, if at all. They are most likely off conducting research or performing work for the school or university bringing in more funding, grants, etc….The smaller schools are busy educating students today with smaller class size and having their full time faculty teach full time.
Final beginner thought. Anyone hear about Appalachian State beating Michigan in college football this year? Wait a minute, isn’t Michigan a “premier” DIV 1 football program playing a lesser tier team? Last time I checked football is football no matter what Division tier you play in. Quality teams and players come from everywhere no matter their division “tier.” They play the same game and on the same size field. Appalachian State proved football is football on any given Saturday despite Michigan’s DIV 1 national ranking, reputation, “bigger” and “better” athletes, highly paid coaches, much larger recruiting budget and its enormous athletic department budget.
BEGINNER MYTHS by Loren Pope (educator, author) www.ctcl.com:
Myth: If you can’t make an Ivy, a “prestige college” is next best, because the name on your diploma will determine whether you do something worthwhile in life.
Myth: The big university offers a broader, richer undergraduate experience.
Myth: A college you’ve heard about is better than one you haven’t.
Myth: What your friends say about a college is a good indicator.
Myth: Your choice of major will decide your career path, so the quality of the department should govern your choice of college.
RELATED BOOKS:
“Looking Beyond the Ivy League” by Loren Pope (Penguin Books, 1990)
“Colleges That Change Lives” by Loren Pope (Penguin Books, 1996)
“How College Affects Students” by Ernest T. Pascarella & Patrick T. Terenzini (1995)
MISC RELATED TID BITS:
ARTICLES:
Saying ‘No Thanks’ to the Ivies
The latest evidence suggests high-achieving students are likely to thrive wherever they go. “How College Affects Students,” a 2005 book that reviewed three decades of related research, found that a university’s prestige and selectivity had little consistent impact on teaching quality, student learning and other factors. ” ‘Hard to get into’ doesn’t mean you are going to get a better education….”
http://www.collegejournal.com/aidadmissions/newstrends/20060424-tomsho.html?refresh=on
Will an expensive school really pay off in the long run with a better job?
The most selective — and generally most expensive — schools also tend to attract the brightest students. And those are precisely the type of people you would expect to do well in the workforce no matter where they went to school.
The prestige affect: Keep in mind that the “prestige” effect can vary depending on where you end up living after graduation. An Ivy League-type school that opens doors in New York City might not generate as much of a stir west of the Hudson.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/20/pf/expert/ask_expert/index.htm?cnn=yes
Wanted: CEO, no Ivy required
Fewer of today’s corporate leaders come from Ivy League schools.
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/careers/CEOs/news4-7-05.htm
The College Rejection Bonanza
It is prestige which drives the admissions game and the gift business for colleges and universities. But each year, it become more difficult to describe the behavior of parents of prospective students, applicants and alumni as rational. The financial return on a prestige degree is declining. The academic climate at prestige universities has, in many cases, become more like a Stalinist Gulag than a place where open inquiry and free thinking are encouraged.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1629013/posts
Who needs the Ivies?
An education from one of the world’s top schools may not give that much of an edge after all. And in some cases it may actually lessen the chances you will become a successful entrepreneur.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890094/posts
The dangerous wealth of the Ivy League
Elite schools getting richer, fancyfying their campuses and buying up all the talent.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22043995/
Who Needs Harvard? (from the Brookings Institution)
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2004/10education_easterbrook.aspx
Who Needs Harvard II (from TIME)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1226150,00.html
A Fighter for Colleges That Have Everything but Status
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/education/28face.html
http://www.ctcl.com/book/pope_profile.html
U.S. News College Rankings Debated
U.S. News and World Report released its rankings of the country’s colleges and universities. The editor of U.S. News and an education advocate who opposes the magazine’s collegiate rankings debate their usefulness.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec07/rankings_08-20.html
Yale or Podunk U: Who Cares? Some bosses do, but many don’t
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/330050_universityprestige.html
Great credentials, wrong personality
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21641934/
Is the Ivy League “Worth It?”
