By Amber Hensley

The Ivies are a great source of pride and prestige for its students and alumni. But here are ten reasons you might be smarter to attend college elsewhere.

1. Elitism. As this article, written by an Ivy-League-educated former Ivy-League professor, explains, getting a degree from an Ivy-League school leaves students isolated from anyone who is not also educated in the same manner. A definite class discrepancy, inability to communicate with real people, and the inability to fail leaves Ivy-League graduates with, according to this article, a lack of vision, ability to take important risks, and no experience with real life.
2. Publication vs. instructors’ ability to teach. Typically, instructors at Ivy-League schools receive tenure based on what they have published. Books and research documented in professional journals may take a back seat to an actual ability to teach their subject. At smaller schools, however, instructors are more often than not hired based on their teaching.
3. You can get many of the benefits online for free. With the availability of such resources as the free MIT OpenCourseWare classes online, the education once only available in the classrooms of the Ivy-League schools has now spread to anyone with Internet access and the desire to learn. Excellent video lectures, class materials, reading lists, and other elements of these classes are online at no cost. If you can supplement your education with these materials, you can avoid costly tuition and fees to receive the same knowledge.
4. CEO pay is not necessarily greater. For many who attend Ivy-League schools, the goal is to achieve success in business along with the expected elevated pay scale. A research study completed by a student from the Kelley School of Business indicates that while prestige and status may be common with an Ivy-League degree, higher compensation may not. The findings of the study show that Ivy-League graduates may indeed obtain marginally higher salary and marginally higher "other" income, overall compensation and stock-based compensation are actually lower than other graduates.
5. Ivy-League education not well suited for entrepreneurs. If you have the drive and ambition to become an entrepreneur, then you may want to stay away from Ivy-League schools. There is indication that an Ivy-League education produces excellent "corporate" thinkers, but does not produce the type of thinking that drives successful entrepreneurs or creates strong leaders. Indeed, many respected tech companies and other cutting-edge employers prefer to find their employees from schools outside the ivied walls of the elite.
6. Poor environment for undergraduate study. Sometimes Ivy-League schools put more money, quality instructors, and focus on their graduate programs than their undergraduate programs. The research coming from the graduate programs will promote the school in ways that undergraduate work will not. In these cases, undergraduate students may face large, anonymous classrooms and instructors that are graduate students or of lesser quality than the tenure-track professors spending time on mentoring grad students and their own research.
7. Quality vs. Affordability. With some Ivy-League colleges topping out at $50,000 a year, you would expect the quality to be the best in the nation. While this may certainly be true for some Ivy-League schools, there are also many other schools that offer comparable quality education at a fraction of the cost. According to Kiplinger’s ratings of the schools with the best value, institutions such as University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Florida, and University of Virginia offer top-rate education for a value price. Of the top 100 they ranked, only 18 cost more than $20,000 a year and some are almost half that.
8. Too much pressure on students. High school students pushing themselves to the brink of exhaustion and mental stress striving to get into an Ivy League school or students at those schools living under the pressure of always competing to be the best among the best can result in overtaxed students learning less than their potential allows. Taking a student out of that pressure-cooker environment and allowing her to use her intelligence and ambition to do well in a good school without the added stress is ultimately a better choice for both the well-being of the student and her future.
9. Money spent on undergraduate education could go toward a graduate education. Choosing to go to a less expensive school for your undergraduate work means you may have more money available for grad school. According to Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, students planning for grad school should look at options such as less expensive schools offering quality education for their undergraduate program and focus on better schools for their graduate work. Also, finding a school that offers excellent scholarship opportunities will greatly reduce your expenses, also freeing up available money for graduate school.
10. Low payback ratio. SmartMoney took a hard look at the expense of education alongside earnings of graduates from these same schools. Surprisingly, the state schools, which cost much less to attend, provided graduates with an education that helps them earn more money per the expense than graduates from Ivy-League schools. According to the study, Texas A&M graduates enjoy two and a half times the return on their investment than do Harvard graduates. Attending an Ivy-League school may provide connections and the opportunity for promising employment, but the return on the investment may not be worth the other gains.