Where do YOU go to college or went?

[XnavxeMiyyep]

I think, assuming the college student is middle class or lower like me, return on investment is key. One school I got accepted to, NYU for graduate school, is not cheap but they have a great return on investment. They are not Harvard but they do have top 20 law and MBA programs among others which isn't too shabby.

I could have gone to a relatively unknown yet equally expensive school, but it wouldn't make sense. There are lowly ranked, expensive colleges for rich kids who don't want to study too hard. There are a lot of them in California.

But for many of the very rich and rich who send their kids to college, it doesn't matter where they go or if they go. Unless something very catastrophic happens and that rich kid's family puts all their eggs in one source for investment (which is unlikely), their kid will do OK with recession or a boom.

Yeah, one of my friends ended up going to one of those schools and wasn't too happy about it (he wanted to take a discrete math class, for instance, and they questioned his motives because other Math majors didn't take that class).

There are the ultra snobs here who may think NYU is some knock-off brand and only a Cornell or Columbia will do for New York. But I say them them, look at the rankings and return on investment. If a person thinks only 8 Ivy schools in the US are worthy, and there are yuppie parents who think that way everywhere, then it's their problem. I could live with the WPI above, NYU, MIT, Cal Tech, or Amhurst even though they are not the 8 Ivies.

NYU is definitely a good school. It was on my list, but WPI is the perfect fit for me. The culture and the courses work well for someone interested in Computer Science. Also, we only take three courses at a time and have four 7-week terms (so by default, we have 6 classes per semester). I like the set up as it allows us to focus on our courses, learn quickly (I managed to cover all of the basic Calculus classes and Differential Equations during Freshman year), and learn to manage projects with limited time periods.

I'm from a middle class background. My family paid for my freshman year, but now I use Summer Internships and scholarships to pay for my apartment and school. It's definitely working out for me.

 

[63dot]

NYU is definitely a good school. It was on my list, but WPI is the perfect fit for me. The culture and the courses work well for someone interested in Computer Science. Also, we only take three courses at a time and have four 7-week terms (so by default, we have 6 classes per semester). I like the set up as it allows us to focus on our courses, learn quickly (I managed to cover all of the basic Calculus classes and Differential Equations during Freshman year), and learn to manage projects with limited time periods.

I'm from a middle class background. My family paid for my freshman year, but now I use Summer Internships and scholarships to pay for my apartment and school. It's definitely working out for me.

When I see an NYU shirt out west it makes me happy.

Some of the rich, bling-driven, shallow California parents think they failed if their kid got into NYU but not Cornell or Columbia. In some rankings, and they are all over the net and in print, NYU actually beat one or both of those Ivies in some majors.

I am of a certain ethnic background who very unfortunately, think that going east and going Ivy is the only option and there is great shame in not getting into at least one of those eight schools.

In one family, they had five children get into and graduate from Yale, but the sixth kid failed to make it but went to a decent eastern school, dubbed one of the Baby Ivies. He forever apologized for that. To me, I think that's pretty good for any kid who spent most of their K-12 in our crappy California public school system under a whole string of Republican anti-education Governors starting with Reagan, and followed up by ole Duke and Wilson. I mean, he got into a Baby Ivy and I think that's hard enough in its own right.

The snobs on this board who think that only eight schools are worthy are so much like the kids and families who go around my small town and brag for days about either having gone to Harvard or having their kids go there. They look down on Stanford and Cal as if they are high schools, which they aren't. I went to University of London as an exchange student and some of my friends went to Oxford and Cambridge, and on any given day, they will kick any of the asses of the American Ivies. The level of education of the top Brits puts any American to shame. From the day they are born, the elite English school kids are born and bred to be renaissance people, and in every case, the kids I met at those schools were of a level that is unheard of in America. So when I meet a big shot Ivy person who went brags all day about their eight schools, I quietly think about London and Oxbridge, and I just snicker at their stupid American arrogance. It makes me terribly ashamed to be an American when I see this crap. It's as bad as an American who thinks because we have Michael Jordan and the Yankees, then the World Cup will be a piece of cake this year...because...darn it we are America with John Wayne, '57 Chevys, and yes, Starbucks!

