AGDee, I agree with you. My private school also emphasized analyzing the information and critical thinking quite a bit. Conversely, my experience at Utah State for a semester taking upper level sociology courses left something to be desired for me. I felt like it was easy to pass classes there as long as you just memorized lecture notes, at my private school it wasn't so easy. Even though it was huge, the professors also still made time for us and often we had opportunities to work with them on their research. It provided a really good balance.

When I went to graduate school at a public university for History, however, there was also a lot of effort put into critical thinking and discussion with the professors. But part of that could also have been that we were mostly fellowship recipients and they were trying to make sure we'd produce good research in the future. Anyway, my guess is there are strong and weak public and private schools, and that it probably has to do more with the school itself than the type of school.

I had read that article a week or two ago. The thing to note is that the people making more money from associates degrees went into something very specific and typically technical. You aren't seeing people with an associates in English or business making more money. RN's, radiology techs, some IT positions are all high paying initially. To ever get promoted though, a lot of them require the bachelors. If you're going into nursing, it's a great deal to get your RN at the community college, get a job with an employer who pays tuition reimbursement, and then get your bachelor's degree on their dime. Radiology techs do really well early on but any job in health care has a definite disadvantage in raise and bonus opportunities (from someone who worked her whole life in the health care industry and has just escaped recently).

The article also says "nearly 30 percent of graduates of two-year colleges — those with associate’s degrees — are earning more than those entering the workforce with four-year bachelor’s degrees." That means that more than 70 percent are NOT earning more than people with bachelor's degrees.

I just wish parents and their high school seniors would analyze how much money college will cost vs. their realistic job/income prospects once they graduate. One of my coworkers (from a working class/moderate income family) went to a small, out-of-state private school to earn a degree in art. She has over $100,000 in student load debt but earns $12 per hour. She lives in a rented bedroom/shared bath in someone's home and wants to go back and get a master's degree because she "loved college so much." She has absolutely no career ambitions other than to get her MRS degree. Unfortunately, the guy she wants to marry doesn't have a career path either.

I'd say that SOME colleges will lose their pricing power. There are many that WILL NOT EVER. The student loan bubble--which I believe will happen soon--will cause some of that. Also, there's a predicted drop in college age kids.

Outside of academics, going to certain schools opens doors that will always be closed to some people. That's true whether you went to Harvard or Berkeley, Auburn or MIT. The people who say that it doesn't matter where you went to college are similar to those who say that there's no difference between first class and economy--they have no idea.