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Andrea Greer

Prof. Presnell

ENGL 1102

April 3, 2012

College Choice and the Importance of Prestige

As I sat in the library contemplating topics that interested me, I took a sip of water from

my clear, sea-blue colored water bottle I received for free one day last year while attending an

event at UNC Wilmington. I placed it on my small cubicle desk and read, for probably the ninth

time, all of the white writing printed on it, giving facts about UNCW’s funding and statistics of

participants that helped the school’s success in previous years. It was then that I thought about

how absorbed I had been the past couple of weeks in deciding whether or not I wanted to transfer

schools again and where I would go. I liked living in Charlotte, but I did not like UNC Charlotte

as much as I had hoped. I thought about how active UNCW was in promoting the school and

factual information about it for its students, and I began comparing the different schools

interesting me. It was then that I thought of researching the different schools I was considering

attending and ultimately if the college I attended, especially regarding its prestige, truly mattered

at the end of the day.

My College Experiences: Past and Present

I began attending UNCW as a freshman in fall of 2010 and lived on campus in a suite-

style dorm where I met several people. However, there were three of us living in one room so

about a month into living there, I was moved into a different dorm. While it was great to have

more space, it became difficult to establish relationships with people at my new dorm as they

were already forming their own groups. I was easily able to access club and organization

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information, and even roomed with a girl who started UNCW’s first women’s rugby team (See

figure 1). The school (or clubs) focused heavily on

students being informed about what was happening on

campus and I always knew of events being hosted at the

university. A large part of Wilmington’s budget seemed to

be on a variety of activities that were almost always free of

charge for their students. While not all of the classes were challenging, many of them were in

their own way and had more liberal approaches that actually enhanced my critical thinking skills.

The beach was also only 15 minutes away, creating a fun activity on warm days but also

distracting at times. While UNCW tried offering activities for students, the winter months were

incredibly boring. Also, school spirit wasn’t very high, likely due to the lack of a football team.

Because of the location, I was also worried about difficulties with finding internships and work

after graduation, although I was completely clueless what the statistics actually were about this.

Finally, the school’s financial aid was not so grand at first, but by the second semester they gave

me a $3,000 grant for merit; after deciding to transfer, they offered me a $6,000 scholarship for

merit and community service for the following year.

UNC Charlotte thus far has not fully lived up to my expectations. Since it has been a

completely different experience from Wilmington, it is difficult to truly judge which school is

better. For starters, they claimed on their website to be the “most transfer friendly school” in the

UNC system. I soon figured out that this was not the case at all. The orientation was a pointless

waste of money and far from informative, especially on things I needed to know, such as there

being a transfer student class to help students like myself in adjusting to Charlotte. Did they tell

me this while signing up for classes? No. The second problem I found is that they lost my final

Figure 1: First UNCW Women's Rugby Team

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transcripts I sent to them from Wilmington, but proceeded to blame my former school. Third,

they decided they wanted proof of my tax information… the weekend before classes started…

and informed me that all of my classes would be cancelled if I did not have this verification in on

time. When I turned the information in on time, they were very rude and said it would take about

2 weeks to process and my classes would still be cancelled. There are many more negative

experiences I have had, and as a commuter I receive absolutely no information from the school

regarding events or what is going on. If I want to find something out, I have to research it. I was

not able to join any clubs because of their short time-frame to hold the organization fair, and my

advisers were absolutely no help at all, putting me further behind in my majors.

What is good about UNC Charlotte is its location. Charlotte is a wonderful city with

countless activities offered for everyone. The problem is that most things cost a lot of money,

and the campus is still secluded from most of the city since it rests in the outskirts of Charlotte

and closer to Concord. Also, I realize that living in an apartment could be part of my problem

with not feeling involved in the campus and with meeting new people. As my second semester

has progressed, I have begun to meet more people than before.

Coming into this, I know that UNC Chapel Hill is very well known, has always been one

of the top public universities in the nation, and the students are very passionate about their

school. I lived near Chapel Hill for a short time and drove through the main roads of campus to

get on Franklin Street (the school’s most popular road). From what I saw of the area, the roads

were very narrow, everyone needed to take a bus or walked a lot, and everyone was focused on

their destination. I also know, especially because I went to high school with many students that

now attend Chapel Hill, that it’s very Old Money. This honestly worries me the most about the

school because it could be difficult to find people that don’t seem to be from a different world.

