College 101
What's a "Good School," Anyway?
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You've studied hard and chugged so many energy drinks that you could vibrate your way into an alternate dimension. Naturally, you want to get into a good school. And everyone knows what makes a good school, right?
Well, we think the sign of a truly great school is that it has a dining hall with all of our favorites, but we'll understand if your criteria is a little more rigorous. You might be thinking of the big names—we bet Stanford, Yale, and Princeton come to mind. But can all that prestige (and the hefty sticker price that comes with it) buy you a good fit?
Not exactly. A 2014 poll found that there was "no discernible advantage" provided by graduating from an elite college vs. any other school (source). The same poll saw a sharp decline in the amount of students who claimed to be thriving as their loan debt increased. It also found that graduates who felt "emotionally supported" by a professor or mentor were three times more likely to thrive as adults.
We're not telling you to write angry letters to Ivy League schools, but it might not be a bad idea to avoid racking up insane levels of debt to go to a name brand school. This is especially true if you can fulfill all of your educational and personal goals elsewhere.
It's a good idea to figure out exactly what you want to get out of your school of choice and then make informed decisions from there. For example, data from PayScale has shown that community college graduates in the tech field earn higher median salaries than Bachelor's degree holders across all programs (source). Take that, you cool universities with Latin mottos.
On the reverse end, there’s definitely a place for degrees from traditionally prestigious schools. A 2011 study found that elite investment banks, consultancies, and law firms showed clear preference in hiring graduates from "super-elite" universities (source). So that community college degree that was so hot about a paragraph ago? It's not really that useful in this context.
Here's the take-home: a good school—like a good degree, or a good car, or a good set of chopsticks—is only "good" depending on what you intend to do with it. If it's your dream to rub shoulders with the snobby-yet-dapper Wall Street elite, then it makes sense to invest in an expensive education at a prestigious school. In that case, it's a good school. But if your goals are more modest and you can be just as happy at a local school, with a great staff, training to become a massage therapist, then guess what?
That's a good school, too.