>There's little evidence that where you go to school matters.
That's not quite true. There is little evidence that if you go to Penn instead of Penn State you have different results, but there are caveats. First, you have to be able to get into both.
[edit]The studies control for selection, so the ones showing no increase in wages are studying the same cohort at Penn and Penn State, but there are more students at Penn State that are not members of that cohort than there are students at Penn.
Second, you need to go to a college with enough people and have access to a similar cohort of intelligent, hard-working and advantaged students.
>If you take Albert Einstein and you put him in a community college, he's still going to be Albert Einstein, and you're still going to just be you at Harvard.
Maybe so - most people aren't Albert Einstein, though, and that Harvard degree gets you a look at places where the community college degree does not.
Penn's not really the level of school that will be that much better over a flagship state school. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and maybe a few more are that level.
The median Penn grad ends up making a bit more money than the median Stanford grad and less than the median MIT grad. They all make considerably more than a Berkeley grad, who makes considerably more than someone from Iowa State University.
> Penn's not really the level of school that will be that much better over a flagship state school. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and maybe a few more are that level.
Pretty sure Wharton fits in with the profiles you mentioned.
The College… yeah, sounds about right (maybe a flagship state school honors program).
Penn students apply to a specific school, so the student body profile of each school is quite different (sometimes to almost comically different degrees).
Regarding Penn vs. Penn State, the valedictorian at my PA high school got into both. He ended up going to the Penn State honors school, and he's doing great today. Salutatorian (same GPA actually but one fewer AP class broke the tie) went to Penn and he's also doing great. So I guess that's to say.... shrug.
Honestly I'd live in State College over Philly any day of the week.
That's not quite true. There is little evidence that if you go to Penn instead of Penn State you have different results, but there are caveats. First, you have to be able to get into both.
[edit]The studies control for selection, so the ones showing no increase in wages are studying the same cohort at Penn and Penn State, but there are more students at Penn State that are not members of that cohort than there are students at Penn.
Second, you need to go to a college with enough people and have access to a similar cohort of intelligent, hard-working and advantaged students.
>If you take Albert Einstein and you put him in a community college, he's still going to be Albert Einstein, and you're still going to just be you at Harvard.
Maybe so - most people aren't Albert Einstein, though, and that Harvard degree gets you a look at places where the community college degree does not.