Costs for an "elite" education?

[David Weaver]

In the scenario where it was no debt vs. a hundred Gs, I would choose the "elite" only if it was between an elite school and an absolute dud of a school (i.e., I wouldn't go to one of the fourth tier schools just to avoid paying, you'd just be astounded by the folks around you). If it was between an elite school and a "good" school, there will always be resources at a good school for an elite student to challenge themselves if they want to.

The only exception to that would be if I was dead set on doing something like managing a hedge fund, where it seems like every single name on the prospectus has a ph D from an elite school or some other post graduate ivy league degree.

Or if you wanted to work at a multinational law firm, but why anyone would want to do that for more than a year or two is beyond me.

[Mel Fulks]

Brian ,an excellent example of the subjective views of what makes a good school. Most who go to VMI attend their first choice.

[Darius Ferlas]

Understood... but it's easier to become cream if you're surrounded by a creamer.

Agreed, but you can have very little formal education and still be a creamer.
A few famous people we all know, but shouldn't discuss, were members of the elite before they went to Harvard.

[Brian Elfert]

Brian ,an excellent example of the subjective views of what makes a good school. Most who go to VMI attend their first choice.

I was more making the point that military academies, while "free", are extremely difficult to get into. West Point has a bit over 1,100 freshman yearly so maybe 15 applicants from each state will get in per year. The rest of the class is active military who get selected for West Point.

[Mel Fulks]

It was a good point and no offense taken .Fortunately everyone doesn't want the same thing.VMI is long tradition in some families; an old acquaintance had a whole stairwell lined with photographs of family members all in their formal uniforms.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

This is such a long thread and this may have been mentioned.

My step daughter got a rather "high end" education in social work.

It's like a money guy told her, "Why go to Notre Dame" if you're going to get McDonald's wages.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm not saying it's worth breaking the bank, but one of the benefits of an 'elite' education is that it's an internal validation. There are exceptions to the rule, but early external reinforcements of ability are key to a person's long term success.

Getting cut from the junior hs baseball team makes you think you're not as good as others and discourages you from trying to get better, which was a self-fulfilling prophecy in my case. The opposite is true as well: getting into a top notch school is a signal to yourself that yes, you can.

IMHO, this has been worth way more to me than the quality of my education.

[Brian Elfert]

It was a good point and no offense taken .Fortunately everyone doesn't want the same thing.VMI is long tradition in some families; an old acquaintance had a whole stairwell lined with photographs of family members all in their formal uniforms.

I'm pretty sure this young man had no tradition of other family members going to any military school. His father has risen to a pretty high rank within the Army Reserve or National Guard and his sons got interested in the military due to that. The father got activated as part of the Iraq war and was active for something like five years. He did most of his work in the USA, but was deployed for a tour overseas.

I don't know why someone would apply to West Point if they had a family tradition of going to VMI.

[Ben Hatcher]

If your daughter's goal is an MD, she should really be considering what medical school she wants to attend, then talk to their admission counselors to determine what they're looking for.

[Bryan Slimp]

If your daughter's goal is an MD, she should really be considering what medical school she wants to attend, then talk to their admission counselors to determine what they're looking for.

This is pretty much what I was thinking. I'd be more interested in what the next level (med school) wanted me to have. I'm lucky enough to live in a community with REALLY good health-systems. I know many people that have gone to the state med school here and many that wanted to go here but couldn't because they didn't have just the right qualifications. Omaha may not be as "elite" as a big east coast Ivy League town, but real medicine, training, and research are happening right down the road from Milwaukee (ranked number 6 on the link provided earlier in the thread.)

[Ben Hatcher]

A girl I dated a few years back wanted to go to OSU's Pharmacy school. The counselor told her that GPA was most important, undergraduate degree didn't matter, and that she'd have the best chance of getting in with a 4.0 in Communications than with a 3.5 in Chemistry. The same may hold true for certain med schools. A 4.0 from a "lesser" school may hold more weight than a 3.5 from one considered more elite.

[David Weaver]

When I got out of school (I am not an accountant, I can't remember why I saw an audit firm's requirements - maybe they sent me something because they employ actuarial students in small numbers), the min GPA for a lot of the audit firms was 3.8. I guess they had to have degrees in accounting, I don't know.

The firm where I worked had a policy of 3.5 gpa or better. The average GPA for the major was about 3.2 at my school, which meant they cut out a lot of people unless you really had something else on your resume that would convince them to ignore that. The only thing I didn't like about it was when I was sifting through resumes to help decide who should be interviewed, there were some local colleges where it seemed like there must've been a dozen kids who had 4.0, and kids from much tougher schools where nobody had exactly 4.0, maybe some 3.97, etc, but no 4.0s. I went to bottom of the first tier school, and there was a proof course where nobody received an A, I didn't mind - I did a little at the time, but I don't now. I prefer the latter rather than grade inflation, but it's part of the selling point for the easier school, I guess. I'm sure a 3.45 at difficult school X was much much harder to obtain than a 3.8 at easy school Y.

I can say one thing, though, and that was something that Dr. Ben Carson said in a speech, and I mangle it a little bit to fit my purposes - when you are in my profession or another one similar and you work at one of the larger firms (which functions a lot like a law firm), some of those "very best of the best" types seem to be interested only in winning. Not solving problems, not providing thoughtful work, but winning first and justification later. (Ben Carson said that about Lawyers vs. Doctors, though, that Doctors are taught to solve problems, and lawyers are taught to win). I don't so much enjoy that kind of attitude from people, regardless of whether or not they feel it's their duty to make sure that on a relative comparison, they always feel like they're above anyone else they can think of.

[Mike Henderson]

I don't so much enjoy that kind of attitude from people, regardless of whether or not they feel it's their duty to make sure that on a relative comparison, they always feel like they're above anyone else they can think of.

That reminds me of a joke about doctors:

What's the difference between God and a surgeon?

Answer: God doesn't think He's a surgeon.

Mike

[Eric DeSilva]

Having been involved in our hiring program, I can assure you that we do know which schools are harder and the GPA/relative placement criteria are going to depend on where you go. But those are really screening criteria, and we only hire from two to three dozen schools anyway. I wouldn't assume going to a "easier school" will still get you past the entry criteria--you might find the door isn't even open.

[Jerome Stanek]

That reminds me of a joke about doctors:

What's the difference between God and a surgeon?

Answer: God doesn't think He's a surgeon.

Mike

What's the difference between God and a surgeon?

Answer: God doesn't think He's a surgeon.

Or
what do you call a student that graduates at the top of his medical class

valedictorian

what do you call a student that graduates at the bottom of his medical class

Doctor