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[00:00.04]Fewer than 5 percent of the students
[00:03.44]who applied to Stanford University in California were accepted this year.
[00:09.84]About 6 percent of the applicants to Yale University in Connecticut were admitted.
[00:18.04]But one writer says if you did not get into a school like Stanford,
[00:23.64]Yale or Harvard University, do not despair.
[00:29.36]Jillian Berman writes for MarketWatch.com.
[00:33.92]She says "students shouldn't panic if they don't get a spot.
[00:40.08]It is still possible to be successful."
[00:44.00]Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger wrote a paper in 2011
[00:48.96]that says students who apply to universities
[00:52.92]like Stanford and Harvard -- but do not get in
[00:58.12]-- are likely to do well anywhere.
[01:01.36]The researchers say that confidence and ambition
[01:06.44]may predict success better than other factors.
[01:11.28]Those other factors include good grades, high SAT scores and activities out of school.
[01:21.28]The researchers say people who apply to these selective schools
[01:27.24]do well even if they are not accepted to schools like Princeton University or Dartmouth College.
[01:35.56]Berman wrote a story last year saying a study by the Brookings Institution
[01:41.92]might be more valuable than other lists:
[01:46.16]it ranks schools based on how much value they provide their students.
[01:52.40]The Brookings list shows how much more money students would earn
[01:57.98]graduating from one school over another.
[02:01.76]The list includes small colleges and technical schools
[02:07.04]that focus on agriculture, engineering, nursing and medical jobs.
[02:14.88]The idea about ambition and confidence does not always apply to minority students.
[02:22.52]The Dale and Krueger study says minority students should reach for these selective schools.
[02:30.92]That is because they can make social connections
[02:35.00]that may be useful for advancing their careers in the future.
[02:40.28]The list created by Brookings fits with another story posted on the website 538.com.
[02:48.52]The story is called "Shut Up About Harvard."
[02:52.48]The writer is Ben Casselman.
[02:55.96]He says television and newspaper stories about universities
[03:01.88]fail to reflect real and honest college experience.
[03:06.96]Very few people attend a university lined with trees and brick buildings.
[03:13.36]These days, college is often a part-time or two-year experience.
[03:19.44]Students live at home and commute to classes.
[03:24.20]Movies that takes place on a college campus, he says, are more fiction than truth.
[03:31.84]More truthful is a picture of an American university student
[03:37.40]who attends class part time while working and raising children.
[03:42.80]The most popular courses are no longer literature and philosophy.
[03:48.88]The most popular are business and health care.
[03:52.96]It is exciting to read about a student who is accepted by eight Ivy League schools.
[04:00.04]But these writers say those students will be successful anywhere.
[04:06.04]They say that students who need help getting to class
[04:10.32]and completing a degree are a greater concern.
[04:14.48]A professor from the University of Wisconsin spoke with Casselman.
[04:19.76]She says most of the stories about higher education in the U.S.
[04:25.64]skip the most important issue:
[04:28.72]"People can't afford to spend enough time in college to actually finish their darn degrees."
[04:36.68]But if they do, Casselman writes,
[04:40.36]the degree "remains the most likely path to a decent-paying job."
[04:46.63]That is why students can be successful
[04:50.16]even if they do not get into a school like Harvard.
[04:53.96]I'm Dan Friedell.
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