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On the bright side, the location is practically in the

middle of the state and about a 2 hour drive from any

large vacation areas, such as the beach, the mountains,

and even Charlotte (see figure 2). One professor that

went there informed me that her degree from UNC

Chapel Hill held a lot of weight and she has almost

been hired for jobs purely because of the school’s

reputation. Also, Chapel Hill has an excellent hospital and very established medical program. I

found out mutually that they have programs with government medical centers that help pay one’s

loans off if graduating from Chapel Hill and working for that government center. This is

beneficial for what I am planning on doing with my career. I also know that things to do in

Chapel Hill are much more spread out than in Charlotte, and it’s an expensive college town to

live in. Finally, I discovered that Chapel Hill offers extremely good need-based financial aid for

its students, which is very important.

A Few Comparisons in Rankings

When it comes to prestige and value together in one package, a quick look finds that

according to Kiplinger’s 2012 rankings, UNC Wilmington is number two in the state of North

Carolina for “best value,” just below UNC Chapel Hill’s spot at number one. Nationally, UNCW

ranks 15th and Carolina ranks 1st for “best value” (“UNC Wilmington Leaps Forward”).

According to Kiplinger’s, Carolina “…boasts a highly competitive admission rate, a strong

record for graduating students on time, an in-state cost that barely exceeds the national average

and an admirable record on student borrowing” with over two-thirds of Carolina students

graduating debt-free. Further research shows that UNC Charlotte is not even ranked by

Figure 2: Location of Chapel Hill on a Map

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Kiplinger’s 2012 edition of 100 colleges that provide the best value to in-state students both

nationally and state-wide, even after four other schools including NC State, 19th; Appalachian

State, 33rd; UNC School of the Arts, 41st; and UNC Asheville, 45th (“UNC Wilmington Leaps

Forward”). Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine isn’t the only one with these kinds of

rankings of UNC public universities.

The Princeton Review also named UNCW and UNC as one of the nation’s “best value”

Public Colleges and Universities for 2012 (“UNC Wilmington Named”). Again in contrast to

these schools, UNCC is not ranked. Further digging found that the only ranking for the school by

The Princeton Review was that is one of the best public business schools in the Southeast (“UNC

Wilmington Named”).

US News was the only reliable source that ranked UNCC, coming in at number 194 for

national universities (“Carolina”) (See figure 3). These rankings are based mainly off of prestige,

academics and programs provided, admissions rates, test

scores, GPA entering the school, and overall student

satisfaction. In contrast, UNCW ranked number 11 for

regional universities in the South. Carolina defeated both of

the schools’ rankings by coming in a staggering number 29 in

the nation (“Carolina”). Not bad for a public school, but does

it all really matter? These companies ranking schools have been doing so for several years and

are looked at as being highly significant, but have they actually been to or even attended the

schools, personally talked to students, or researched student success rates after graduation for

these schools? Furthermore, are they even attaining a full amount of statistics from high

percentages of students attending or who attended the schools, or is it just a small handful in

Figure 3: US News & World Report

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comparison to the amount of students actually at the universities? None of these sources actually

say.

Real Students, Real Experiences

On March 20, 2012, I interviewed fellow student Katie Dean. She attended both UNCW

and UNCC, so it only seemed fitting to interview her about her experiences at both places. By

doing this, I hoped to find a good source of information from an actual student about the two

locations. When I interviewed her, I did not expect the conclusion from her answers: college

quality is based on perspective and experiences, not just rankings. It appeared that UNCW and

UNCC were not so different from each other, just in location and size. Further confusion set in

after deciding to ask my former teacher who attended Carolina, Crystal Moore-Archer, what her

opinion was of the schools and her experiences with Carolina. She told me, “The school is an

amazing school. It's also a way to get your foot in the door for pretty much any job. Sometimes

people see that I went there, and they almost automatically hire me.” Her only problem was that

she “really didn't love many of the students there,” and felt “like they were very entitled and

from a different world than I was.”

Mrs. Moore-Archer’s opinions were based on that Carolina was the only undergraduate

university she attended. She firmly believed that attending UNC Chapel Hill was far more

beneficial than any other school in the state. However, she also graduated in a time before the

economy went south and closely prior to when grades began to be inflated and when a college

bachelor’s degree held more weight. Mrs. Moore-Archer, despite her fantastic education, is also

an academic teacher who went to college not just for a career, but for scholarly purposes. She

continued to reveal that she was about $70,000 in debt from student loans and is struggling with

two jobs and her ability to live and pay off her debt from attending college and graduate school.