Everyone in the country wants into the same handful of schools. But what do you get with an Ivy League education, especially as an undergraduate? Is it really the best in the country? These are undeniably good schools, but there are also by my count at least one hundred other schools that do as good or better a job at educating undergraduates.
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/College/?article=IvyLeagueWorthIt
BLOGS & SITES Etc..
Is a prestigious Ivy League degree worth it?
(Best blog by far for in-depth research and breadth of info relating to this topic)
Ivy League institutions have always been highly selective; and very competitive in terms of admission processes. Scuttlebutt has it that “you must be really smart” if you’re selected for admissions at an Ivy League. Research, however, doesn’t support the theory that an Ivy League education is better than an education obtained at a less “prestigious” institution.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art53649.asp
Testing the Validity of U.S. News & World Report’s School Rankings
Since the U.S. News and World Report rankings began, there have been a number of studies addressing whether the rankings have any validity as a measure of educational quality. Each and every one of the academic studies shows not even the palest correlation between various measures of educational quality or student learning on the one hand, and the U.S. News and World Report rankings on the other.
http://www.ctcl.com/book/bennett_collegerankings.htm
Shocking Study Reveals the Myth of Attending Prestigious University Paying Off
If you think about it, this makes complete sense. Employers are less concerned about where a job candidate went to college than with that person’s ability to do the job. A prestigious education will certainly garner more attention, but it won’t be an automatic meal ticket for a good job. Ambition, intelligence, and wit are the deciding factors for job candidates.The fact is, if your kid is bright, it doesn’t matter what school he or she attends. Your child likely will do well. A degree from Harvard doesn’t ensure success. That’s why I say it’s essential that parents evaluate very carefully the economic merits of a child’s college degree. Because the amount sacrificed to pay for a college education will have a greater impact on both the child’s financial success and the parents’ than will the merits of a prestigious degree.
http://www.ricedelman.com/cs/education/article?articleId=201
The Obession with Best
There are lots of great schools of all types, and, more to the point, kids are different and need different things. The idea that everybody who isn’t going to Harvard has already missed “the best” boat is scary.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2006/08/the_obsession_with_best_1.html
Why the Ivy League is overrated…
http://forums.starwars.com/thread.jspa?threadID=42384
Beyond college brand
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E5D91631F931A35750C0A9619C8B63
Does a Prestigious College Degree Make Your Career?
http://www.educatednation.com/2006/07/18/does-a-prestigious-college-degree-make-your-career/
Q: Does graduating from a “prestigious” college guarantee a nice job? (my question to this poster is what exactly determines a “nice job?” One that pays the highest salary? Is there person equating success with a nice job paying well?)
A: I have found prestigious schools (Yale, Harvard, Columbia, etc..) , unfortunately, do have quite the advantage in the business world nationwide… but not so much because of the value of the degree, but the company they keep (i.e. Yale alumni tend to hire Yale alumni. They hire their own kind regardless of other candidate’s abilities or real education value).
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071207183629AACkYHW
Ivy League School. There is always a ring when you say the name of an university that belongs to that group or any other prestigious university. However, are these universities that great? Is an education from one of these schools better prepare you for the real world?
http://www.collegenet.com/elect/app/app?service=external/Forum&sp=4458
The Ivy Appeal
The Ivy League schools are actually defined by their athletic conference. While some may associate Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale with their crew or lacrosse teams, most think of them in terms of academics and low acceptance rates. These along with age and tradition contribute to their prestige. Some believe these schools to be overrated. If rating has anything to do with quality of professors, talents and intelligence of students, or reputation…..
http://www.mccallie.org/tornadoX/news/Issue6b/ivyleague02-07.htm
I can get your kid into an Ivy
The problem with believing that an ivy league education has more merit than a standard school’s education lies in the confusion with success and happiness.
http://app.businessweek.com/UserComments/get_reviews?action=all&productId=22768&style=wide
Weblog of Charlie Finkler 
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