[voicedYoda]

But i don't want my kids going to ivy League. I want them to study what they need to know, have fun, and explore. We aren't rich, and they know that, and that level of stuffy education would be better in graduate or post grad, when they pay you to study there.

[whateveracct]

That was my conclusion as teen too. I went to in-state to a Big-10 school with one of the automatic merit scholarships based on ACT/SAT scores. Still got a great job out of college and moved out west to work at a FAANG (they recruited at my university). Pretty much a top outcome money wise I would've gotten at MIT (where I did get in).

[darkwizard42]

This is classic survivorship bias. For every student that did make it out of those schools and did make it to FAANG, there are many many many more. A much higher % of university recruiting happens at MIT/Berkeley/CMU and as you mentioned, many of the in-state schools barely get recruited.

It definitely makes things easier IF you get in and IF you use the resources of the school to their full potential. Lot of ifs, but let's not discount the objective value of those schools in making the next set of decisions easier just because they didn't benefit you.

[credit_guy]

> I would've gotten at MIT (where I did get in).

Not sure I follow. You got admitted at MIT and decided to go to a Big-10 school? Is Big-10 the Big Ten Conference, with Ohio State and U Michigan?

You really did that?

Have you ever seen this ?

https://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-students/the-cost-of-atten...

  > 58% of full-time undergraduates received an MIT Scholarship during the 2022–2023 academic year. Among those, the median family contribution after student term-time work  was $9,926.

[sokoloff]

I want my kids to go where they want to go. If that happens to be Ivy, so be it. If that happens to be MIT/Caltech/Stanford, so be it.

When parents lament or worry about their kids not being able to get into Ivy League schools, I think it's less about those specific eight institutions and more about whatever selective college they might want to attend.

[rayiner]

In my culture—which I think is right on this—individuals are subordinate to the family. I want my kids to go to an Ivy (or in the case of my eldest son, a service academy) because those are important to success in business and politics, and that’s what I want my kids to pursue—for the success of the family unit. That doesn’t mean I want to go to one, or regret not having gone to one—what I want for my kids is quite independent of what I want myself.