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<li> does the college you go to really affect if you get employed or not?</li>
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<p>[i mean, i know it must to some extent (like if you go to an ivy) but most colleges really aren't that well known. and whats one not-well-known college to another? do employers actually look up colleges?]</p>
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<li><p>i wanna pick a college that's good in my field of interest (biology) but not necessarily good in others. is that ok?</p></li>
<li><p>also, do the grades you get IN COLLEGE seriously affect life afterwards? just curious.</p></li>
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<li><p>The college does not usually effect your first job unless you are going into specific fields where the alum connection is required (think the good ole boy Wall St network)</p></li>
<li><p>Many students change major. Most don’t want to go thru the process of transferring colleges. Pick a college that you are comfortable with all the academic offerings. This will provide the freedom to change majors and not doubt the change will give you a 2nd rate education. But – also remember – the differences of strength of each department major are usually not that drastically different. Just because a school is not well-known for non-bio majors does not automatically make the school weak in non-bio majors. </p></li>
<li><p>College grades – You will get very different opinions on this. It certainly has an effect, but how large of an effect on earnings/career is debated.
Personally, I’m middle age and only found it to have an impact when I was applying to law schools after a few years of work experience. (side note – though I opted to not attend law school, I believe GPA got me a denial in admission at a mid-level law school and had no impact at the other schools I applied to - 2 of which were “higher” ranked but seemed to focus on my work experience more)
It is far too early for you to worry about college GPA now.</p></li>
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<p>CONCLUSION – If you have a specific dream job then tailoring the college/major can have a significant impact. For the typical student who has an idea of major, but not a specific career focus, the college you attend will not have significant impact. Since you are curious-- When looking at colleges, go visit the career services. Ask specific questions about internerships, recruiting, the size of the alum network, the lifetime network provided and how many folks utilize the services after graduation.</p>