I’m not gandalf, but to answer your question above I would choose the one that shined brightest in the interview, the one who I think would be the best fit for the company culture and the one who I think is the most “coachable” (willing to be trained to become the best at the job vs thinking they already know everything).
There are definitely corporate/university alliances out there but it doesn’t mean an outlier can’t come in and steal the show. If there were no graduates from colleges ranked 50-500+ who were employable, we’d have a big problem in our country.
Yes. This does not necessarily correlate to having attended a “prestigious” school.
All other things being equal, I would pick the NC State grad over the Johns Hopkins grad. Based on my experience – and knowing graduates of both schools (admittedly more from NC State) – as an employer I think that I would likely be dealing with less attitude and less sense of entitlement from the NC State grads.
I would definitely pick the Johns Hopkins grad because of those qualities, lol.
But I understand, we just have different perspectives on employment as well as general qualities that are present widely in some institutions.
Per my neighbor, who does hiring in CS, the first thing he looks at is do you have a CS degree? If yes, do you have any prior work experience? If that is also a yes, he will do interview. If the answer is no, you don’t advance to the interview.
During the interview he is mostly looking for signs of arrogance. If he sees any, he won’t hire you no matter where you got your degree. Employees that have experience and can get along with existing employees are what he needs. Neither of those things is determined by what school someone attends.
My son interned this Summer at an auto plant in MS. He’s been invited back - at Alabama engineering. His two roomies _ GA Tech - no invite for next summer (yet).
You need a great resume with experience to get you in the door.
A school in and of itself isn’t your ticket in most situations.
Just curious - why apply to ASU if you weren’t considering it? Were you at the time or you just wanted an early acceptance to feel good?
Hiring is on the internet today - my son interviewed for two internships in Raleigh this Summer - Novo Nordisk and somewhere else. I don’t think being in Arizona necessarily hurts you.
I applied to ASU so I have one backup school if everything else fails (hence why I have so many reaches).
That’s true about what you said about having a solid resume; however, there are many feeder schools that work for top companies like Google. Most of the college grads that work at Google are UC grads, UT Austin grads, or Ivy League grads. They definitely have their foot in the door by attending one of those schools. Next of course, is the interview.
Being from a “normal” school would be really hard to even get an interview at one of these FAANG companies.
If you look at the median salary at places like Ga tech or CMU, they’re far higher than “normal” schools.
But we are not talking that level of school nor jobs in silicon valley…and those companies hire locally as well. I live in Nashville - i see it with Amazon (we got HQ 2.5 - 5K jobs) and we’ll see it with Oracle now coming in.
The elite - yes - but the regular joes - do well - it’s up to the kid.
I’m in NC and a friend’s niece went to State and is working for Apple in San Francisco now. If that helps put your mind at ease. And it is absolutely true that it is the experience and attitude that will get you the job, not which of several great colleges you went to. My husband is in a hiring position and he often passes on people who can’t work well with others. They really are looking for team players who know their stuff and don’t really care where they went to college as long as they can do the job and get along with others.
(full disclosure, my son SAT score was 1550 single-sitting. He got admitted at Cornell and CMU but eventually decided to attend ASU Barrett to study Civil Engineering at a much lower cost)
Since your credentials are so strong, you could very well get into several of your reaches, or none at all. That’s just how it is these days, especially with a hugely popular major like CS.
You clearly are qualified. It’s just that the demand is so great and there are others like you.
What are everyone’s thoughts on University of Tulsa? They have a super easy application and the acceptance rate is fairly low so was wondering if there is a catch. I also got sent an email like 3 times from them to apply, lol.
Univ of Tulsa is a private university. Their midrange SAT scores would make it a safety for you. The admission rate means it’s selective in some way, but not in the same way the top tier universities are. It’s about the same level as UNC Charlotte, which is a much cheaper safety. With a pretty good in state safety, perhaps better to focus on application strategies for a few focused reach and match schools.
NC State is a great option to have especially if the cost is acceptable. Underrated in my opinion. We live in PA and our neighbor’s son went to NC State for CS. He’s worked in several top cities. He’s now working on his PhD at Georgia Tech. Take NC State for the win if your reaches don’t pan out.
Obviously the interview would weigh heavily but a degree in CS from NC State would not be a disadvantage. Actually, I’d be curious why someone would pay JH money for a CS degree.
I agree. The degree from NCSU would be perfect but JHU gives more opportunities, prestige and connections with the greatest of people. That’s just why it’s my dream school.
