Different answers for different situations. You have to account for a lot of different aspects: The financial status of the applicant, the quality of the program you're interested in, and maybe most important of all, if the applicant wants to be there. Obviously state schools will be cheaper, and still offer a good to great education. But it will never really make the private schools less worth the money in some instances.
maybe not for post secondary but middle or high school sure. americas and canadas education system is more than garbage. especially in catholic schools. its horrible when a russian 6th grader can run circles around an american 12th grader in math and science. and not just russia, asia, india, south america and europe. something is horribly wrong in the west, i know my kids will be going to private school from grade one all the way through high school, after that i dont care, they will be well off enough to get any degree and diploma from a university and thats all u really need to make a good living.
Coming from a guy who is about to graduate from a prestigious, private university with no financial aid: No Being $40k in debt when you get out of college isn't worth it (I'd be in much worse if my parents hadn't helped me out with the bulk of tuition). If you're going into a corporate career then actually it could be (I knew a B-school student who told me that during an interview the interviewer told him that the only reason he had picked that kid instead of the other applicants was because of the university he was graduating from), but otherwise there's not much to gain that you couldn't get at a less prestigious university. Prestige helps a little in grad/med/law school applications, but not a whole lot. Really the biggest perk is the tremendous boost to your ego you get along with being able to toss around "yeah, I go to (insert name here) University..." with a delicious hint of smugness. If you play cards right with professors you do have a much better chance of getting rec letters from famous researchers when you attend a top university, but again, it all depends on where you go, how well you network, and how lucky you are. And even mediocre state schools still usually have a few famous faculty.
Only if the degree you get from it will pay for itself. No point in getting a degree from Harvard if you're only expecting to start out with $40,000 a year. Those student loans are a killer if you don't have a way to pay them back.
maybe not for post secondary but middle or high school sure. americas and canadas education system is more than garbage. especially in catholic schools. its horrible when a russian 6th grader can run circles around an american 12th grader in math and science. and not just russia, asia, india, south america and europe. something is horribly wrong in the west, i know my kids will be going to private school from grade one all the way through high school, after that i dont care, they will be well off enough to get any degree and diploma from a university and thats all u really need to make a good living.
DangerHiVoltage
I went to public school every year except for eighth grade and I'm about to graduate from a top 20 school with honors in neuroscience. I was a really lazy student throughout K-12 too, so it's not like I was doing any kind of self-study either (I actually never studied until 2nd semester of my junior year of high school). I assure you that the education you receive in K-12 doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Even the best universities assume that you remember absolutely nothing from high school when teaching intro classes. What really matters is intelligence and motivation. For the record, this is why I laugh when I hear of parents spending double what an Ivy League university costs to send their brat to some "prestigious" high school (or worse, an elementary school).
Like anything in life, it usually depends. Ivy league sure. Some small private school in any state? Probably not when compared to the value of public schools.
Prestigious schools attract good professors, true, but public schools can and generally do rival the quality of education available at a private university.
The real virture of a private school are all the connections you can make. If youre outgoing enough and network with people while going to school, youre essentially guarenteed a good career right out of school.
Prestigious and private or pretentious and pointless?
TheMutableOne
A lot of the time these two are confused with one another. TC, if you're going to grad school then where you get your undergrad degree matters significantly less. I think it's nice to be able to get a degree debt-free though.
i live in sweden - unis are free i doubt id ever do uni in another country just cause it has a name to it - allthough i heard some countries have way more easier unis then ours, for example many choose studying to become a doctor in another country then my own cause its too hard to get into here
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