[ndgold]

I think that college and secondary schooling are worth what you invest into them. The cost of attendance is not an investment in either case. If you cannot afford the cost of attendance, which is significant, then you should not consider attendance in either at all.

Your personal effortful reading and learning, and demonstrated efforts to apply that learning make up the investment so to speak. Ultimately, internet repositories, professional mentors, and public libraries are worth more than college degrees in and of themselves, but not everyone can access and leverage these resources properly, due to lack of information literacy or professional and academic preparation.

Simply put, college is not worth it—-you are what’s worth it. Invest in yourself, through paid or free human resource development, and you will reap rewards. If you attend college without applying yourself properly, you will have made zero progress and also face a financial deficit. If you do not attend college but manage to apply yourself and be resourceful, you will have certainly made significant progress and you will have avoided debt.

I think college is still the best preparation to become an educator, which I am (Ph.D. with 15y experience in academia).

[quartesixte]

Unfortunately, humans are tribal creatures and having certain tribe markers still makes your life a helluva lot easier.

I went to a T20 school in the USA with name brand recognition. I often hang out with close friends who did not. Let me tell you: school discrimination is real. People (including those who gatekeep the first 5 years of your career) treat me differently than my friends once they find out where I'm from. All of a sudden I'm much more interesting. I get told I'm smarter.

Hell, job interviewers softball my questions. My first big-boy job interview's final round went something like this.

Hiring Manager: "So, [T20 School] huh? You had a good time there?"

Me: "Yup, I say it was a great experience."

HM: "That's awesome. I love the campus so beautiful. My kid plays in their afterschool soccer program. You like soccer?"

Me: "Oh yeah I like following Premier League"

HM: "Awesome. How 'bout them Aresnal's right? Anyways, look you seem like a smart kid. You'll probably get the job -- we'll call you next week with details."

And I got the job.

(My second job's phone screen literally started off with "Oh my husband went to [T20 School]. He was two years ahead of you ever run into him? No? That's fine it's a big school. Anyways!)

And I pale in comparison to the kids who went to the Ivies.

Unfortunate. But there's a reason why many dedicate tens of thousands of hours of their youth to beat the competition and break-in.

[credit_guy]

It sounds unfair until you look at all this from a different angle.

Lots of companies pay head hunters good money to get valuable candidates. You can think of the Ivies and the other top tier schools as 4-year head-hunting agencies. They first do a selection to see which kids have the most potential. Some of the kids have potential in the fact that they are very hard working, or extremely smart, or both. And some have potential in the fact they have a strong personal network (the legacies). On top of this selection, these universities also provide training. But that's secondary.

[JumpCrisscross]

> On top of this selection, these universities also provide training. But that's secondary

I’m not sure. The variation is less among the top schools. I may not get an ace, but I won’t get the kid who just doesn’t show up one day or couldn’t write an e-mail without half a dozen typos to save their own life.