Yale University Professor Advises State Colleges Rather Than Ivy League

I thought that this was very interesting, and reflective of the new reality these days, when costs for top universities are prohibitively expensive, and the usability of college degrees increasingly questionable.

In an age when many are piling up enormous student debts, and then not landing the kinds of jobs or salaries that they were hoping for, a professor from perhaps the most revered and prestigious university in the United States, Harvard University, is essentially advising people to ditch their dreams of attending the top schools - in this case particularly the Ivy League schools - in favor of more modest state colleges, which are obviously much more affordable, generally speaking.

Quite frankly, the validity of the dream of a college education leading to a well-paying job seems, if not quite dead, then on life support these days. Gone are the days when a college degree automatically qualified you for a decent job and wage. Now, you have to have at least a Master's, and probably even more than that, in order to truly qualify in many eyes as deserving of a desirable job and comfortable wage.

Eventually, it was inevitable that some in positions that would be knowledgeable of the situation to point this out, and to begin to bite the hands that fed them.

So it is that Professor William Deresiewicz of Yale University is suggesting that kids forget attending these, the most prestigious of learning institutions within the United States, in favor of more practical, quality education in less famous schools and state universities.

Obviously, we know that these colleges are much more affordable than college education at the Ivy League schools, which are truly cost prohibitive except for the very fortunate few, perhaps the offspring of the 1%.

Of course, there could be the question of whether such thinking is also serving to protect the elitism of the powers that be.

Still, I think in this case, the big name educational institutions truly might be more overrated as simply brands more than anything else, and that is a huge problem that the United States in particular has. A growing problem, for that matter.

I had a friend of mine who attended and graduated from Emory University, and he once told me that it surely looks better for a student to get straight A's in a less famous school like Rutgers (my alma mater) than to get C's in a highly reputable school like Emory, or one of the Ivy League schools. According to him, despite the name, people would still recognize you as an idiot if you stand out for the wrong reasons at a standout university.

Hard to argue that. If you excel academically at a state college, it surely will not hurt you down the line, and you won't have piled up quite the level of student debts that you surely would if insisting on the premiere name brand universities in the land.

Take a look at this video link of the distinguished Yale Professor William Deresiewicz discussing this topic:


Fmr. Ivy League Prof: Ditch Harvard for a state school Yfinance Biz Trending  2:52 mins

http://finance.yahoo.com/video/fmr-ivy-league-prof-ditch-192045040.html