In your opinion, who should not earn a degree from the Big Three?

[eriehiker]

I grew up in a small city/working-class/industrial area. It was an area of old-style union Democrats. I had a friend who tried to apply to Harvard and the counselors told him that no one from the school goes to Harvard. He ended up going to the University of Chicago and climbed Denali many times.

I went to the University of Michigan and it was worth every penny to live with people who did amazing things every day. I ended up running Muslim/Jewish/Christian dialogue groups, became president of the interfaith student council and helped rewrite the university policy on religious holidays. In my career, I am now president of the teachers in my district and have had a long career teaching, learning and leading. I negotiate contracts, develop policy with my superintendent and board and use all of the skills I learned at the University of Michigan.

I ended up graduating from U of M with $15,000 in debt and consolidated the debt with a one percent interest rate and then I paid it off as slowly as I could because the rate was so good. I think that in-state tuition at the flagship public school in a state is the BEST deal out there in terms of school. This is what I would recommend to pretty much anyone who is young and doesn't have a lot responsibility.

Of course, I went back and picked up degrees from TESU so that I can shift careers in a few years and also because I wanted to learn more. The Big Three are also fantastic. I especially love them because I can tell the graduating seniors in my high school that if they ever get in a bad spot later and need to graduate from college for $5,000, they can come to me and I will show them how.