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<p>That is true. The whole BYU/Kentucky story in my first post was just an anecdote. The main idea was to compare two schools that were not in the top 10 of all Universities in the US. Schools that are not targeted by BB Strategy Consulting firms, Investment Banks, law firms, or VC firms.</p>
<p>It should be pretty obvious by now, those schools are in a different caliber than the schools I am talking about. We could have said University of Tennessee or UW-Madison–both of these schools are really strong, but neither of them are target schools for BB IB’s.</p>
<p>Anyways, I think that I have my answer. If you want to go into a “prestige” field–then you want to go to a top target school in the field (i.e. Stanford, UPenn, Harvard, Yale). </p>
<p>Outside of that, usually the local schools win out when it comes to local employment. For firms in Knoxville, Tn, the UTenn grad has an edge over the UW-Madison grad. </p>
<p>If you are going for a job outside of your state. Then the reputation of the program can give the candidate an edge (i.e. a Purdue engineering grad might have an edge over a UTenn grad if they were both applying for an engineering job in Oregon). </p>
<p>That is what I have heard so far. Thanks for everyone’s replies btw.</p>
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I agree with you 100%! Outside of certain areas of the country, the mentality is very different. In the high school I went to in Kentucky, the Valedictorian and Salutatorian both went to Kentucky. Hell, if you asked most of the kids (99%) in my high school what Investment Banking is, most would tell you they have never heard of it. My high school was in the richest area of Louisville, too!</p>