But within the USA, one way in a big state like California to distinguish yourself on a resume is to go to one of those eight Ivies. That's a good thing about the Ivies if you come from the west or midwest. But it's very unrealistic to think your kid is going to get transferred to Cambridge to study mathematics (because they got into a good American school) and be among the world's best in the world which you will find at Cambridge representing not only the finest minds in the UK, but many of the commonwealth lands, and very smart students from the USA who looked past the USA and went straight for Cambridge. Those kids who got into an Ivy and think they will walk all over England will get their butt handed to them on a platter on an intellectual level. When you have a school a thousand years old with the likes of Newton, Hawking, and many others having taught there, heck, send your kid to Oxford or Cambridge if you want the best.

But I don't think a Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Georgetown, Cal, or UCLA student will fare poorly in California next to the kid from the Ivies. In the end, those eight schools, and hundreds of others will give your kid a great education.

 

[flopticalcube]

UVic, Go Vikes!

 

[citizenzen]

Art school* drop-out. Go Hobos!













* Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA

 

[63dot]

Art school* drop-out. Go Hobos!




* Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA

The School of Visual Arts had two kids who were kicked out and didn't graduate. I don't know about their grades but they defaced the cafeteria with "art". The janitors washed it off. Had the joint project stayed up in the cafeteria, its estimated value would be more than that of the school that kicked them out.

So instead they became the most important art school droupouts turned artists starting in the second half of the 20th century. (Keith Haring and Jean Basquiat). I don't think Andy Warhol cared if those two had degrees (or went to Columbia the go-to Ivy for art) when he discovered them. Warhol knew his fifteen minutes of fame was thirty minutes and they were about to expire so he passed the torch to Haring (who outsold Warhol commercially) and to Basquiat, the most celebrated artist of his generation and the first commercially successful black artist in America.

 

[einmusiker]

I think, assuming the college student is middle class or lower like me, return on investment is key. One school I got accepted to, NYU for graduate school, is not cheap but they have a great return on investment. They are not Harvard but they do have top 20 law and MBA programs among others which isn't too shabby.

I could have gone to a relatively unknown yet equally expensive school, but it wouldn't make sense. There are lowly ranked, expensive colleges for rich kids who don't want to study too hard. There are a lot of them in California.

But for many of the very rich and rich who send their kids to college, it doesn't matter where they go or if they go. Unless something very catastrophic happens and that rich kid's family puts all their eggs in one source for investment (which is unlikely), their kid will do OK with recession or a boom.

There are the ultra snobs here who may think NYU is some knock-off brand and only a Cornell or Columbia will do for New York. But I say them them, look at the rankings and return on investment. If a person thinks only 8 Ivy schools in the US are worthy, and there are yuppie parents who think that way everywhere, then it's their problem. I could live with the WPI above, NYU, MIT, Cal Tech, or Amhurst even though they are not the 8 Ivies.

Cornell is pretty far upstate, in Ithaca NY, unless you're referring to one of their extension grad programs in the city? I've seen and heard of them but don't know a ton about them.

The difference between Columbia and NYU really comes down to your preference. If you want to be downtown on a spread out city-like campus, then NYU. If you want some of the traditional pretty campus uptown then Columbia.

 

[63dot]

Cornell is pretty far upstate, in Ithaca NY, unless you're referring to one of their extension grad programs in the city? I've seen and heard of them but don't know a ton about them.

The difference between Columbia and NYU really comes down to your preference. If you want to be downtown on a spread out city-like campus, then NYU. If you want some of the traditional pretty campus uptown then Columbia.

From Cali over here, I am talking about the entirety of your "tiny" state on the map I am looking at.

Upstate, downstate, downtown, your entire state could fit in the wasteland known as the greater LA area. But at least you guys have something cool in your state, like the world's largest school system with over 60 colleges in the SUNY family, the above mentioned NYU and Ivies, and CCNY and a whole slew of great art schools. LA has smog, second rate hot dogs, and a bad public transportation system. But hey, east coast, he have the LAKERS! (ducks and changes name).

