Heaven's Gate

Dale, a graduate of the University of Michigan, goes further. While there is something to be said for the intellectually stimulating environment of, say, Harvard, she says that such an environment can cut both ways for some students. "A student who goes to Princeton and finds himself in the middle of the pack might get discouraged. After all, everything up to this point in his life has probably been about how special he is. At a different school, that same student might be something more exceptional and catch the eye of a professor who takes an interest in him."

And while there is, without question, some advantage to meeting future CEOs, law firm partners and members of Congress on those storied campuses, the effects can be overstated, Dale says. After all, the alumni networks of big public schools are, by definition, big and broad. And the power of elite schools may be waning. A study by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (an Ivy) found that in 1980, 14 percent of top executives at Fortune 100 companies received their undergraduate degrees from an Ivy League school. That figure was down to 10 percent by 2001. At the same time, the percentage of executives with undergraduate degrees from public colleges and universities climbed from 32 percent in 1980 to 48 percent in 2001.

"People rightly ask this question of whether it's worth it all the time," says Marlyn McGrath Lewis, Harvard's director of admissions. "And the truth is one can get a first-rate education at these state universities."

Vickie Jones, a 33-year-old public relations specialist for a small D.C. firm, can attest to the value of a non-Ivy education. Jones, one of five 1990 Fairfax County high school graduates interviewed for this story, says her network from four years at private Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia, was invaluable. "I credit my first internship, my first job, my second job and my third to my Hampton University education, network and experience," she says. "I found mentors at Hampton University who have been a part of my life for the past 16 years, and I made friendships that also have lasted just as long."

Lewis describes Harvard as "a wonderful place. I've spent my life here. It's my church. But there are different advantages to going to big state schools." And one, she says, is the diversity of a big university's student body that allows students to find their niche. "There are many different Michigan States within Michigan State. There are different Harvards, too, but not as many."

Maybe, but that diversity holds disadvantages as well, says Ronald Ehrenberg, director of Cornell's Higher Education Research Institute. Ehrenberg sees clear advantages in attending an Ivy League school such as Cornell. "My children, both lawyers, went to Cornell and got their first jobs because of connections they made here," Ehrenberg says. "The alumni networks these institutions have are really important. The big public institutions are only starting to duplicate those now."

Caroline Hoxby, an economist at Harvard, says she doesn't place a lot of stock in any answer to the cost-benefit question. "The answer is not knowable with the data that exists," she says. If students get accepted to their top choice school, they usually attend that school. "To do a real study, I need people who get accepted but who don't choose to go to their top school. There aren't enough of them."

And more important, says Ehrenberg, it's not just about money. "We hope that people pick an elite private college for more than future economic considerations."

The Costs

BUT ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS DO PLAY A ROLE -- and not just when one is thinking about future earnings. The price of four years of college is a key factor for many applicants. If the benefits of the Ivies are perhaps overstated, what of the well-known and astronomical cost side of the equation?

Here things get a bit tricky.

On the face of it, the cost of education at an exclusive private school is easily understood. With room and board, schools such as Yale, Duke or Emory charge roughly $40,000 a year. So for many parents the question becomes do you (a) send Johnny to Brown, or (b) plan to retire before you are 90?

But that $40,000 year is a bit like the rack rate at a hotel. It's for the rich and the desperate, and many don't actually pay it. Two years ago, Harvard announced that parents in families with annual incomes of less than $40,000 would not be expected to contribute anything to their child's education at the school. And families with incomes from $40,000 to $60,000 would have their expected contributions cut. According to figures in U.S. News & World Report's annual college rankings, a large number of students at the Ivies receive need-based grants that knock down costs substantially. Half the students at Harvard receive grants, lowering the average cost of attendance for those students to $16,323 a year. At Stanford, 44 percent receive grants, lowering the average cost to $18,775. At Chicago, it's 44 percent, with an average cost of $21,135.