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Like with mortgages (owning vs renting etc), funding/financing matters.

I was able to attend elite universities (#847595) while shorting a depreciating shithole currency at cheap, manageable rates and repayments.

Don't wanna brag and say I was at the top of my class (though, I verifiably was for some classes in my undergrad!), but basically regardless of the benefit side, I suspect that I can make the calculation work on the financing side.

Look at what you're able to write about and do with your education. I think those of us who've really benefitted from our education should be careful about it dismissing it wholesale.

But I definitely think that mainstream culture overhypes university education

Ever see Operation Varsity Blues?

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Careful attributing causality there. We don't have a control denlillaapan that didn't go to uni

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education arms race but also a social status arms race

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I only paid for some of my undergrad, but I went to an inexpensive school and had a partial scholarship. After that I took classes that my job paid for and got paid a stipend during my PhD.

Even so, I bet my return is only slightly positive, because that's a lot of foregone wages and work experience.

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That's always the bigger problem—the counterfactual of what you could have/would have earned working instead.

Opportunity costs are one hell of a perspective

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Of course, that was purely the financial return. Since I only ever studied what interested me, enjoyed the college experience, and never worried about grades or anything, the real returns are almost definitely positive.

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