[SolidWood]

Except certain sciences... IMO NO.

[SeekAndFind]

For a slide show of the Top colleges that pay off ( value for the tuition you pay ), see here :

http://www.smartmoney.com/Personal-Finance/College-Planning/colleges-that-pay-off/

[krb]

An Ivy League education will open doors for the rest of your life. Damn right it’s worth it.

[org.whodat]

Seeing the results in jorge bush and john,I was in viet., kurry, I would say no!!!

[Eagle Eye]

It isn’t the education it is the Rolodex.

[CodeToad]

The liberal yankees aren’t going to like this. They all know that southern people are nothing but ignorant, uneducated, rednecks.

[hinckley buzzard]

After all, who would've guessed that Texas A & M, No. 1 in our survey, would deliver a payback more than two and a half times that of Harvard?

Just a guess of my own, but-- Anybody in the oil bidness.

[Reeses]

Rule number one for happiness: don’t compare yourself to others. This article is fully of pointless envy. Most people that pay the extra expense of going to an Ivy league schools don’t do it to get a higher paying job.

[SoftwareEngineer]

Let me give you a perspective from someone who had the opportunity to go to an Ivy but did not.

I had very high SAT scores (I won’t boast). Thus I got offered admission into both Harvard and Yale. However, due to the fact that my father was a middle class guy with a decent income I was not offered a substantial scholarship. I would have had to take loans of about $100-$120K to finish my education.

I chose to go on to one of the most highly ranked Public schools in Computer Science where I ended up graduating after only racking up a loan of about $30K

In the short term I felt I had made the right decision as I graduated with much less debt.

However, in my nearly 20 year career I have now come to regret my decision. For better or for worse (we don’t make the rules of the world we live in) an Ivy League stamp opens up a lot of doors. I would have progressed much faster in my career had I had that stamp. I saw many underqualified people (note: I said UNDER qualifed not UN qualified) progress to high ranks of management due to that stamp.

As another poster said above, that made me open a small business because I could not deal with the frustration of doors not opening fast enough. That is a good thing to be sure. However, even over here, atleast in the tech industry, when you go and visit the VCs on Sand Hill Road, your educational pedigree is openly discussed.

My advice to anyone able to get into an Ivy League college is to do it. Don’t hesitate. Yes, you will have high debt on graduation but you will make it up in spades.

Just my 2 cents (which would have been 50 cents had I graduated from the Ivy League college)

[jamese777]

Justice Antonin Scalia: J.D. Harvard Law
Chief Justice John Roberts: A.B. History, Harvard College, J.D., Harvard Law (Roberts was President of the Harvard Law Review, a position held later by Barack Obama).
Justice Clarence Thomas: J.D. Yale Law
Justice Samuel Alito: J.D. Yale Law
President George W. Bush, B.A. History Yale, MBA, Harvard Business School.

[Sig Sauer P220]

Its good if you want to be a Washington politician and have a cushy job for life there. They seem to be lacking in common sense, but are brimming with greed.

[MichiganConservative]

No.

[Tzimisce]

...you can learn simplistic liberal philosophy for free at a public school....

[rightwingcrazy]

Considering how selective these schools are, you’d think the students would succeed all the more because they were so much cleverer.

Part of the problem may be that the pricey profs they employ may be superb scholars but not necessarily superb teachers.

[Revolting cat!]

Ticket to the salons of American aristocracy.

[taxcontrol]

Is the EDUCATION worth it ... no

Is the ROLODEX / Networking you develop worth it ... in most cases, yes. It is the best way for those on the “out” to get plugged into the “old boys network”.

[HawaiianGecko]

I've worked with and hired dozens of ivy league graduates over the years and in general I'd say they were the brightest.  They were certainly the most motivated and hard working. They were also the most likely to apply a systematic approach to problem solving which in turn made my job easier because their logic and methodology was easier to follow. I'm not speaking of guys with Harvard MBAs mind you, those are a dime a dozen. I'm talking about people with ivy league undergraduate degrees. 

So is it worth it?  A prestigious degree may cost four times as much as a state school degree and it doesn't guarantee you will make four times as much money, but you will very likely earn more than enough to pay for that education plus interest.

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

Too narrow a definition of education. College is not, IMHO, the same as a trade school where you can compare cost/revenues. Hopefully a good college, Ivy league or similar, will make you an educated person with a background in literature, the arts, philosophy, etc. so you can lead a meaningful life and enjoy the fruits of your work. (Trinity (Hartford) ‘65 - English Major; Columbia ‘66 - Masters; Harvard Law ‘72 with US Army ‘66-’69 in between. I like the people I served with in the Army better than my classmates in any of the schools mentioned).

[staytrue]

After all, who would've guessed that Texas A & M, No. 1 in our survey, would deliver a payback more than two and a half times that of Harvard?

An expert in political fundraising told me, if you go to Texas AM, this is one of the best schools to have alumni support you. She said, graduates there are very close and fundraising is not much of a problem.

[truthguy]

NO! Strictly in terms of education.

YES! In term of credentials and prestige.

Note: There are probably about 2 dozen or maybe more excellent public universities where you can get just as good of an education as any of the Ivy League Schools. They also cost quite a bit less. But the Ivy League Sheepskin is deemed to be more valuable to so many. So I would have to say YES the Ivy League diploma is worth it.