Are US elite colleges overrated?

[noname223]

I mean I am only the one who asks the question. I have close to zero knowledge on it.
I looked up some "elite US colleges"
Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Standford, MIT; Berkeley, Chicago

UK: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, London School of Economics and Political Science, King's College

The sole reason for this thread was the following. A guy who I like in college has the ambition to go an elite college. He told me he does not want to go to a US elite college. Due to the fact many US colleges prefer sports talents their quality would be questionable. Personally I barely know anything. But it is an interesting question.

I have quite good grades but I never imagine to attend such a college. Multiple reasons. I am way too ill and cannot move somewhere else. I would never have the money for it. They demand insane amounts of money in other countries. Personally I would be extremely glad to find a job where I get 2,500 euros per month that does not make me ill and I would be fine. Though I think this is a niave dream. I have the feeling I won't even achieve the bachelor degree. However I must say that studying is way more interesting for me than working. In this sense I enjoy it to a certain degree.

I would even contemplate to start a career at a university. However the working conditions for young scientists seem to be horrendous in my country. Anyway this is nothing more than a naive dream. The maximum that I will reach is the bachelor degree. And I would be quite old when I reached that. But it is more likely that I relapse and kill myself prior to achieving that.

Maybe one thing to add. Today I listened to an article that described how much the US is better prepared for economical changes in the following years compared to Germany. The bad thing and main issue of the US is the following in my opinion. The US is extremely good at fostering top executives/ top talents/ extremely gifted individuals. For example there are extremely good scientists and doctors in the US. The price they pay for it is the following. The average and poor guy has a way worse life quality compared to the equivalent in Germany. You can see that with US colleges and the health care system. There are the elite medical specialists in the US. But does this help the average person? I don't think so. I don't want to get too political but the mentality in the US is different to it in continental Europe.

Do you have knowledge on US elite colleges? Are they overrated?

 

[Seiko]

Prestigious colleges in the U.S. are pretty exclusive, but not for the reasons you'd expect. (I think) the primary determiner for being admitted into these colleges is your socioeconomic mobility and generational wealth—not necessarily your grades or SAT/ACT scores.

I do think they're overrated if you're looking to work in the public sector. Even if you are a grassroots student that is admitted into an Ivy League university, the tuition is a premium, and working for a Fortune 500 company afterward isn't guaranteed.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

They are indeed overrated, at least in terms of how challenging they are - they're often easier to graduate from than state schools. The reason is that prestigious universities need to keep their graduation rates high, so once the initial high bar of admittance has been overcome, it's usually fairly plain sailing, academically.

 

[WhiteRabbit]

They are indeed overrated, at least in terms of how challenging they are - they're often easier to graduate from than state schools. The reason is that prestigious universities need to keep their graduation rates high, so once the initial high bar of admittance has been overcome, it's usually fairly plain sailing, academically.

I've heard that too. I wonder what the point of them is? I always assumed the curriculum would be more challenging.

 

[Zulu]

Unless you come from a background of wealth and can afford it, they're not really worth it. Higher education promises no guarantee of a job offer upon graduation, and at the end of the day, one degree as XYZ University can hold the same value as a degree at ABC University. Yes, maybe the prestige factor of getting a PhD at Yale or Harvard could give you some competing edge if you're striving for some elite role in a very specific field, but majority of the time for the average individual, it won't make much of a difference. As long as you have the required degree that a job position is asking for, that should be sufficient for the education requirement. Though truthfully, employers tend to care more about job experience from prior positions than what grades you have on your transcript. At least from my own personal experience, as long as I have the degree, that's sufficient. Never once have I had to share my transcripts, or what I did in specific classes. It's always been about what I did in previous jobs and "neat, you have a degree."

Truthfully in the U.S.? College feels like a rip-off. The amount of debt you can accrue is staggering, and it gets even more ridiculous if you go to a prestigious university. That can have long-term ramifications for your financial future and what you can and can't do after graduation. And if you're not able to get a job in the field you went to school for (or get an underpaid position), or if you later realize that line of work isn't fundamentally for you, that student debt can screw you hard for life. The amount of stress from the financial aspect kind of takes away the incentive of going to college in the first place. I'd argue you'd almost be better off just doing trade school, getting certified in a fraction of the time it'd take to get a four year degree, and paying only a fraction of the cost of college.

What it boils down to is money. If you have the money to go pursue an education at a prestigious university and you genuienly want to, by all means, go ahead. But if you don't have the money and aren't certain of the career path you want to pursue, don't sign away your freedom with a $100K+ debt sentence. It is not worth it, at all. I understand there can be the dream/fantasy of going to a prestigious university in the U.S., especially if you're in the top of your class and have big aspirations for potential career paths. However, the financial reality of it will quickly poke a hole through that dream, especially when you start to realize that in the middle of college. I have many regrets in life, chief of which is college. I've been screwed over hard by it (at least, financially-speaking), and if there's anything I could have done differently, it would have been that. Cuz that financial debt sentence is hell, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

[Tiny Little Tree]

Undergrad/taught is probably overrated. A lot of places have their material freely available online in some form, pretty easy to see it's mostly the same everywhere with no huge leaps. I suppose the value is being filtered together with the most talented students or rich/powerful/etc. and getting connected.

Postgrad/research might be better. More likely to be working with the best of the best or on the cutting edge. Cost of tuition less of an obstacle since it's usually covered + stipend which is at least comparable to full time minimum wage in those parts + more with RA and TA work.