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Martin Schram :Trump has found his only escape route

<p>The college admissions scandal &#8212; which recently led to a 14-day prison sentence for actress Felicity Huffman &#8212; exposed a group of wealthy parents&#8217; obsession with getting their kids into the &#8220;right&#8221; school. Prosecutors say the families paid bribes, faked test results and pretended their kids were athletes to get them into selective colleges.</p><p>Unfortunately, many less affluent families also fall for the delusion that some schools offer golden tickets for their children&#8217;s futures, says Lynn O&#8217;Shaughnessy, author of &#8220;The College Solution.&#8221; Whether it&#8217;s an Ivy League college or a high-priced &#8220;dream school,&#8221; too many people believe certain educations are worth endless effort, stress &#8212; and debt.</p><p>&#8220;Because somehow these are magical schools,&#8221; O&#8217;Shaughnessy says, describing the fantasy. &#8220;If your child gets in, their lives will be paved with gold.&#8221;</p><p>In reality, the colleges your kids attend matter far less than the majors they choose, and multiple studies have shown elite schools don&#8217;t offer any extra payoff for most graduates. Inflated expectations can even lead to worse outcomes, including higher dropout rates.</p><p>Here are the most important facts to know as you navigate the college admissions process and decide how much to spend .</p><p><strong>Most colleges accept most applicants</strong></p><p>The frenzy around college admission &#8212; and the notion that it&#8217;s hard to get into a &#8220;good&#8221; school &#8212; focuses mostly on deeply flawed ratings systems and a handful of institutions that admit a fraction of their applicants, such as those involved in the college admissions scandal: Stanford University, which accepted less than 5% of applicants last year, Yale University (6%), University of Southern California (11% ) and Georgetown University (14% ).</p><p>Looking at 2017 data, Pew Research Center counted just 46 schools with admission rates under 20%. Only 17 schools had single-digit admission rates. By contrast, 80% of the 1,364 colleges and universities Pew studied admitted half or more of those who applied. And 53% admitted at least two-thirds of their applicants.</p><p>Kids who don&#8217;t get into one of the 46 highly selective schools typically have plenty of other good options.</p><p><strong>Selective doesn&#8217;t mean better outcomes</strong></p><p>Elite schools don&#8217;t produce happier or more successful people. A 2014 study of nearly 30,000 college graduates found no correlation between a college&#8217;s admissions rate and future job satisfaction or well-being. Earlier studies by the late Alan Krueger of Princeton and Stacy D ale at Mathematica Policy Research found students who were admitted to highly selective colleges but who attended schools elsewhere usually did just as well financially.</p><p>Elite schools did increase incomes significantly for black, Hispanic and low-income students, and those whose parents didn&#8217;t graduate from college, Krueger and Dale found. Another group of researchers, however, discovered that highly selective schools didn&#8217;t have a lock on helping disadvantaged students. Many of the schools that increased opportunities the most for low-income students were much lower cost public universities such as the California State University and City University of New York systems.</p><p><strong>Majors matter most</strong></p><p>Parents mistakenly believe brand-name schools impress employers and lead to more opportunities. Researcher Paul Hill, who analyzed millions of admissions and salary records for student loan lenders, didn&#8217;t find that to be true. Consistently, a graduate&#8217;s major had a far bigger impact, says Hill, president of Job Search Intelligence in Los Angeles.</p><p>&#8220;A kid with a degree in cybersecurity . is going to come in at three times the salary of someone who graduated from Harvard with a soft degree, you know, liberal arts, humanities, whatever,&#8221; says Hill, who also heads the nonprofit Educate to Career , which offers college admission and outcome data to families. &#8220;The skillset is what matters, not the name (of the school) on the diploma.&#8221;</p><p><strong>&#8216;Reach&#8217; schools can be risky</strong></p><p>Counselors and parents often encourage seniors to apply to &#8220;reach&#8221; schools, colleges where a student&#8217;s test scores, class rank, grades or other qualifications are below the school&#8217;s average. The idea is that even though the odds are against admission, students might get lucky.</p><p>Getting into one of these schools may not be a blessing, however. Hill found that students in the bottom 25% of those admitted typically get less generous financial aid packages and are more likely to drop out or flunk out. At most colleges, he says, scrambling for a place at a school that doesn&#8217;t really want your kid can backfire into a higher bill and a discouraged student.</p><p>&#8220;Parents get fixated on getting their kid into the best school possible,&#8221; Hill says. &#8220;They&#8217;re setting themselves up for frustration.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">FILE - This April 2017, file photo provided by NerdWallet shows Liz Weston, a columnist for personal finance website NerdWallet.com. (NerdWallet via AP, File)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_123686490-cef4232027e9457d8e3b55719e09f2e1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>FILE - This April 2017, file photo provided by NerdWallet shows Liz Weston, a columnist for personal finance website NerdWallet.com. (NerdWallet via AP, File)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Liz Weston</p><p>Guest Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Liz Weston is a columnist at NerdWallet, a certified financial planner and author of &#8220;Your Credit Score.&#8221; Email: lwestonnerdwallet.com. Twitter: lizweston.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Liz Weston: Wake up to the truth about ‘dream schools’