Does a Elite College = A Better Life?

Does going to an elite college mean that you will live a better life? NO! When we were first given this question in class, the first words that popped into my head where B.S. The thing that immediately makes this statement inaccurate, is the idea of a better life. What is a better life? What do you compare it too? How are the standards for a better life made, and by whom? Everyones idea of a good life are different. Someone might want to become a doctor who makes a lot of money and has a wife and three kids. But to others, that may not sound like a good life at all. Instead, someone may want to be a waitress their whole lives. Going to a elite college is not necessary to become a waitress, however to become a doctor you do (or most do). The whole question is irrelevant because everyone’s idea of a good or better life is different.

I am going to start with the article that I thought was the worst. What You Do vs. Where You Go, by Martha O’Connell. Here main point was that going to an elite college does not guarantee a better life, which I agree with. However, her examples where of celebrates or people who come from wealthy backgrounds, which did not prove anything. Martha said, “Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropped out of college, that Oprah Winfrey is an alumna of Tennessee State and that Ken Burns graduated from Hampshire College.” This example does not prove anything for various reasons. Bill Gates, did not need a degree to take the Mac operating system and put it on a PC. Again I am not disagreeing with her, but I am simply saying that her examples are very weak. 

I do like Access to Money and Power, by Anthony Carnevale. His main point was that colleges that charge less do not have as many resources for the students because they do not have enough money to afford them. On the other hand, elite colleges that charge more can afford more and sometimes better resources to their students. He says, “The high concentrations of affluent students at selective colleges get a lot more...” So I agree with him in a way because of the fact that yes students at elite colleges probably have better resources, therefore most likely making school easier. But once again I still believe that going to an elite college does not guarantee a better life. 

The thing that I hope people take from this. Is that you don’t have to be accepted to an elite college like UC Berkeley or Stanford. There is no doubt that it may help you get the job of your choice, but everyone has their own standard for a good life. No college can get that for you, only you can.