<p>Hi everyone...although i personally don't see anything wrong with most public state schools, it appears as though a good handful of people on here scoff at them. Are they just playing the "elitist" role or is there a genuine disadvantage to state schools (i.e. SUNY)? Will future employers be more wary of hiring those that attend public schools?</p>
<p>The SUNY schools are very good and students who graduate from them get jobs. For some reason there are families in NY who scoff at the SUNY’s but will spend twice the price at a similar school in a neighboring state. They may argue that they don’t like upstate NY, yet SUNY Geneseo has a cute college town and the U of Buffalo is in a suburb with a major shopping mall. Some of the OOS state schools in neighboring states are in the same rural areas as SUNY, but I guess the fact that they are not in NY somehow makes it better (?). I guess some just want out of NY. </p>
<p>There’s generally better advising at the elite privates, but different types of schools have different strengths and weaknesses. Frankly, I think the Northeast is just full of snobs.</p>
<p>Many state schools are good to great institutions that can provide you with a very good education. That’s true of many privates as well. </p>
<p>People are going to say what they want to say about anything they’re paying money for. Some think you have to spend money to get quality; others think you don’t. Some think the brand makes the person; some don’t.</p>
<p>In America, less so globally, postgraduate schools are going to care much more about your GPA, research, internships, language skills, etc., than about where you got them. American postgraduate education is not obsessed with brand but with achievement.</p>
<p>In employment, you will meet people and careers where your alma mater will matter to them more than your achievements there. Investment banking is a good example of such a career field. It used to be so in the early days of the intelligence community, too. However, many many employers are much more interested in you and what skills and personality you bring to your work than they are in your pedigree.</p>
<p>One thing is certainly true. You will get much less out of any institution, public or private, if YOU don’t do the work to make yourself successful.</p>
<p>I think it doesn’t matter where you go to school, within certain parameters. It matters what you do when you are there.</p>
<p>Many of the people who scoff at the SUNY schools would gladly send their kids there if you moved the school to a neighboring state and charged twice the price. You will not go wrong if you attend a SUNY if that is affordable for you. </p>
<p>It is a way to justify their choice. SUNY or Rutgers are been scoffed because students want to move to another state and experience different culture, I have high regards to SUNY, even at lower ranked schools than Geneseo, I did attend some classes in SUNY while I was in another college and found their classes interesting with high rigor.</p>
<p>Here in CA, there is little beefing about our UC’s and the students are proud to be at UCLA and UCB.</p>
<p>I think attending your state flagship is a good choice, and often a smart one at that. They are quality institutions, with very few exceptions, of equivalent quality to most undergraduate institutions. Just like anywhere else, if you do well there, you will go places after graduation.</p>
<p>I think part of the stigma is the fact that it is often referred to as a “safety” or that many students from the hometown that attend. Thus the desire to “go against the grain” or “to be your own person” so to speak may cause people to overlook the quality of the institution themselves, instead looking at the people that went there,</p>
<p>State schools often have the advantage of networking, especially if going anywhere close to your home state after graduation. I have met a couple of people that have said they would take someone from their (state school) alma matter over someone else in part due to how far the network expands. One possible disadvantage of a state school is that in certain states, the public option also is the largest one, which may not be favorable for someone looking for a LAC type option or smaller class sizes. But in many states, there are multiple options including a smaller and larger version of the state flagship.</p>
<p>All in all, most public schools out there are fine options and provide a vast variety of resources. If you are happy there, then don’t look back and stop worrying about what anyone else says. In the end, you’ll be all the wiser because you will have a quality affordable option without taking out thousands in debt. Good luck!</p>
<p>Kids here attend Uconn, UMass, UDel or UMD-CP looking for " cultural differences." Crazy. If that is really what they want then they should leave the area, but they don’t. </p>
<p>At investment banks, it’s more the school networks that matter than the school brand. A Chicago grad isn’t going to do you any favors if you’re a Princeton grad. I fellow Princeton grad probably will, however.</p>
<p>I have been involved in Private Equity for many years, they do not high green horns out of the school. But as I know Hiring managers in Investment Bankers will only give Alma mater preferences if the applicants are of equal quality. A Princeton graduate manager will not hire some one from the bottom of the class in Princeton over some one from the top of the class in Middlebury, for example.</p>
<p>Do you mean to say that there are people at the top of Middlebury who are better qualified than the one of the Princeton bottom-dwellers? 
One presumes that doesn’t extend to the graduates of your average public uni.</p>
<p>@jkeil911:</p>
<p>That depends on the person. Referencing my time on a certain trading desk again, the most successful trader there (who was a UOregon grad and had his own trading company in the past that he sold, so he’s hired a ton of junior traders in his time) one time noted that in his experience, the top kid at a place like OSU was better quality than an average kid from Harvard. The Princeton legacy (who wasn’t anywhere as successful a trader), made a face at that remark.</p>
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<p>lol</p>
<p>State colleges are ,for the most part, the smarter choice considering the aid they give to students. I think as a person said above, the fact that state universities are mostly considered safeties is what causes them to be seen in a bad light.</p>
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<p>These are the same fools who won’t consider buying a shirt or handbag that doesn’t have a big logo on it.</p>