Is it worth it to go to an elite college?

“There’s no real evidence to suggest that elite schools provide any better level of education than ‘normal’ private or even some public schools,” said Faisal Nasim, director at Exam Papers Plus “In fact, most research suggests that attending schools with a more mixed group (which elite schools most certainly are not) …

What counts as an elite university?

In our distinctions, “elite” refers to the approximately 75 schools with the most restrictive admissions criteria. These colleges generally accept fewer than 30 percent of all applicants and have a highly selective reputation to match.

Among the most cited research on the subject — a paper by economists from the RAND Corporation and Brigham Young and Cornell Universities — found that “strong evidence emerges of a significant economic return to attending an elite private institution, and some evidence suggests this premium has increased over time.”

Do elite schools really make a difference?

Their research, however hedged, does suggest that elite schools can make a difference in income and graduate school placement. But happiness in life? That’s a question for another day.

Do alumni of the most selective colleges earn more?

Grouping colleges by the same tiers of selectivity used in a popular college guidebook, Barron’s, the researchers found that alumni of the most selective colleges earned, on average, 40 percent more a year than those who graduated from the least selective public universities, as calculated 10 years after they graduated from high school.

Is education a long-term investment?

“Education is a long-run investment,” said Professor Eide, chairman of the economics department at Brigham Young, “It may be more painful to finance right now. People may be more hesitant to go into debt because of the recession. In my opinion, they should be looking over the long run of their child’s life.”