<p>My doubt is, does going to this or that college increase or decrease your chances of getting good jobs as much as it is thought? As in a student of one of the top universities in the country would be most kindly considered for a job than one that went to a not so great school? </p>
<p>Depends on the type of job.</p>
<p>It’s more so the respectability of a particular program. My state flagship Mizzou accepts almost every applicant. They have a very respected journalism program.</p>
<p>However, it doesn’t matter so much in fields like engineering, where ABET accreditation is the factor most used to determine if one is qualified for a position or not. Of course, there is exceptions for the cream of the crop - MIT, UIUC, Purdue, etc.</p>
<p>Depends on the program. If u want to be a petroleum engineer, u will get recruited from Texas A&M or LSU, not Dartmouth or Duke.</p>
<p>Depends on what you are going into and where you apply. Some people give preference to alumni of their school, some like the top schools, some dislike top schools (Ivies due to grade inflation, top schools may make them perceive the applicant as pretentious or an over-privileged legacy), some like high GPAs, others dislike high GPA (perceived to be a perfectionist). And it also depends on the program. Harvard is a top school, but for something like journalism, you can find schools with better programs.</p>
<p>Yes, it can make a difference, but not for every student. There are a bunch of factors that come into play with this. </p>
<p>For those who are top students at a top university, the opportunities can be right on hand, as recruiters from certain companies do target certain schools over others. If you are say, an A student at Harvard, you can check the lists of what companies are coming to campus to interview, and it makes it a lot easier to take those steps to getting a job with them. Bear in mind, however, that not every single Harvard student is going to get a job from those interviews. I know many Harvard kids who are job hunting who did not get anything right out of school through campus recruitment. When one looks at the stats for those who are employed and getting paid, bear in mind that at certain schools, there are a lot of students who have family and other contacts that also play a big role in their getting a job. </p>
<p>IMO, for those with few or no connections to getting work, the most important thing outside of being a certain type of person, (something one doesn’t have all that much control over) is the field of study. If you are a STEM major, there will be far more opportunities open to you If you have marketable skills,yes, you will be in good shape. A couple of years ago, a number of kids in our area were jobless despite degrees from top schools (some Ivies). They were Anthropology, Psychology, Philosphy majors with no real idea of what they ultimately wanted to be career wise. They just wanted a living wage job and the way thtings were in the economy, finding full time job hours except in the fields that were crying out in need for those trained in specific things, was just about impossible. By going to our community college and getting certification in some med tech, accounting, computer fields, they were able to find jobs since those specific skill jobs were needed. Not what they wanted to do, but it got their feet in a door, and in a few years when some like organiziation or their company had management or other types of opportunities, they were first in line as they were already working hands on there and then could whip out that BA. Honestly, i don’t think the companies cared whether it was U Penn, Penn State or Kutzdown U that issued the bachelor/s and whether it was in English or Philosophy. Just the BA, and the job experience already on the floor did it. Since then, most have moved on to other fields as other opportunities arose, and those two years working as an MRI assistant or medical billing are long gone. They aren’t even in the medical fields. But they needed that boost to get a job to get them in position for a non entry level job.</p>
<p>My son graduated from a small college that few people around here even recognize. But he has a Math degree and worked with a lot of systems, modeling and projects that required and used advanced math. He has had several semesters of prob,stats, stochastic processes, computer work, math analysis. I don’t think he even really needed the math degree so much as the familiarity with these areas that need the workers with this expertise. So he had little or no trouble finding a high paying job. Didn’t matter which college he attended. He works for a major corporation and when going through the interview process was a bit overwhelmed seeing kids from top schools vying for the same position. They could spin but could not do, and he and kids from some no name tech schools who took the required courses got the jobs over those who took maybe one stat or math course and could talk a good talk until they were put to a task. His best friend who graduated from Harvard, is working at some non profit at a grass roots level for less than half of what my son is making, and though this young man has had a number of job opportunities, he’s yet to snag a job paying anything close to what the STEM majors are getting. </p>
<p>Short answer; “YES it does”.
The effect will be seen in either alumni network for recruiting, type of major or just territorial recruitment. </p>
<p>Where your undergraduate college choice matters less is in graduate school application, which relies more on your undergraduate GPA, Test scores, recommendation etc.
So if all you want to do is get an undergraduate education and then get a job, then strategically search for the school that has a great track record of students in that particular field getting good jobs right after college from those institutions. Unfortunately, this is where most fall back to ranking; which ranks schools by major.
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Thank you so much!</p>
<p>I think if it’s a top 10 program in the major or an ivy it gives a lot more opportunity but otherwise not really.</p>