I currently live in Texas, but interested in schools such as Alabama and Ole Miss. Would you say attending a college out of state impacts your career after college. Would I be at a disadvantage as a graduate from an out of state school returning to Texas, or if I were to live in another state such as Florida, Georgia or Tennessee. Or does that degree you receive from that college mean more than the actual college you attend. I plan on a business major such as finance or supply chain management.
From my experience, the impact comes in the form of alumni connections and networking. A finance major is going to cover the same basic courses at any school.
If you go out of state and want move back to Texas, you miss out on some of the connections your professors have in their community and some Texas employers may not do focused recruiting at your school. (I have no information on this for the colleges you mention.) Back home in Texas, you may have less out of state alumni in place at potential employers. It is not something you can’t overcome, but you have to be conscious to build your network where you want to work. After a few years experience, where you went to college is just conversation.
In all, it depends oh how flexible you are. My DS is in college out of state and I see that their main internship connections are in the surrounding area. DS knows to try to get back home to but to primarily follow the job opportunities.
Have you worked out the funding, and how are your stats? The real question is do you actually have a choice? Do you have the stats for UT or TAMU? The only way it would be worth going to these OOS options over good instate schools is if you got great (like close to full tuition) merit $$, If you got great merit $$ you could probably attend TAMU. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I have the stats to attend TAMU, and in turn have the stats for merit scholarships at OOS.
I think that I see three issues:
One is cost. In-state public universities are often significantly less expensive than out of state universities. However, this is not always true. In some cases you can get good scholarships at OOS schools, or for some other reasons out of state schools may be less expensive.
Another issue is just the effort to get between home and school. We have had a few relatively long drives to bring stuff from home to school or vice versa. Of course, you could have a pretty long drive just within Texas.
The third issue I see is that many people end up working near where they graduated from. One reason is that they might know people in the area. Another reason is that they just know their way around in the area where they went to school. Another reason is that it is easier to interview when you are already physically close to where the interview will occur. Flying across the country for a job interview does happen, but both parties have to feel that it is worth the trouble and expense before the interview can happen.
You do have very good in-state public schools in Texas. I would suggest that you at least consider them, and probably apply to both some in-state and some out-of-state schools and see where you get in and see what they will cost in total for four years.
If you major in supply chain management, you may have trouble if you relocate to Tennessee since UT-Knoxville offers one of the best supply chain management programs in the country.
Your best solution if you study at Alabama or Ole Miss is to earn very high grades. A GPA above 3.80 solves most employment problems in a situation such as yours.