Below is are links to a few of the top US Fortune 500 Company Executive Management Team. Take a close look at the Undergraduate (or even the Graduate) Schools these Executives attended. Very few went to what one would considered top-tier Universities/Colleges. What does that tell you?
http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/leadership/executive-management/
http://fortune.com/fortune500/att-inc-11/
You make your own life, your college doesn’t make your life for you.
There are senators, presidents, global leaders who went to state schools, community college, or no college at all. While there are certainly more resources at a “top school”, there is also more competition and a further perpetuation of a society that values selfish greed over cooperation.
Post #17, IBM does not prefer Ivies and MIT, tons of SJSU was hired at IBM according to a Wired magazine. In fact, I think it’s one of the top feeder.
My kids friend had different experience from post #18. He was accepted to a UC but went to CC for 2 year, probably to save money, he was accepted to UCB for Chemical engineering, one of the top programs for his major.
Were the friends stronger students who chose CC for cost reasons (like the student described in reply #23) or because they got shut out of ill-advised all-reach college application lists, or were they weaker students who were not able to get into even the less selective CSUs (and probably needed remedial courses)?
Also, your son may be unusual for CSU Chico students, in that he is on track to graduate in 4 years or fewer. CSU Chico has a 17.3% 4 year graduation rate, which may be affected by the same factors that affect CCs – weaker students (about a third of frosh need remedial* courses, according to http://asd.calstate.edu/performance/combo/2013/Combo_Prof_Chi_fall2013.htm ), part time students, etc…
*Note that the CSU definition of remedial math appears to be math below trigonometry and precalculus, based on its Entry Level Math requirement syllabus at http://study.com/academy/course/elm-test.html#overview , so the actual number of CSU students needing remedial math by the more usual definition of math below calculus would be higher.
Go to the CSU. In CA, the CC system has become overwhelmed and I’m hearing stories left and right of people who can’t get classes, and therefore can’t complete their gen-eds on a 2 year schedule. Particularly here in CA, CSUs are respected schools and specific to marketing, it won’t really matter. To give you some encouraging anecdata: I work in TV marketing for a major studio in LA. Our most recent, entry level marketing hire in my department went to CSU Northridge. What set her apart: she did two consecutive internships in the studio’s prestigious internship program. Her college didn’t matter as much as the industry internships she had completed. I would definitely go to Fullerton and use the benefit of proximity to LA to land some great industry internships. You have an advantage as a local that you can even intern during the school year instead of just the summer, so you’d only be competing with other local students for those spots. Once you get your first marketing job, it will never matter again where you went to college. Marketing isn’t as much a prestige field as many others–as long as you have the right personality and work ethic, you’re fine.
http://asd.calstate.edu/csrde/ftf/2013htm/chi.htm
The latest stats I could find show 25.7% of freshmen admitted to Chico in 2010 graduated from Chico State in 2014.
Though low in absolute terms, that ranks them 5th in the CSU system - behind SLO, CalMaritime, SDSU and Sonoma. As you’ve noted in previous posts, lots of factors drive that number.
I don’t suspect my son is ahead of most of his CSU peers in unit count at this stage. Accumulating 120+ units is only part of the puzzle, they need to be the right ones. I am sure his CC friends have a lower a unit count. A couple work, a couple are taking reduced units to manage a challenging CS workload and most have indicated they have had a tough time getting classes.
As I note in my original post, at many CCs in CA a well prepared,bright, motivated, well coached student who commits to a specific campus with reasonable expectations can transfer to a UC in 2 years. Thousands of kids do it every year. We’ve got a few family friends who’ve done it in the last couple of years (from different CCs to UCLA, UCSB and CP SLO- not a UC but, a very tough transfer admit). My son’s CC friends don’t fit that description but, are more typical CC students.
For a host of reasons, getting the right courses in sequence is a challenge at many CCs. The transfer process is complex/cumbersome enough to be a focal point of the new UC budget agreement.
“They hope to increasing the number of transfer students by making the process smoother.”
Back in the dark ages, I went to a CC and transferred to my chosen CSU in 2 years - then earned a BS 2 years later. It was the exception then too. . It was another time but, my hat is off to any student that can pull off a transfer admission to a UC in 2 years . They worked hard and fought the tide to do it.
Here is an article “Is University Prestige Really that important?” by Investopedia. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/051915/university-prestige-really-important.asp?partner=mediafed
Sometimes, school really matters. 
It really depends. In niche industries, like I-banking, VCs, hedge funds and more than a few firms on wall street, it does matter, as they mainly recruit at certain schools (e.g. Ivy-plus). This also holds true for some consulting firms, like Boston, Bain…etc However these are outliers, and I would not set this as the rule. For the vast majority of positions, your regional university is more than sufficient for regional positions. At the end of the day, it really depends on what you want to do and pursue.
Many employers do care, but if you go to a CC you have no guarantee at all of being able to switch into a school like UCLA. I’d go to the best school you get into and if you want to considering transferring from there at a later time you can always try.