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Discovering this about her and interviewing Katie Dean brought me to ask an entirely new

question.

Why all the Hype about College Prestige?

High school students have assumed for several decades that attending the most

prestigious college possible is the best fit and choice for them academically (See figure 4). They

believe that by attending the most elite college,

employers will swarm to them and that their education

is far superior to that of other students from lower tier

colleges. The shiny bumper sticker one can put on their

car is an added bonus. However, author Pamela Haag,

an alumni of Swarthmore and Yale, is ashamed of this

idea and states that the true meaning of an elite college

is that they are “elite in the sense of ‘rare,’ but not

‘superior’” (Haag 4). So then what are the benefits of attending a highly-selective school?

Economists from highly prestigious universities Brigham Young and Cornell found that

“strong evidence emerges of a significant economic return to attending an elite private

institution, and some evidence suggests this premium has increased over time” (Steinerg). By

grouping colleges together by the same tiers of selectivity and calculating income10 years after

graduation from high school, the same researchers concluded that students graduating from the

most selective colleges earned an average of 40 percent more a year than those who graduated

from the least selective public universities. Evidence also suggests that “attendance at an elite

private college significantly increases probability of attending graduate school,” and even more

specifically at a “major research university” (Steinberg).

Figure 4: Elite College Propaganda

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Issues Questioning the Superiority of Elite Schools

The greatest downfall to those studies in favor of top-tier schools is that the research

itself is over a decade old. The price for an elite, name-brand university far exceeds the pace of

inflation and the cost of schooling even ten years prior. This is not just with private schools, but

also with public universities. States such as California suffer severely from budget cuts and the

costs of education are soaring (Steinberg). Other issues that have not been considered is that this

research does not factor the students with the same capabilities, test scores, and grades, as those

who attended the elite colleges but instead attended less selective universities for various

reasons. When research was performed to test this idea, it was discovered that the earnings of

graduates in the two groups were about equal, and possibly shifting in the favor of the less

expensive and less prestigious route. Further studies also found that “Job satisfaction decreases

slightly as college selectivity moves up” (Steinberg). Professor Eide of Brigham Young

University still believes that “education is a long-run investment,” and stated “I don’t think the

costs of college are going up faster than the returns of graduating from an elite college.” Arguing

against this belief, one professor from Claremont, Scott L. Thomas, states, “Prestige does pay,

but prestige costs, too. The question is, is the cost less than the added return?” His conclusion to

this question is that “It depends” (Steinberg). So could financial aid be an aiding factor in college

choice and return on investment?

The Effects of Financial Aid on College Choice

An interesting fact about the cost of college education is that between 1993 and 2005,

college tuition and fees at public and private 4-year colleges rose by 63 percent and 43 percent,

respectively (Rothstein and Rouse). These rising costs make financial aid more important than in

previous years. As of 2004, approximately 76 percent of undergraduate students received some

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sort of financial aid. With the increase of costs and aid, student loans have also increased. The

average student debt after graduation increased from 1993 to 2008 by about $14,000 (“Getting”).

In response to this increase of student debt, many universities are starting “no-loan” pledges

(“Getting”).

As of 2010, more than 50 colleges and universities throughout the nation, including elite

private schools, have eliminated or capped the loans

in their financial aid packages for their students.

Nowadays, “It may be less expensive to go to Penn

than to go to Berkeley,” for a middle-class student

(“Getting”). However, the wave of “no-loan” pledges

has not halted the rise of student debt (See figure 5). Some colleges and researchers believe that

by accumulating some sort of debt from loans while in college, debt reduces students’

probabilities of taking low-salary jobs. Loans also have a positive effect on academic

performance (Rothstein and Rouse). Because college education is a long-term investment,

students with a financial stake in their education are more likely to complete school and do better

in college to achieve a high-income job. Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert, believes in the

“one-third rule, where one-third of projected costs will be paid from past income (savings), one-

third from current income and financial aid and one-third from future income (loans) (“Getting”).

