<p>Loyola is not, by any means, a bad school.</p>
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<p>As a graduate of one of the most prestigious colleges, I can tell you this is too far off to be even a gross exaggeration. With equal GPA, and all else equal, the Northwestern grad probably would have an advantage. But that advantage will be a a couple of tenths of gpa, if that. Employers care much more about what you did than where you went. How hard do you work, how reliable are you, etc. In my field (medicine) the gpa of students admitted to med school is quite similar from the USNews top 5 and for places very far down the list. </p>
<p>I gather there are fields in which employers focus on the undergrad institution, but there are not many occupations like this. Even in these occupations a few years of good performance trumps all sorts of undergraduate accomplishments.</p>
<p>Employers are looking for hard workers, people with spunk, people who can get along with OTHER people (and often people who are from privileged, sheltered, uber stat, wealthy environments DONT do well…too narcissistic and too unprepared for reality). They are also looking for people who have ETHICS and ETHOS. Something the Jesuits teach. </p>
<p>Be proud and be happy!</p>
<p>You are getting good advice here. After a couple of years in the work force it no longer matters where you went to undergraduate school, it’s trumped by job performance and your graduate degree if you opted to pursue one. After awhile no one even asks about that anymore. In the end YOU will determine how successful you will be. I went to a college I’m sure you or most the CC crowd has never heard of but by most people’s metrics have been very successful. A good friend of mine who was engineer at Cornell took a job on the Gulf coast and when asked what college he went to the most common response was “never heard of it.” My last stop was at an IVY that most don’t have a clue about outside the Northeast, and would bet 90% can’t even guess what state it is in.</p>
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<p>Brown? Dartmouth? Penn? Columbia?</p>
<p>Don’t leave me hanging, here!</p>
<p>jeez UCLA, is it really that important…</p>
<p>PureHoney,</p>
<p>It was a joke…</p>
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<p>I think it’s more precise to say that there are employers that focus on whether you are known within a particular social network. Much of hiring is performed through personal contacts. For example, if somebody has a job opening, he’s probably going to ask his friends whether they know anybody who would be good for the job. In fact, that’s the whole point of websites like LinkedIn. When my friend Bill recommends his friend Steve for a job that I have, I don’t really care that the way that Steve knows Bill was because Steve happened to be Bill’s poker-playing buddy at Harvard. All I care about is that I trust my friend Bill’s judgment, so if he vouches for Steve, then I will probably hire him. {Of course, if Steve turns out to be completely incompetent, then that will hurt my relationship with Bill, so it behooves Bill not to recommend anybody that he knows is no good.} </p>
<p>Hence, it’s not that I care that Steve went to Harvard. I don’t care. Nevertheless, Harvard played a crucial role in producing that social link. If Steve hadn’t gone to Harvard, he wouldn’t have met Bill and consequently he wouldn’t have been offered the job.</p>
<p>Eh, you should be happy with your school. Don’t worry so much about the opportunities straight after graduation - after you’ve landed your first job employers look FAR more at job performance than they do at your university’s prestige.</p>
<p>Melinda Gates went to Duke University.</p>
<p>Your contacts/networking are the things that get you to the place of satisfaction, nothing more. </p>
<p>Two cousins(real examples here)
One a Fordham undergrad/Fordham Grad school
The other U Penn under/Wharton grad school</p>
<p>The Fordahm grad is WAY more successful career wise than the other, both equally prepared, but their approach to their respective careers is what set them apart.</p>
<p>“BG dropped out of Harvard. His wife, Melinda, I believe, is a Seattle U (Jesuit school, too) graduate.”</p>
<p>“And yes, Melinda Gates went to Seattle University and Bill and Melinda Gates were married by its then President, Rev. William J. Sullivan, SJ, now its Chancellor.”</p>
<p>Melinda Gates did not go to Seattle University.</p>
<p>She graduated from Duke University in 1986, and then went to the business school at Duke.</p>
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<p>I think you’re understimating and underrating schools that are not ivies/top privates. The UI at Urbana C is as good as those schools you thought are good. </p>
