Go to the area code 94086, that’s Sunnyvale. Now limit your search to simply recently sold homes and max price of 300,000 dollars and minimum price of 150,000

I know what you’re thinking, you’re not going to find anything but condos, and trailer parks.

What you are going to find is DOZENS of homes, HOUSES, that have sold for this price, and the really odd thing is that the prices aren’t integrated into the surrounding housing market, or even included in the Zestimate, furthermore, these homes were never made available to the public to buy.

What I smell here is either a massive screwup in data entry by Zillow, or a massive scam by our banking industry in this area where homes are being sold at very cheap prices with a loss to the bank, to selected insiders to make a quick profit at the expense of the share holders of the banks.

Nobody seems interested in this story though.

Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.

Along with 80% of the applicants. At least that’s what I remember from looking at a book on grad schools some years back.

Thanks for summerizing* the whole discussion.

*keeping it readable for Real Estater.

You hit the nail on the head. I was basically told that from various folks who attained MBAs from various schools. In the end, the school is really them mitigating factor when it comes to the viability of the MBA.

That being said, perhaps my Masters was entirely un-necessary. I don’t profess that individuals could not achieve a similar set of success without one. But as I indicated earlier, I could make that claim about bachelors degrees as well.

From my job standpoint, when I began working as a code monkey after graduation, how much of what I learned in my undergrad do you think I honestly applied? I don’t do too many second order differential equations in my field. That metalurgy class gave me nothing. Sure, its nice to know the Laws of Thermodynamics. But all that really helped me with is explaining why my PC needs a heatsink!

In the end, I’ll honestly admit that much if not most of what I applied in my first few years on the job market was knowledge I had garnered in high school. Programming comes down to boolean logic and basic algebra, all things that I had a good grasp of in high school. All my writing skills were equally achieved in that timeframe.
Come to think of it, I actually apply more of what I studied in my graduate courses in my current job than I ever did when I was working as a code monkey with just my bachelors. Several courses I took on risk analysis, E-Commerce and portfolio analysis are all things I apply on a daily basis.

So in the end, I don’t entirely disagree with DreamT’s view or austindwellers. I have had similar arguments with stubborn MBA folks that continuously try to state that their degree was a good idea despite evidence to the contrary. So in the end, the viability of continuing education can be summed up as such: Does it make sense? It depends. Simple as that.

anyone looking for maximum ROI and graduating 1980-2005 should have become a bond trader.

anyone looking for maximum happiness and living in a state that will be able to honor its pension and health care obligations should have become a fireman.

and, the impact of B-school on your earning potential is entirely dependent on whether or not you went to one of the handful of schools that matter. yes that is elitest but it is also true. the MBA education itself is not valuable. instead, companies compete for alumni from top schools for the networks and the screening the schools’ admission process provides. if you went to the GSB or HBS, you did well, very well, almost bond trader well.

It’s called statistical inference. I know that there is a strong correlation between undergrad education and corporate sucess. Or in other words, not having undergrad education would adversely affect your chance of being “corporate successful”. Do you particularly oppose this fact ?

Of course, it is a contrast between Bear Sterns (had office full of MBA guys) and Walmart.

LOL! I find very interesting that when I give example, you say “I doubt graduate degree has much to do with their success”. But yet you are too quick establish your argument by giving your own example (in #161). Not that I disagree with your viewpoint completely, but your argument is dubious at the best.