2020Hopeful posted:collegebaseballrecruitingguide posted:PABaseball posted:2020Hopeful posted: Ivy League schools are better than other schools because they get the top students, not because of the curriculum for their Bio 101 classes.Ivy League and top HA schools in general have not reinvented the sciences, arts, humanities or anything else. But in some cases, these schools are on the forefront of discovery based on research. To kind of make the blanket statement (paraphrasing here) that a biology degree from Stanford is looked upon in the same light as one from Loyola Marymount would be pretty misleading. Both teach the basics, sure. But are there research opportunities? Are the professors teaching the courses leaders in their field and invited to conduct research? This is where there can be an enormous difference in schools. The best students do go to the Ivy League schools and the like...not just because they are the best students, but because they are attracted there by experts in the field who are paid handsomely to teach there....even bio 101.
I agree that the Ivy's and top HA schools have a definite edge in academics and I would love to be able to send my son to one of them (he's definitely worked his butt off to earn it in high school!), but I'm not convinced the cost-benefit analysis justifies paying more than $300K for an undergrad science degree (assuming you don't qualify for financial aid).
This may not have been your point, but in many cases Ivy or other HA schools are no more expensive than middle of the road private schools (in-state publics are much cheaper). For example, LMU is the same price (maybe more when you add all the fees) as Stanford. For this reason, there's no reason to dismiss Ivy or HA because of cost, even without financial aid. In either case, STEM is probably a better payback than most other degrees.