 

[quagmire]

Junior this fall at Embry Riddle.

 

[einmusiker]

From Cali over here, I am talking about the entirety of your "tiny" state on the map I am looking at.

Upstate, downstate, downtown, your entire state could fit in the wasteland known as the greater LA area. But at least you guys have something cool in your state, like the world's largest school system with over 60 colleges in the SUNY family, the above mentioned NYU and Ivies, and CCNY and a whole slew of great art schools. LA has smog, second rate hot dogs, and a bad public transportation system. But hey, east coast, he have the LAKERS! (ducks and changes name).

haha! fair enough. But in NYC it really is a different world from the rest of the state. And I agree with you about the size of LA at least in terms of traffic time. It takes 6 hours or so to drive from NYC to Ithaca... I feel like I've spent that long in LA or Chicago traffic

 

[63dot]

haha! fair enough. But in NYC it really is a different world from the rest of the state. And I agree with you about the size of LA at least in terms of traffic time. It takes 6 hours or so to drive from NYC to Ithaca... I feel like I've spent that long in LA or Chicago traffic

Six hours in LA traffic, that will get you to the next exit.

I got stuck on 405? (or similar trap) in rush hour between about three exits for one hour. The traffic literally stopped and one could have got out, made lunch, ate it, and cleaned up, and the traffic would not have budged that much. I was coming in there from norcal not knowing how many people there were and how few highways (by proportion), so it was an eyeopener.

Didn't anybody hear about subways or trains back in the 80s? I hope LA is better with public transportation these days and the last time I was there was about 9 years ago.

 

[dmr727]

Didn't anybody hear about subways or trains back in the 80s? I hope LA is better with public transportation these days and the last time I was there was about 9 years ago.

It's not. But my commute is 10 minutes, 15 if it's rush hour.

Being happy here is all about location, location, location. It's just like college (keeping this post semi-relevant!) - gotta look at your circumstances and priorities, and make the decision based on that.

 

[63dot]

It's not. But my commute is 10 minutes, 15 if it's rush hour.

Being happy here is all about location, location, location. It's just like college (keeping this post semi-relevant!) - gotta look at your circumstances and priorities, and make the decision based on that.

I love the neighborhood of your area's USC. ...joke... it reminds me of the SF region of SOMA which has UC Hastings, Golden Gate University, San Francisco City College, and other places where unsuspecting college students get robbed or mugged. One of those schools actually has a disclaimer sign about the 'hood.

I don't get this thing with too many California colleges putting their campuses in the most dangerous neighborhoods. I walked into a literal gunfight between SF police and a vagrant near one of those schools. Stuff like that erupts in bad parts of LA and SF and there's no time to seal the area off. You just put your head down or get back in your car or duck into class. It looked like a TV show but was real. Why can't all campuses be like Pepperdine or Santa Barbara City College (voted America's most beautiful campus).

 

[einmusiker]

I love the neighborhood of your area's USC. ...joke... it reminds me of the SF region of SOMA which has UC Hastings, Golden Gate University, San Francisco City College, and other places where unsuspecting college students get robbed or mugged. One of those schools actually has a disclaimer sign about the 'hood.

I don't get this thing with too many California colleges putting their campuses in the most dangerous neighborhoods. I walked into a literal gunfight between SF police and a vagrant near one of those schools. Stuff like that erupts in bad parts of LA and SF and there's no time to seal the area off. You just put your head down or get back in your car or duck into class. It looked like a TV show but was real. Why can't all campuses be like Pepperdine or Santa Barbara City College (voted America's most beautiful campus).

It's not that they put them there. the bad neighborhoods surround schools that have been around a while, particularly private schools in big cities. Think Columbia, Yale, USC, UChicago etc. all in bad neighborhoods, all great schools

 

[Shadow]

Keele University, B.Sc. (Hons) Computer Science

 

[OutThere]

Union College 2010, Political Science

Hmm... I'm a rising senior at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). I'm one of the lucky ones in terms of financial aid though, I'll probably only have $16 - $20k to pay off, most of which has no interest.

