Sunday, February 10, 2008
Picking a College
Alright, most of us are going through the process of picking what college to go to (at least most people who take AP classes take them for the college credit). You look at the "incentives" of each campus. Everything from the size of the student body, the size of the campus, what the college is known for, and (one of the biggest factors) cost of attendence. Different things are considered incentives to different people (beauty/incentives is/are in the eye of the beholder). If all incentives were the same then getting into college wouldn't be as competative and deciding on one college wouldn't be this important. Incentives drive us to increase our human capital, and going to college is becoming the most popular way to increase ones human capital. The simple concept of an incentive is used everyday and it drives almost every decision we make.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree. I was really sure that I was going to Lawrence, until I visited Ripon and decided that I wanted to 1) continue with Forensics and 2) have a place to park The Piece. Plus Ripon was going to cost about 10 grand less than Lawrence and they already had given me an $8,500 scholarship plus another $4,000.
Gee, tough decision.
One point I might add to this, though, is that people seem to create their own incentives. You said, "If all incentives were the same then getting into college wouldn't be as competative and deciding on one college wouldn't be this important." This is true, to a certain extent...
But consider if all colleges were identical: same majors, same sizes, same types of towns/cities, costs, etc. (Yeah, they'd be in different states, obviously, but that can't really be helped, and there wouldn't be differences in town size like Madison VS Whitewater). I have a strong feeling that people would still, after a period of time, begin to claim that their college is "better."
Consider the quality of education at an Ivy League school. Yes, their degrees can be more highly valued because the schooling they provide is considered top-notch. However, many, MANY smart people never went to these schools. And plenty of people make as much money and have just as prestigious of careers after attending small-town colleges.
This is not to discredit incentives; in fact, it just goes to show how much they really matter. People create them just to feel better about themselves or as a way of getting ahead.
Either way, they inspire action.
I agree that college decisions are based on incentives. The hard part is when certain incentives begin to mesh. The difference between private schools and public schools is first considered cost. However, private schools try to diminish this difference by offering higher scholarships, thus leveling the playing field. This makes the decision much harder and you must consider other incentives.
So...I'm curious, Bethany...have you made your decision yet? :)
Incentives change from person to person - I think Marty has that down pat. What is a plus for you might be a minus for me. That's what I always call the wonderful way the world goes 'round. Wouldn't it be boring if we all liked the same stuff?
People over emphasize the necessity of a "good" school. I have never had a prospective employer scoff because I graduated from UW-Milwaukee instead of Madison. And once you have a job, it fails to make any kind of difference at all. Granted, if you had Yale, Harvard, or Stanford in there, people usually go "oooooh...". but honestly...it's not that big a deal.
It COULD be a bigger deal for pre-med or pre-law, only because spots in med school and law school are so few and you need to impress so many more people. I can't think of many more cases where it really matters (in the long run).
Sad, hey?
Post a Comment