Hot Take: ivy leagues are not worth it

I honestly don’t get the obsession with Ivy League schools or top 20's. Yeah, they have the prestige and all, but in today’s world, is that really worth six figures of debt? Unless you’re getting a full ride or a crazy amount of financial aid, you’re basically paying $80K a year for a brand name. There are so many public and private schools that offer the same—if not better—education for way less. At some point, you’re just throwing money at a school for clout. For example, for my family that makes about 180,000 my parents would need to pay 90,000 a year or more for me to attend and ivy league, granted they've told me they're offering NO support what's so ever. The 10,000 I would pay at my state school, which has an average SAT of 1220-1440 and 4.2 GPA, as well as an 81% graduation rate sounds so much better.

People always say, “But the networking!!” Okay, sure, Ivies have solid alumni networks, but so do plenty of other top schools. If you’re motivated, you can network and land great opportunities no matter where you go. I’ve seen people from state schools (including past presidents) end up in the same high-paying jobs as Ivy grads, which just proves it’s more about what you do than where you go. Meanwhile, Ivy grads are out here struggling to justify their overpriced degrees when companies are starting to care way more about skills and experience than a school name.

At the end of the day, the Ivy League thrives on exclusivity, not necessarily better education. Plenty of ridiculously smart students go to public universities and end up just as successful, but because they don’t have that fancy name on their diploma, they don’t get the same clout. Unless you’re going into a field where the Ivy name actually matters (like law or Wall Street finance), you can get just as far—if not farther—without it.

But hey, if you think dropping $320K for a diploma is worth it, go ahead. I just think the whole thing is a giant scam.