Although students have a better outcome when taking out loans for their education, debt

seems to have small effects in regards to choice of major and education. At most, there is a very

slight shift toward more career oriented majors as opposed to “consumption”-type majors. There

is also very little change in academic performance (Rothstein and Rouse).

Figure 5: Different Financial Aid Offered

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A huge downfall to schools instituting more financial aid to students is that competition

for admissions is increasing. Sarah Bauder, the director of financial aid at U-Md, thinks that

higher financial aid, and especially the financial aid pledges several schools are making, is

drawing more low-income students who likely would never have applied in the past. This is

“because they think they can’t afford it,” as opposed to times in the past where only the rich went

to school (“Getting”). With more students attending and competing for college than ever before,

the “prestige” that comes with obtaining a college degree is becoming diluted (Kim). It now

takes far more than just a degree to attain a high-paying job.

So Does College Prestige Matter or is it Worth the Cost?

Author Pamela Haag questions whether or not it was worth it to attend Swarthmore and

Yale. In her family’s opinion, any college is as good as the other. With a growing number of

talented students competing for spots in less-selective, more affordable universities that also

offer honors programs (which are supposed to be the equivalent of an elite education), she

questions if the money she invested in her education was worth it. These questions deepened

when she recalled some of her friends from high school who attended state colleges. Most of

them became very successful and attained careers such as powerful attorneys. To her, the elite-

college mystique is about minds more than about paychecks (Haag). Recent studies found her

beliefs to be true, concluding that it is more beneficial for students who intend on earning a

reliable salary directly after graduation in a specialty field, such as engineering, to attend a less-

elite state school. “This is the irony, given the dominance of the rankings mentality of who’s No.

5 or No. 50,” Professor McCormick from Indiana University adds, “The quality of that biology

major offered at School No. 50? It may exceed that of school No. 5” (Steinberg).

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Most high school students are clueless as to what college is the best fit for them. With

propaganda and lack of knowledge from others, many believe that the best fit college is also the

most selective. This belief is because students feel a level of self-worth to admissions and are

rarely told different. Students need to be better informed that whether or not college prestige

matters “depends” (Steinberg). If one is looking for a professional career directly after college

such as nursing or computer science, a less-selective and more inexpensive college is likely the

better choice. At the end of the day, college

prestige only matters when getting that first job

after college. Even then, work experience

outweighs the degree. A great example of this

is how there are several professors teaching at

UNC Charlotte that graduated with ivy league

degrees from universities such as Harvard and

Brown, but UNC Charlotte’s chancellor graduated from a state university in Wisconsin and his

experience is what landed him his career. As Pamela Haag states, “It may be more prestigious in

the future to find the best college bargain and to tell people about it “(Haag). If students and

Americans as a whole realized these facts, private colleges would be in jeopardy of receiving as

many applicants and enrollees as in the past. They would be forced to lower the cost of their

education as they would begin to be competing with low-cost state colleges for students of equal

capabilities. Students need to be more educated about the assumptions of college prestige and

presented with research such as this before making a college decision. I think that if they knew

some of these facts, the trend would definitely begin to lean toward the college bargain and the

post-secondary education system as we know it could potentially be shattered and rewritten.

Figure 6: Work Experience with a Degree

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Works Cited

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"Biography of UNC Charlotte's Chancellor." Biography of UNC Charlotte's Chancellor. UNC

Charlotte, July2011. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. 

"Carolina #1 Best Academic Value for N.C. and Out-of-State Students." UNC News. 03 Jan.

2012. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

“Getting That Diploma Without Piling on Debt.” The Washing Post. (2010). EBSChost

Discovery Service. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

Haag, Pamela. "Are Elite Colleges Worth It?" Academic Search Complete. The Chronicle of

Higher Education Vol. 58. Issue 11. (2011). Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Rothstein, Jesse, and Cecilia Elena Rouse. “Constrained After College: Student Loans and Early

Career Occupational Choices.” Journal of Public Economics. (2010). Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Steinberg, Jacques. "Is Going to an Elite College Worth the Cost?" The New York Times. 17 Dec.

2010. Web. 03 Apr. 2012.

“UNC Wilmington Named One of the ‘Best Value’ Public Colleges in America by Princeton

Review.” UNC Wilmington News. 08 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

“UNC Wilmington Leaps Forward 12 Places in Kiplinger’s 2012 ‘Best Values.’” UNC

Wilmington News. 03 Jan. 2012. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.