The elite schools (and their high tuition fees) overrated? Yep!

Parents certainly do not want to deprive their children of the chance to succeed. This feeling, this need seems particularly acute in this day and age of economic struggle, the middle class being squeezed into oblivion. At the approach of August, a number of my fellow parents face large tuition bills college for their children, some paid by fear (I suspect) that to do otherwise jeopardize the future of their children. But I know they do not pay tuition bills only 529 well-funded plans. So where is this money coming from? Their future.

This brings me to a question I asked myself for a long time: Is education "Ivy League", a degree from a prestigious university really worth it? (This from a graduate of a public university.) Parents should be risking their own financial future to pay the bill (or a partial invoice) for these educations "elite"? Is a degree from a high-ranking school higher earnings equal (ie, a better future) for a child?

According to Alan Krueger, professor of economics at (ironically) Princeton University, the answer seems to be no. In "The elite schools are overrated," in the June issue of Money magazine, Krueger and Stacy Dale colleague say they have collected data from more than 26,000 students from two dozen schools (y including schools such as Penn State and Yale), and the bottom line was: "during their career, students who chose not to attend the most selective schools to which they were admitted earned about as much as those who have similar qualities and results of tests that went to the highest rank they got to college. "

advice Krueger was present," ... if you have a child to apply to university, ignoring the different rankings. "

maybe we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief Think about how these economies will" buy "in terms of a more secure retirement Children may actually come out ahead.. They get a college education [ and will not have to worry about without retirement funds relatives traveling with them later and to the extent that the prestige name, a parent, I know had this to say: "Take a Sweat- shirt at the Harvard bookstore. "