Choose a Top College; See Boosts in Income and Opportunities

May 1st is just around the corner, and with it comes the deadline for seniors to commit to a college for next year.

If you’re about to graduate high school, hopefully you’ve got some great options to choose from when deciding where you’ll spend the next four years. But making that choice can often involve just as much pressure as the application process itself!

If you’re trying to decide between an in-state public school and an elite private college, the choice can often seem simple: you want to select the less expensive education, right?

Well, it’s not always that simple.

While it’s definitely true that you can get a great education at a public university like UT-Austin, new studies suggest that attending a college that’s even more selective may be worth the extra cost.

According to a recent study by economists from Virginia Tech, Tulane, and the University of Virginia, women who attend elite colleges have higher incomes than their peers who attend non-elite colleges -- by 14%! What’s more, a 2017 study by economist Raj Chetty found that lower-income students at top universities also had significantly increased incomes.

What does that mean? Well, it seems that if you’re a woman or a minority, or if your parents aren’t super-wealthy -- a category that most people fall into! -- a pricier education may be worth it in the end.

Sure, if you’re a white man whose parents are already rich and well-connected, you might not get much of an advantage from attending an expensive private college. But for the rest of us, an education from an elite university could give us just the boost we need.

So before you commit to that cheaper option, ask yourself this: which school is truly the best value in the long run?

Want some extra assistance to get into those top colleges that will give you advantages later in life? Check out our all-inclusive Gateway Program, which can help maximize your chances of acceptance at top schools. Just take a look at all our success stories from the class of 2019!