<p>BTW, I didn’t say Loyola U is not a good school. I just said that I thought Donald wasn’t so serious when he complemented the school espicially that Kwame, the other competitor, came from Harvard, the school which he obviously is fond of. Notice how he pimps the school in the show?</p>
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<p>I’m glad to hear that!</p>
<p>My neighbor’s kid at Loyola had better ‘stats’ than many of the kids from her HS that went to Northwestern, due to the need-based aid at NW.</p>
<p>Well then, I stand corrected. But what is her connection to Fr. Sullivan and Seattle University? Did she do her MBA at Seattle U? Or another master’s program there? But they were married there, I know that.</p>
<p>Whatever.</p>
<p>+++++</p>
<p>Yes, you should go to the school that is the best fit for you personally which may or may not be a ranked school. Fit is a measure of personality, culture, academics, financial aid/scholarships, geography, programs, facilities, dorms, social scene, socio-economic background of typical students etc.</p>
<p>If you pick a school SOLELY for its USNWR ranking you might be very surprised to find out you don’t fit and be unhappy. I have seen it over and over. Lots of kids transfer out and down the ladder so to speak to be “happier” and thrive.</p>
<p>Some kids do better in a stressful frenetic hyper competitive academic environment that you typically find in the elite schools and many Ivy League schools. Some kids would be better off at schools where they fit better.</p>
<p>Being happy has little to do with school ranking.</p>
<p>Be happy and be proud!</p>
<p>And yes, social networking is HUGE for finding jobs both immediately after graduation and also later in your career.</p>
<p>But many small schools have a very vigorous alumni association!</p>
<p>For me, hiring is often about integrity, character and personality…performance matters…always does…but I dont want a performer who has terrible people skills and runs off other excellent talent or causes morale to falter. And I sure as heck dont want a performer who is a liar, cheater, thief, or drunken womanizer etc. They are out there, believe me! I have seen it over and over…in the professional world yet!</p>
<p>So embrace the special and unique qualities of Loyola. These four years will go faster than you can imagine and then POOF! They are over. Make them the best years of your life…I had four absolutely fabulous years in undergraduate school! I wouldnt trade them for anything, with anybody, anywhere. Period.</p>
<p>Here is my 2c:</p>
<ol>
<li>You should try to get into the best college you are able to get admission to. Just becuase some one other made it big even though being a drop out from a no-name college that you will also be able to do that by dropping out of a no-name college is being foolish.</li>
<li>Don’t blame yourself or anyone else for not able to make it to the best colleges, instead make best of what you got and you will be successful. </li>
<li>You are as successful as you perceive yourself. If you are trying to impress someone else or trying to compete with someone else, then you will never succeed, as you will always find someone in this life who is better than you in some regard.</li>
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<p>So relax, work hard, get into your best college and work towards making your life enjoyable.
For all this have a plan, any student who knows what they want will get it and be successful, all those who want to just do things that look good in other eyes will disappoint themselves at some point in life.</p>
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<p>Uh, I have not seen any substantial evidence to indicate that Allen was ever considered the ‘brains’ of Microsoft. If anything, Allen has been dubbed numerous times as “The Accidental Billionaire” - basically, the guy who just luckily happened to hitch himself to Gates’s star.</p>
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<p>Two more examples here.</p>
<p>I know a guy who smoked several packs a day and still lived to be over 90. And he didn’t die from disease. He died in a traffic accident. He still lived a vigorous life when he died.</p>
<p>I know a woman whose brother was a fitness freak, working out daily, never smoking, rarely drinking, always eating right. Nevertheless, he died of a heart attack before the age of 30.</p>
<p>So, does that mean that if we want to live long, we should all smoke and overeat and never exercise? No, of course not. It just shows the problems with anecdotes. Refraining from smoking doesn’t guarantee that you will live longer. It just makes it more likely, but no guarantee. Some people do in fact smoke a lot and still enjoy long life. But they’re certainly not common.</p>
<p>Well, Krueger and Dale said that there study of incomes of college grads found a correlation with whether students were admitted to elite colleges, but not with where they attended these schools.</p>