America's Top Colleges 2013

[longknife]

Do college rankings matter? With the price of a four-year education approaching a quarter million dollars, it’s a no-brainer.

Read more @ America's Top Colleges 2013 - Forbes

 

[BobPlumb]

I believe that I is better to graduate with a 3.5 GPA from a local college than it is to graduate with a 2.5 from an elite university.

 

[longknife]

I believe that I is better to graduate with a 3.5 GPA from a local college than it is to graduate with a 2.5 from an elite university.

IMHO a diploma from a community college in a trade or subject one can use to get a JOB is a thousand times better!!!!!

 

[justme335]

Well, college education is useless, All the most successful entrepreneurs are college drop outs. I regret wasting 5 years of my life in college.

 

[PhillyGuard]

The Wall Street Journal once published an interesting study of CEOs, and found that hardly any went to top prestigious institutions. Most went to state schools and succeeded based on hard work, not on the "label" on their diploma.

 

[Unkotare]

I believe that I is better to graduate with a 3.5 GPA from a local college than it is to graduate with a 2.5 from an elite university.

You are incorrect in that belief.

 

[Unkotare]

I believe that I is better to graduate with a 3.5 GPA from a local college than it is to graduate with a 2.5 from an elite university.

IMHO a diploma from a community college in a trade or subject one can use to get a JOB is a thousand times better!!!!!

Better for whom? Wouldn't it depend on what sort of job you are looking for? You're not one of those union-toady type liberals who believes the future of the US economy lies in legions of Americans trained exclusively in manual labor cranking out the best damn buggy whips in the world, are you?

 

[Unkotare]

Well, college education is useless, All the most successful entrepreneurs are college drop outs. I regret wasting 5 years of my life in college.

"All the most successful entrepreneurs are college drop outs"? All of them? Got a link to that?

And what were you doing in college for 5 years?

 

[Unkotare]

The Wall Street Journal once published an interesting study of CEOs, and found that hardly any went to top prestigious institutions. Most went to state schools and succeeded based on hard work, not on the "label" on their diploma.

Link to that article? Sounds interesting.

 

[Jackson]

My niece was hired by Price Waterhouse from a noted college with a very high grade point average. It gets you in the door.

My son does the hiring for an insurance firm and the policy is they will not accept applicant without a college degree. The better the college, the better their chances of hiring as long as the interview goes well.

These days, the college degree does count. So many applicants, only the higher degree of educated will be selected for the top posititions

 

[DGS49]

The "known" colleges can be very selective in whom they accept, and prospective employers can rely on that degree as an indication that not only is the person smart and motivated, but they had the perseverence to get the degree.

With a few exceptions, a degee from a state college is little more than having your card punched. This can be enhanced with meaningful honors (Summa Cum Laude, PBK, etc), but most employers assume that a degree from "State" merely indicates that the person is reasonably mature and capable.

The best employers are looking for grads of reputable schools.

But these circumstances are based on what I believe is a false paradigm. The most successful people in our society (using money as the measuring indicator) are the people with the best business sense, not necessarily the ones with the highest IQ's or the best grades.

Putting it another way, if your objective is to Get Rich, getting a "Good Job" is probably the least likely path to take. The corporate world consumes the vast majority of people who come into it trying to get rich. They get pigeon-holed into some bullshit job, spurned by an incompetent boss, or they are unlucky to be assigned to a Division that is going out of business, or makes no profit, and they never really succeed.

The people who really make money are entreprenuers and investors, who constantly take calculated risks, frequently fail, and continue working at it until they succeed. If you ride around the neighborhoods with million-dollar-plus mansions, very few of them are corporate execs.

And even among the Professionals (doctors, lawyers, CPA's etc), the ones who make the most money are not the ones that graduated with the highest GPA's in grad school, but the ones who are the best businessmen in their practices.

If you want to get rich, the best way to do it is with a small business. There is no guarantee of success (the vast majority of them fail), but your chances of financial success are much better than going to work as a management trainee for a corporation - even if you graduated from Yale.

 

[rightwinger]

I believe that I is better to graduate with a 3.5 GPA from a local college than it is to graduate with a 2.5 from an elite university.

Not really

At an elite university you will form contacts with future Presidents, politicians, CEOs and movers and shakers who will help your career more than that 3.5 GPA from podunk state

 

[BobPlumb]

Well, college education is useless, All the most successful entrepreneurs are college drop outs. I regret wasting 5 years of my life in college.

I have a friend that now works for Microsoft. He has a PHD in engineering. I am not disagreeing with your statement about entrepreneurs; however, those successful entrepreneurs are often the exception.

 

[Whereisup]

This is oversimplified, but there are two kinds of students.

One kind of student is only going to college to obtain a good job. Those students aren't very interested in the knowledge that colleges have to offer, and therefore don't learn very much of that knowledge. Many of those students can do well in business, however, because business isn't very oriented to knowledge either. They fit right in. Even companies that hire engineers are more interested in inventing new products than in discovering new knowledge. The students do well because they work hard and pay attention to how the company does its business, so it is OK that they aren't interested in knowledge.

A few students are interested in the knowledge that universities have on offer. Usually, they don't want to go into business, because that would limit their search for knowledge. Thus, they usually become professors at top universities.

There are a number of people who aren't all that interested in knowledge who teach, as a job, at community colleges and middle level four year colleges. Since they aren't all that interested in knowledge itself, they aren't able to teach the best approaches to students who are seriously interested in knowledge. Therefore, students who are seriously interested in knowledge need to go to a top university

Students who only want a degree to help them get a good job can go to any reasonably good college, as long as they are hard workers. Students who are lazy wouldn't do very good work if they did manage to be hired for a good job,

Jim