However, we have one of the highest ROIs according to
http://www.payscale.com/education/average-cost-for-college-ROI.

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Private $189,300 $1,688,000 12.6%
2 California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Private $181,100 $1,644,000 12.6%
3 Harvard University Private $189,600 $1,631,000 12.5%
4 Harvey Mudd College Private $187,700 $1,627,000 12.5%
5 Dartmouth College Private $188,400 $1,587,000 12.4%
6 Stanford University Private $191,800 $1,565,000 12.3%
7 Princeton University Private $187,700 $1,517,000 12.3%
8 Yale University Private $194,200 $1,392,000 11.9%
9 University of Notre Dame Private $181,900 $1,384,000 12.1%
10 University of Pennsylvania Private $191,300 $1,361,000 11.8%
11 Duke University Private $187,600 $1,319,000 11.8%
12 Lehigh University Private $180,400 $1,308,000 11.9%
13 Union College, New York Private $186,500 $1,262,000 11.7%
14 Amherst College Private $188,200 $1,259,000 11.6%
15 Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Private $184,900 $1,224,000 11.6%

I study Computer Science, so college is the de facto option for me. I've learned quite a lot in my three years here.

Good to see my school at number 13 nationally!

My favorite ranking:

Top Party Colleges By Salary Potential - Full List
TOP PARTY COLLEGES STARTING MEDIAN PAY MID-CAREER MEDIAN PAY
Union College, New York $46,400 $99,900
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) $47,600 $96,400
Tulane University $45,300 $92,200
University of Colorado - Boulder (UCB) $46,200 $91,600
University of Texas (UT) - Austin $49,100 $87,500
University of Wisconsin (UW) - Madison $47,900 $87,400
DePauw University $43,500 $85,600
University of Florida (UF) $45,200 $84,300
Pennsylvania State University (PSU) $48,600 $83,900
Arizona State University (ASU) $44,500 $81,600
University of Iowa (UI) $42,200 $80,300
Indiana University (IU), Bloomington $43,000 $79,800
West Virginia University (WVU) $45,000 $79,200
University of Georgia (UGA) $42,100 $78,400
University of Mississippi $41,200 $76,500
University of Tennessee $42,400 $74,400
University of North Dakota $42,900 $73,900
Florida State University (FSU) $40,100 $73,900
Ohio University $42,900 $69,200

 

[ravenvii]

Didn't anybody hear about subways or trains back in the 80s? I hope LA is better with public transportation these days and the last time I was there was about 9 years ago.

LA is the worst kind of urban wasteland. It's suburbs are even worse.

A lot of people love SoCal, but I can't understand why. Sure, the weather's okay, but that's about it.

If you *have* to live in California, NorCal is the way to go.

 

[dmr727]

A lot of people love SoCal, but I can't understand why..

I enjoy it here. Obviously the weather is great, but I love the fact that the LA area isn't one big city as it is a huge collection of much smaller, very different communities. The beach cities are completely different than the mountain towns, which are different than the suburbs, which are different than the city, etc.... If I get tired of my situation, I can drive 20 minutes and be in a completely different reality.

But I understand that it's not for everyone. You have to have a pretty specific personality to thrive here.

 

[panda bear]

Went to Pitt for a semester.
Then transferred to Point Park University (also in Pittsburgh) and got my undergrad from there.
Received my Masters from Duquesne University (in Pittsburgh as well)

 

[184550]

George Mason for BA in History
UNC Charlotte for MA in History

 

[wvuwhat]

W.V.U. Graduated May 2009. B.A. Communication Studies.

 

[spazattack674]

Entering The George Washington University as a freshman this year

 

[calb]

University of Cambridge, reading law.

State-schooled up until this point, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[87vert]

Never went to college.

 

[iJohnHenry]

Never went to college.

Same here, just the School of Hard Knocks.

 

[R94N]

In September, I'm going to Burleigh Community College in Loughborough. Yes, I know, all the schools 'round here have stupid names, but I liked it during induction.