You are still overgeneralizing. I went to NYU over UC Berkeley and don't regret it one bit. Sure, if you are premed or prelaw and have the intention of going straight to grad school after finishing undergrad, your argument holds great weight. But that's not everyone; people have different goals. Some people want to go into finance and work on Wall Street, others want to act on broadway, etc. And for people with these types of ambitions, NYU is hands down the better option. Nowhere else can you have the opportunity to intern at pretty much any type of company imaginable, network, and have such rich cultural experiences all while being a college student (well, other than Columbia). Sure, NYU is more expensive, but it's an investment that can yield higher dividends. Case in point, NYU was substantially more expensive for me to attend than UC Berkeley; however, I will be starting work at a major Wall Street investment bank in the fall. Berkeley's placement onto Wall Street is nowhere near comparable, so the likelihood of me landing such a job had I went to Berkeley would have been pretty much nonexistent. So, while the cost of attending NYU was higher, the future cash flows I am generating as a result of attending NYU are much higher than what Berkeley would have generated, justifying the cost. And that doesn't even take into account intangible assets, like my overall happiness and how much I've grown from living in NYC. At the end of the day, you can't generalize; it comes down to the individual, his/her goals, and whether he/she takes full advantage of the opportunities presented to them.