Another blogger writes about the Dale Krueger study

A college admissions blogger writes about how the Dale Krueger study is mis-cited. He (or she) agrees with me that where you go to college really does matter, and the Dale Krueger study confirms that.

Comments

[John]

...

Stop making excuses for why you're not rich. It's not because of a lack of intelligence: you're just a risk-averse baby.

Some people claim your school is so important. Some people claim it's not important at all. It all depends on what you want to do. Become president? Go to Harvard. Become rich? Create something people want. Become famous? Become a stupid whore like Paris Hilton.

[John]

"I was quite pleased to discover that graduates from my alma mater, Dartmouth College, have the highest median income: $134,000 10 years after graduation.

Suck it Harvard."

Real mature. You guys are a bunch of little kids trying to one up each other.

[Mr. Mercy Vetsel]

Apparently one of the people "mis-citing" the study is the author himself.

Check out what Alan Krueger said himself in a NYT article and then look at the chart he provides.

-Mercy

Article:
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/financial/columns/042700grads-econoscene.html#offsite

Chart:
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/financial/columns/042700grads-econoscene.2.GIF.html

Better Pay for a Better College? Not Really
# Chart Does Prestige Really Pay?
By ALAN B. KRUEGER

Your son or daughter has just been accepted to both the University of Pennsylvania and to Penn State. The deadline for decision is May 1. Where should he or she go?

Many factors should be considered, of course, but lots of parents and students are particularly interested in the potential economic payoff from higher education. Until recently, there was a consensus among economists that students who attend more selective colleges -- ones with tougher admissions standards -- land better paying jobs as a result. Having smart, motivated classmates and a prestigious degree were thought to enhance learning and give students access to job networks.

But is it true?

A study that I conducted with Stacy Dale of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College" (available online at http:// papers.nber.org/), has unintentionally undermined this consensus.

....

[Half Sigma]

"Apparently one of the people "mis-citing" the study is the author himself."

Yes, he discovered the people want to pay him money to write about the mis-cited version. Whore.

[Mr. Mercy Vetsel]

I know this was discussed before and I understand that substituting "prestigious" for "highly selective" produces different results.

This might be because Harvard grads probably make more money than Caltech grads even though the latter are smarter or it might just be an issue with a different threshold.

Regardless, there is plenty of ambiguity in the study itself to warrant more research alone these lines.

I tend to think that you are correct about the very most prestigious schools. After that, the brains you start with probably matter more.

It IS annoying when an academic uses ambiguous results to flog a point in the popular press. I've seen Dezhbakhsh do exactly the same in reporting his study replicating (and confirming) the work of John Lott of "More Guns, Less Crime" fame.

-Mercy