Busting even more myths about education at "elite schools"...

When the recruiting battle for Rock Island's Chasson Randle was going on, there was a secondary debate that cropped up several times...

The extra debate had to do with the perceived quality or value of an education at Stanford vs. a similar education at University of Illinois.

Some argued vehemently that lots of proof existed that the education a kid gets at Stanford was better and would serve him better in his life -- in any ways measured - such as earnings, prestige, or satisfaction.

Well -- seems we have to do this all the time, but I am going to have to bust that myth as well.
This new data will put the final nail in the coffin of that age-old but inaccurate argument.

One of those who took the side of Stanford even argued that Stanford produced MORE Nobel and Pulitzer laureates and more Olympians that University of Illniois...
However, I had no trouble slamming that myth right back in his face, as those numbers are undeniable....University of Illinois has considerably more on all counts, and even top college profs, University Presidents, High Court Justices, etc...

So -- just maybe the only remaining "mythical" argument left, that Stanford gives a "Better education" or a more satisfying experience -- just maybe that argument is flawed as well.......

Here is the proof.........two recent studies find them and read them if you dare to see your preconceived unfounded notions go up in smoke...

The first report........
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n3112v2q139t2007/

The first study notes that most data about people who go to elite colleges and whether they do better, earn more, or are happier are decades old data....really old enough such that those opinions are outdated and not valid today...so let's look at recent data...

So -- here's the first study in more than a decade and guess what?? The "elite" schools simply are NOT ELITE!!!
.....the kids who go to local schools, state schools, and non-"elite" schools do as well or better and ARE HAPPIER and more satisfied with their outcome!!

"These findings do not support the view that graduating from elite schools will necessarily lead to greater job satisfaction."

..so even if the education is MORE expensive and known historically to be "better -- things may just have changed -- and now any difference is JUST NOT WORTH IT and the job satisfaction of the grads from the "elite schools" is clearly worse!!

Here's more data from other researchers........
"Everything we know from studying college student experiences and outcomes tells us that there is more variability within schools than between them,” said Alexander C. McCormick, a former admissions officer at his alma mater, Dartmouth College, and now an associate professor of education at Indiana University at Bloomington. “This is the irony, given the dominance of the rankings mentality of who’s No. 5 or No. 50,” Professor McCormick added. “The quality of that biology major offered at School No. 50? It may exceed that at School No. 5."

In this 2nd study -- researchers said the above about data from 1999 -- showing that earnings were about the same when all variables were looked at and that the education at an "elite" school was simply not better and maybe in this day when you don't need an unnecessary, enormous extra debt...just maybe the education at the "lesser elite" school was far better!!..

"Still, one flaw in such research has always been that it can be hard to disentangle the impact of the institution from the inherent abilities and personal qualities of the individual graduate. In other words, if someone had been accepted at an elite college, but chose to go to a more pedestrian one, would his earnings over the long term be the same? In 1999, economists from Princeton and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation looked at some of the same data Professor Eide and his colleagues had used, but crunched them in a different way: they compared students at more selective colleges to others of “seemingly comparable ability,” based on their SAT scores and class rank, who had attended less selective schools, either by choice or because a top college rejected them." "The earnings of graduates in the two groups were about the same — perhaps shifting the ledger in favor of the less expensive, less prestigious route."


The first study notes that most data about people who go to elite colleges and whether they do better, earn more, or are happier are so old as to be irrelevant in any debate today!
So -- when they do actual studies instead of speculation on anything current....
............guess what??
They supposed top schools, the "elite" simple are no longer so elite...

This is a pretty telling conclusion....
"These findings do not support the view that graduating from elite schools will necessarily lead to greater job satisfaction."

so even if the education is MORE expensive and known historically to be "better -- things may just have changed --
and now any difference is JUST NOT WORTH IT and the job satisfaction of the grads from the "elite schools" is clearly worse!!