Many students look forward to the day they'll graduate high school and move on to college or university. But there's now a great deal of debate as to whether the experience and, more importantly, the value of getting a post-secondary education is worth it. While a degree from a prestigious university might look great on the wall, does it actually offer any real advantage in life? The answer to that question might once have seemed obvious. But researchers started to take a serious look at the evidence, with some surprising results.

Losing Faith

Is college or univerꦚsity really worth it? Does it matter if you go to a prestigious university? That question can only be answered by the people who attend these schools. And timing is affecting how people feel.

According to a 2015 Gallup-Purdue poll, only half of the 29,000 people surveyed said they were adamant that their college education was worth it. Employment status, personal income levels, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:student loan debt, and personal relationships were some of the factors 🐻that affected how people responded to the survey.

But these sentiments seem to be changing. The value of a college or university degree appears to be dropping. In fact, a Wall Street Journal-NORC survey showed that 56% of respondents feel that a degree isn't worth it anymore, with those aged 18 to 34 being the most doubtful. Compare this to 53% of Americans who felt positive about college degrees in 2013.

Experts say graduation rates and high student debt are among the reasons why people are losing confidence in the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:value of a post-secondary degree. Getting a college education is expensive. The average 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cost of attending a post-secondary institution in the U.S. is $36,436 each year per student, according to Education Data Initiative. The price tag, of courseꦿ,𝐆 depends on where you go:

• Attending an in-state public college for a four-year degree costs $26,027 per year.
• Going to a private non-profit school (Ivy League schools fall under this category) averages about $54,501 per year for a four-year degree.
  

Who Went Where

In his 2015 book "Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania," The New York Times columnist Frank Bruni suggested that getting into a prestigious school is a goal for most individuals—not a challenge, especially if it comes from an institution like Amherst, Dartmouth, or Duke.

Bruni marshaled evidence from a wide assortment of fields to show that a degree from a highly selective university is neither a prerequisite to success nor a guarantee of it. He noted that the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:chief executive officers (CEOs) of the 10 biggest companies in the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Fortune 500 mostly attended state schools for their undergraduate degrees. Consider the fo🔯llowing:

1. Walmart: Doug McMillion, University of Arkansas
2. Amazon: Andrew R. Jassy, Harvard University
3. Apple: Tim Cook, Auburn University
4. CVS Health: Karen S. Lynch, Boston University
5. UnitedHealth Group: Andrew P. Witty, University of Nottingham (United Kingdom)
6. Exxon Mobil: Darren Woods, Texas A&M University
7. Berkshire Hathaway: Warren Buffett, University of Pennsylvania
8. Alphabet: Sundar Pichai, Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur, India)
9. McKesson: Brian S. Tyler, University of California, Santa Cruz
10. AmerisourceBergen: Steven H. Collis, University of Witwatersrand

Smaller, more 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:entrepreneurial outfits are no different. Only two CEOs (Keith Cooper, CEO of Revolutionary Clinics, and Colin Walsh, CEO of Varo Bank) of 10 high-ranking companies attended Ivy League colleges as 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:undergraduates.

The Grading Game

So what's the best way to rank schools? There are a number of outlets that do the job for you. U.S. News may be the most prominent arbiter of the nation’s universities, but it hardly has the field to itself. Other magazines, including Money and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Forbes, plus an assortment 🌺of websites, also rank schools on various measures. 

Payscale calculates the 20-year net ROI for over 2,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. based on the salaries reported by its website visitors. Net 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:return on investment (ROI) refers to the difference in median earnings over 20 years between someone who graduated from that college and someone who only finished high school, minus the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:school’s total four-year cost.

Perhaps not surprisingly, its list favors schools with high concentrations of majors in well-paying fields, such as engineering. MIT ranks in the second spot on the lists published by both Payscale and U.S. News.

But the U.S. Military Academy, SUNY Maritime College, and Colorado School of Mines, all in the top 10 on Payscale's ROI list, might come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the U.S. News ratings where only the Colorado School of Mines makes the list of Best National Universities in the 89th spot.

The highest-rated Ivy League school on Payscale’s list is Princeton, which comes in 16th with Harvard following at number 17. Payscale also allows visitors to sort by major and learn where an art major can expect to get the best ROI for their four years. 

What Matters More

To many critics within academia and those in the business world, almost any t🦄ype of rating misses the point. Many argue that the effort a student puts into their time is more important than a school’s prestige.

This includes taking advantage of opportunities such as 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:internships and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:study-abroad programs and getting to know (and becoming known by) the right faculty members. A m♏otivated student can get a great education at a supposedly so-so school. An unmotivated student, on the other hand, is more likely to get a so-𝄹so education even at a highly selective one. 

Still, many parents remain convinced that getting into a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:top-tier school is essential to their children’s success in life, especially on the career f🌳ront. And they’re willing to do or spend whatever it takes to make that happen; hence the booming industry of SAT tutors and college admissiꦍons consultants.

This desire is perhaps best seen through the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal that revealed many wealthy individuals, including celebrities, paid into a scheme that bribed admissions officials at universities in return 🐽for accepting their children.

A Gallup and Lumina Foundation poll from 2013 illustrated the disconnect between perception and the actual working world. When American adults were asked how important they thought a job candidate’s alma mat🦂er is to hiring managers, 80% said it was either very or somewhatℱ important. 

But when Gallup put the same question to business leaders, the people who are actually in a position to offer graduates jobs, the results were strikingly different. A majority of them, 54%, said it was not very important or not important at all.

The Bottom Line

For many students, a degree from a prestigious university is no longer a ticket to success and happiness, if, indeed, it ever was. Numerou♛s, less vaunted schools can prepare them just as well for their careers and lives. While a degree from a top school may be a shortcut, students at any school who play an active role in the process and take full advantage of the opportunities those four years can provide have a leg up on those whose best effort ends at ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚacceptance.