Do some firms favor "big name" schools?

[mathmom]

<p>It’s so dependent on region and industry. In architecture, local firms tend to hire from local graduates. Bigger firms (especially ones with multiple offices) tend to look at the pedigree.</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>

@dukie87

at a very large financial institution

</p>

<p>Well, that is a type of employer that is reputed to be among the most school-prestige-conscious.</p>

<p>Note that preferred schools for recruiting are not necessarily the same for all industries, types of jobs, or employers. Also, in some types of jobs, the importance of school-prestige fades quickly after one has experience, but in other types of jobs, it may remain important long after.</p>

<p>Preferred schools for new graduate recruiting may also be chosen for reasons other than school-prestige (e.g. large size, being conveniently local, reputation of specific majors being recruited for).</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>… Or ties / willingness of current employees to go to those campuses to visit and recruit. </p>

<p>… Or perceived ease of getting students from those campuses to relocate to where the employer is headquartered.</p>

[cekelly]

<p>Yeah exactly! Im pretty sure that there was a study done of the top reqruiting colleges (in general) which quite astonishingly included schools like nichigan~ann arbor but not Harvard!</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>What’s so “astonishing” about that?</p>

[beth_s_mom]

<p>I was a partner at a large NYC law firm, and I can tell you that there was no overall firm preference (other than for very top of the class), but different interviewing partners had different school preferences. There were some who wanted only T-14 grads, some who wanted only Harvard/Yale/Columbia grads, some who thought certain Ivies rarely produced “practical” lawyers and considered it a disadvantage, and some who had a strong preference for kids who worked themselves through the local law schools at night.</p>

<p>I subsequently worked in real estate finance for a large international financial services firm (midwestern office), and the majority of our new hires came from Wisconsin-Madison and UIUC. Interviewing there gave us the most bang for our buck.</p>

[taxguy]

<p>There are some types of firms that only recruit at Ivy and similar top schools. They are firms like Google, top consulting firms, wall street investment banking firms etc. However, for the VAST majority of other firms, they will recruit at the local university especially state university.</p>

<p>Also, even if you didn’t go to a top notch school, having top grades can get you into wall street and consulting firms. If a professor is well known and is located in a big city with lots of corporations, he or she can recommend you. I attended Baruch and majored in accounting. I had very good grades. I was able to get a position working at a bond trading companyin wall street in addition to getting offers and working at Big 4 accounting firms. </p>

<p>Bottom line: Can going to Ivy schools , MIT, CalTech, and a few others be beneficial? Yes, but only for a relatively small number of firms. Moreover, top grades, a good personality and some hussle can get you access to firms that might not recruit at your school.</p>

[SgtDonut]

<p>What exactly do entry-level employees at “top consulting/investing banking firms” do?</p>

[cekelly]

<p>Yeah, but for many places “top schools” can have a broad meaning. There is a difference between UC Berkeley and MIT even though many Berkeley grads go on to work for the major firms. In many ways, internships can be even more important. JP Morgan has a very good internship program for college students which can help you get a job there. In fact, many major companies have easy application pages on their Web sites for internships. A few ive checked out are NASA, the US treasury, and JP Morgan. For many companies the A student at UC Berkeley or equivalent would have a leg over the C student at MIT.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>

However, there are a handful of firms/career paths, where brand name is important, primarily in the investment banking and consulting.

</p>

<p>And don’t even think of becoming a Supreme Court justice without having gone to a top 5 law school, lol!</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>

What exactly do entry-level employees at “top consulting/investing banking firms” do?

</p>

<p>A lot of gruntwork and exceedingly long hours, often coupled with a lot of travel - which is glamorous and exciting initially, but can get really, really old fast. </p>

<p>It also never seems to be noted that with the high-end consulting firms - the people with the power aren’t the firms themselves, but the clients who are the ones who make the money to hire them in the first place. And many of those clients don’t have fancy educations.</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>cekelly - from your other posts, you apparently are in the UC system somehow. That may explain why you’re “astonished” by Michigan appearing in a list of top recruited schools. Trust me, the respect that you think is engendered by UC Berkeley in your neck of the woods is matched, if not exceeded, by Michigan in many other parts of the country. I’m guessing you just assumed your regional perceptions were national in scope.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>Maybe the astonishing thing was not that Mich was on the list, but that Harvard wasn’t…</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>

@taxguy

There are some types of firms that only recruit at Ivy and similar top schools. They are firms like Google, top consulting firms, wall street investment banking firms etc.

</p>

<p>Not true for Google.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/technology/28recruit.html?pagewanted=all[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/technology/28recruit.html?pagewanted=all&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

@New York Times in 2007

In the last two years, Google has expanded its university recruiting programs to nearly 200 campuses from about 70.

</p>

[bovertine]

<p>

And don’t even think of becoming a Supreme Court justice without having gone to a top 5 law school, lol!

Dang it! I heard there might be some openings coming up. I was counting on it. Now where am I going to work? :)</p>

[Marian]

<p>200 is still a relatively small number of campuses.</p>

<p>You might be able to get into Google from the University of Michigan – even if you can’t get into some major consulting or investment banking firms – but you won’t get into Google from South Podunk State.</p>

[bovertine]

<p>^^^
Maybe not South Podunk. But probably San Jose State.</p>

[Lenitus]

<p>

You might be able to get into Google from the University of Michigan

</p>

<p>Google actually has an office in Ann Arbor, so I’m assuming they would try to recruit locally from U-M.</p>

[scout59]

<p>Looks like those 200 universities include places like University of Victoria in Canada, too, as well as some LACs.</p>

<p>

“We started to realize that there are small, good liberal arts schools, and if we can get the top two or three people there, they are just as good, if not better than the 50th person at MIT,” Carlisle said.</p>

<p>The company is spreading its recruiters out among more schools, rather than concentrating them at the most elite universities, Carlisle said.

</p>

<p>[How</a> Google Finds New Recruits - Technology and IT Jobs News and Advice](<a href=“http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB130642885529019387/How-Google-Finds-New-Recruits/]How”>http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB130642885529019387/How-Google-Finds-New-Recruits/)</p>

[barrons]

<p>All the “big” IB and consulting firms recruit at UM for both undergrads and MBAs.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bus.umich.edu/pdf/EmploymentData2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bus.umich.edu/pdf/EmploymentData2011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This is the survey of hiring schools for a broader base of large hiring firms across the US.</p>

<p>[Best</a> Colleges & Universities - Ranked by Job Recruiters - WSJ.com](<a href=“Best Colleges & Universities - Ranked by Job Recruiters - WSJ”>Best Colleges & Universities - Ranked by Job Recruiters - WSJ)</p>