I agree with this for the not-quite-Ivy schools where financial aid is largely non-existent, but given the incredible financial aid programs at many Ivy League schools I don't think this advice is well thought-out. If you are middle class, say earning $80k per year, I doubt you will pay more than ~$8k a year for your child to go to Harvard. The article does not address this, and explicitly says you should not consider these if you learn less than $40k (yet you pay nothing at Harvard if you earn less than $60k, I believe).
Hopefully others pick up on this fact, but this article must have been written circa-2000. The Canadian dollar hasn't been as low as .69 (mentioned in article) since at least late-2003, as far back as yahoo/google finance go. The latest references are 1999.
I'm also going to disagree with what the author says. I go to an ivy-league school, and there are two things that make all the difference: the caliber of students, and the atmosphere of hard work. Of course there are smart people at every school, as Author writes in describing Honors programs. But the concentration is just incredibly high at Ivys. Any random person you run into or work with is most likely brilliant in some way or other.
Atmosphere of hard work - Being surrounded by many high-achievers, you just can't help but push yourself to work harder, achieve more, etc. As long as you're in touch with yourself to avoid burnout, I love this atmosphere because it pushes me to accomplish more than I would were I surrounded by a bunch of people who just want to drink all day every day (of course there are those students, but they're in the minority.)
That's not to say an Ivy is always worth it. Rather, I think you can't make a blanket statement about whether it's appropriate or not. For some it will be, for some it won't be.
There is no date on this post. Best I can figure it was around 1999 (he mentions 1 USD = 0.69 USD, and his latest reference is a study about graduation rates from 1999).
He concludes that UCLA is a great deal on education at state school prices. This may have been true in 1999 (that's the year I started at UCLA), but I would definitely check the numbers before sending children to the UC system these days. They have hiked the price multiple times in the last 14 years, and it's starting to graze the price level of expensive private schools.
I agree with his premise of finding many good educational options (many better than Harvard) at schools that are less expensive.
It also made me think that may be that those that would benefit the most from going to Harvard are those who can't get in :-)
It seems to me, much more than a good education, what Harvard offers is the possibility of very good connections. That can be extremely valuable even though is isn't about the quality of education at Harvard.
