A rigorous four year education at a top university can be a life changing gift.  But students and parents will want to do a great deal of research and soul searching before betting  retirement accounts and a mountain of debt on prestige alone, particularly if it’s based on a brittle definition of success.

Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League: The nation’s top colleges are turning our kids into zombies from the New Republic is a must read for savvy parents and students.  It’s not just another diatribe about college tuition, but a look deep inside the machine of elite  higher education.

The only quibble might be with the author’s promotion of elite state universities as an alternative: less expensive fool’s gold isn’t necessarily a bargain for those seeking meaningful success, satisfaction and fulfillment in life.