Why Charter Oak State College is better than Thomas Edison State College

[soliloquy]

Elite schools are still mostly attended by wealthy people - Salon.com
Regardless of an elite graduate school degree, undergraduate prestige greatly impacts salary | Research News @ Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt University
9 Problems with Payscale.com's College Rankings (and One Solution) - Around Learning
https://kelchenoneducation.wordpress.com...e-trusted/

It's not just income that people look at. It's better job opportunities, better networking opportunities, and better opportunities for graduate school where the incomes DO end up drastically different. An MBA from a no name college will not land you a job paying $150,000 out of the program unlike Harvard MBA or Wharton MBA. A person doesn't have to go to an ivy league school to succeed – but it's silly to believe that all these rich people who send their kids to elite schools are "idiots." They know that in life, that it's just not only how much you make, but how you make it, and where you make it too.

Statistically, you have a far better chance of getting into a better graduate program from **spoiler alert** a better ranked school even with a lower GPA. That's because graduate programs know that a hard school like Johns Hopkins or MIT where there is no grade inflation, the competition is fierce, and professors don't give out As very easily. You can check this out yourself by checking a course out on OpenMIT for instance and see how in-depth and difficult a course is. As for grade inflation at Harvard - well, these are already some of the best and brightest students out there who already proved themselves in high school with 99% SAT scores, class valedictorians, etc. Most people at Harvard go on to doing incredible things, and if grade inflation is impacting their education, well then why are so many of their students fundamentally changing the world as we speak? Yes, they are on a different league of their own, whether it's fair or not, but it is what it is. Now grade inflation at an extremely low ranked institution can and should create concern over real academic ability - there ARE instructors, courses (like Penn Foster), etc. where you really don't learn anything. I don't think that's the case so much at institutions at Harvard where students are naturally more driven, educated, and yes smarter so they can get away with. I'm not saying that grade inflation is right, but at a school like Harvard, it's not impacting the contributions their graduates are making to the world.

People like to get offended when they think their own intelligence is being slighted somehow when being compared to people that went to top tier institutions. But people are always going to be like that. It's humbling to admit that a program produces better candidates, and it's probably better to emulate those types of people in their habits, work ethic, and way they learn too perhaps. Those people at those programs have proven their worth through hard work, rigorous standardized examinations, and extracurricular activity. That is not easy by any means, but their efforts DO pay off in the long run – to deny that and say that all colleges are equal is absurd.

And does it matter where you go for graduate school? In a non-technical field it matters greatly – it's not the end all be all, but it matters as far as income potential goes in general. A person going to a tier 1 law school versus a tier 4 will have a significant difference in quickly obtaining good job opportunities and high paying opportunities as well. Of course, this is all moot when it comes to state and federal jobs, where they don't seem to care as much, but in the private sector they absolutely do. You can do it it through the tier 4 program but you will have to deal with more barriers and difficulties possibly waiting longer before you reach that point. Considering how the business and legal industry are very sensitive to "brand name," this isn't a shell shocker.

I'm not as invested in this conversation as you are so my response will be short. I just don't think this is a topic about which one can be dogmatic because there are competing views on the issues and both sides have merit.