Students, alumni weigh the true benefit of private education

Tufts students and their parents will pay more in yearly tuition alone than many people earn as an annual salary _ a price of $27,450.00 for the 2002-2003 school year. With room, board and other fees added on, the total cost of a Tufts education this year is approximately $36,465.00.

Future charges are predicted to rise, leaving many _ including two Princeton University professors _ to wonder if the price of attending an elite university is worth such a cost.

MSNBC recently reported that the cost of a private education does not pay off monetarily in the long run, according to Princeton University economics professor Alan Kreuger and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Researcher Stacy B. Dale.

But when it comes to r?©sum?©s, a recognizable university name can make a great difference, said Lynn Gray (J'71), a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers in New York City and a graduate of Tufts.

"When I go to speak at conferences and it says under my name that I'm a graduate of Tufts University and Cornell Law School, it definitely gives me a degree of stature that the University of Vermont and Suffolk Law School wouldn't," Gray said. "There is an inherent snobbery in the world."

This attitude of snobbery, Gray said, affects the hiring process. When faced with a candidate from Yale and a candidate from Tufts, Gray said that, "if [the applications] are of equal people, there's no question we're taking the person from Yale."

Companies often choose applicants from well-known universities, according to Bob Haber (E'79), a Chief Investment Officer at Fidelity Investments in Boston, MA. "Opportunities may come a little easier if you're part of these brand-name institutions," he said.

Companies rely on the selectivity of universities to help narrow down the number of candidates according to Haber, who has had experience with recruiting for entry-level positions. With a candidate from a highly competitive school, "you know there's been a lot of selection and filtering that has already gone on," he said.

Networking is another advantage of attending an elite university, according to Gray. Companies like to establish relationships with certain universities who they know will send them reliable job candidates.

"It is more difficult to get in [at Lehman Brothers] from a state university," she said. "We still hire state school students, but you definitely have an easier time getting in here from Cornell or Harvard.

Employee recruiting programs at state schools are not as strong as at private schools, Gray said. Her daughter currently attends the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In her daughter's case, Gray said that "at the end of the day, she will have a much harder time getting a job out of Wisconsin than she would out of Tufts."

While a big name school may get a candidate's foot in the door, there is some debate as to whether the high cost of a private education pays off in earnings and salary.

Kreuger and Dale compared the earnings of those students who graduated from elite colleges with those students who were accepted to _ but did not attend _ elite colleges. They found that the two groups of graduates actually earned very similar salaries.

The researchers concluded that the caliber of the student rather than the school attended was the greater factor in long-term job success. In other words, those students who are intelligent enough to be accepted by an elite university are intelligent enough to succeed regardless of the schools they attend.

But the price of an elite university education is just that, University Professor and former Provost Sol Gittleman said. Students are paying for education, not a future job _ and this should be the order of priorities, he said.

Universities should not have to justify whether the education's price is worth it or not, Gittleman said. "We believe it's worth it," he said. "It's up to parents and their students to decide whether they can afford it."

Cheaper schools, however, may provide courses which are more beneficial to students after they graduate. While the enormity of state schools works to the disadvantage of students with larger classes and less personal interaction, Gray said, their diverse range of classes and programs is a benefit.

"Here I am an investment banker, and there is no business program at Tufts," she said, suggesting that a different plan of study would have been more applicable to her current field.

But Gittleman gave a contrasting example with a different program. "Political science doesn't even offer a masters degree here, and yet it has some of the finest scholars in the country," he said. The focus is on educational experience, not jobs, he said.

While different schools offer their own combinations of opportunities and limitations, Gray and Haber said that personal achievement is the ultimate factor in entering the career world.

The hard work of one from a lesser-known university will not be ignored just because he is up against a candidate from a better-known university, Gray and Haber said. Faced with choosing between a candidate from Tufts with a 3.3 GPA and a state school candidate with a 4.0 GPA, Haber said, "I think that both would have a shot, but I'd be more intrigued with the person who had the 4.0."

In the end, it is truly one's own ambition that will result in success. "I'm sure it helps to have [an elite college] on your r?©sum?©, but again it's only going to make the opportunities come a little easier. Just having the name is not going to make you succeed," Haber said.