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Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
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Are Elite Colleges Worth It?

25 September 2014 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Kimball Corson
The Value of Degrees Per Se From Elite Universities

In today's high-tech economy, we know it pays to get a college degree. What is less clear is whether it makes economic sense to attend an elite school with a high price tag. Does the earnings return from a diploma with the name of an elite institution stamped on it justify the higher expense, or is the reputation per se vastly overblown, at least when it comes to subsequent income earned?

The answer is it is hard to say. Here is why. Students who attend elite universities are likely to have higher earnings potential regardless of where they attend college for the very same reasons that they were admitted to those more selective schools in the first place.

The net conclusion researchers have come to is that student quality matters more than the university quality per se. But there are some qualifications to that. First, some universities, such as Harvard, do relatively little to improve their students. Smart in = smart out. Other universities, such as Chicago, MIT and some others, take in smart students but work them very hard so they are required to learn much more. Their formula becomes smart in = smart out + much learned. Secondly, a university can also matter by spending more on the cost of a student's education so the value added is greater which means more learned. High tuition can be an indicator here, but not a sufficient one.

Degrees per se from the institutions that push their students harder and spend more on their education can make their degrees per se more valuable, but the overwhelmingly dominant effect remains the basic quality of the student to begin with, including, importantly, the motivation of that student.
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Vessel Name: Altaira
Vessel Make/Model: A Fair Weather Mariner 39 is a fast (PHRF 132), heavily ballasted (43%), high-aspect (6:1), stiff, comfortable, offshore performance cruiser by Bob Perry that goes to wind well (30 deg w/ good headway) and is also good up and down the Beaufort scale.
Hailing Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
Crew: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
About:
Kimball Corson: I am a 75 year old solo sailor, by choice. However, I did take on a personable, but high maintenance female kitten, now a full grown cat, named KiKiPoo when she is sweet, or KatKatPo after she has just killed something like a bird or bat. [...]
Extra:
Although I was a lawyer and practiced law with good success for thirty years, creating significant new law, I never really believed in the law, the politics of law or in the over reaching self-interest of most lawyers I met. Too much exposure to Nietzsche and other good and seriously thoughtful [...]
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Profile

Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