I also would like to add that all my comments are not purely black and white. If you son or daughter just wants to go to an ivy to just party and learn a crap major and do nothing, sure, it’s a waste of money probably. Maybe they want to get a MRS degree…maybe worth it, no experience there so can’t say.
My comments are all about having both options and if you get the ivy option, I feel it will be better if given both. The cost, as nla mentioned isn’t as insane as stated as well.
Also, with me being dead broke currently, if my kids DO get into an ivy, I assume we won’t have to pay a cent honestly. Makes the decision easy really.
Also, there has been a lot of articles in the past few years I’ve read that if you aren’t super wealthy, the ivy league school isn’t “THAT” much more expensive. In those cases, it’s a good option to get an education that probably isn’t as annoying with constant budget cuts, tuition raises (I lived through the 90s at UC)…and not being able to take your frigging class you want.
Also agree with the other comments that a lot of the people who get accepted into the Stanfords or Harvards of the world are already the top high school people so you already have a student body highly above most other people.
That makes it MORE likely that these people will carry you farther than a UC person.
On Nick Woodman, I posted about him before I think, but his parents live in Rancho Santa Fe and I believe they are very wealthy. He lost over 3 million dollars on his first start up (probably family friends) during the tech boom and after that, took a long trip to surf in Australia.
With wealthy parents, you can AFFORD TO TAKE time off JUST TO SURF. He developed what is GoPro after that there while selling jewelry with g/f / now wife.
This goes back to flyer and my point constantly that connections matter all the more since most people (me included) can under no circumstance take time off to just “play” in some foreign country.
After he came back, his dad helped him and invested money in his GoPro idea (I believe initial is 50k). Also, having wealthy parents invest money, I assume they also had other help to make the business a go which most people won’t have assistance or help with.
One reason that Nick Woodman is a poor example with being a UCSD grad in this discussion since his connections are a major reason for his success since most UC grads can’t afford to take that much time off work (since their parents aren’t the super wealthy types).
