Hey! I cant afford any ivy league schools but i can afford some of the better public ones. Lets say i go to University of Florida to get my computer science bachelor, could i after im done look for jobs all over the US or would i be limited to Florida or even the Gainesville area? Do companies prefer students that have got their bachelor in their local area or state? Lets say i graduate from UF and find a entry job in San Diego, now would my chances to get the job be very slim because i would compete with students from the California area? like SDSU? I know its different from company to company but in general, what do they favor?
And what would be the smarter choice? Go to a college in the state you would like to work in in the future or to attend a better one in another state that you have no plan to stay in? I cant afford the UC:s either so theres that.
You can look for jobs anywhere. Some companies have a pipeline to certain schools. Smaller companies tend to hire locally. The best thing to do is attend a school you can afford (which is usually your home state for public Us). If you have a concern you can ask the college about what companies regularly hire grads.
It’s not so much about where you can ultimately find a job but more about how straightforward the post graduation job search would be. The most renowned companies that hire CS graduates are likely to interview on campus at the top 30 (or so) universities with strong CS program plus some of the universities close to their engineering development center(s). On campus interviews (for both full time and intern positions) simplify the job search process. New graduates can of course submit resumes to companies that don’t interview on campus. They can also ‘move’ (after graduation) to their region of interest and do their job search there. In this case the location of where they did their studies is less critical. That said, the response rate to unsolicited resumes is rarely high and the since the university where they graduated may not be well known to the hiring managers chances are further diminished.
Your example of “competition” by a SDSU graduate versus a UF graduate for San Diego jobs is interesting. My sense is that the UF graduate, assuming he gets selected for an interview, will have a distinct advantage over the SDSU graduate. UF is a superior university. Reasonably savvy hiring managers would know that. A comparison of UCSD versus UF is closer to one of equals. Here, all else being equal, the UCSD graduate would have a significant advantage over the UF graduate, this because UCSD graduates are well known to the company.
My experience in California has been the opposite of what @fogcity has posted.
We are in San Diego and my dd got her degree in NY for EE. She had a tough time, initially getting hired in California because the tech companies here were unfamiliar with her school program and, they tended to have a lot of local alumni from California schools doing the hiring.
The majority of the local tech firm “college hires” are from California schools. Yes, the big companies go “on-campus” to interview and recruit, but a lot of tech companies are in Calfornia (Qualcomm, Northrop, BAE, Google, Apple, etc.).
SDSU is well represented by reputation; they have a lot of “hands-on experience” (according to my dh who is an engineer hiring manager) and his company’s CSE lead hiring manager likes the in-house training that SDSU provides. That manager prefers CSU candidates because of the amount of internships and exposure to practice required by those schools.
My dd is in a hiring position now, and looks for grads with good GPA’s and internships, not only from the UC’s and privates but also from SDSU, CSULB, Northridge and the rest of the Cal States because she is familiar with their programs.
Just my two cents.
Apply to an affordable program. If you are good at what you do, and you are eligible for a security clearance, then you won’t have a problem being hired anywhere.
IMO the answer is “it depends”. Many national companies will recruit at the top schools in the field regardless of location. Smaller, local companies generally recruit mainly in their area and you would have to actively seek them out for a chance to interview. Since you are looking at one specific OOS school why don’t you try to contact their career placement office or the CS Department and try to get a sense of where CS students tend to end up job-wise in terms of companies and locations.
I am less familiar with CS, but what several other posters said, re: hiring locally rings true to me. I do think that companies being familiar with your school/program is important (in the South, no one gives a hoot I went to BU; in the Northeast, that on my resume with Latin honors means something), and often companies are more likely to be familiar with local or regional schools. The big thing I found upon graduating: it’s not always so much where your school was, but where you can afford to live in order to get hired. In the industries with which I am familiar (mostly on the media end of the spectrum), you won’t even get an interview unless you have a local address on your resume. They don’t want to deal with out of town candidates. Being local + local and/or impressive university will give you good odds for getting an interview. Thus, either attending school in the geographic location can help you (since you can apply to jobs while still attending school at the tail end of senior year), or having the funds to move there when you are job searching. So if you know you want a CS job in San Diego, your best bet for being considered for those jobs would be to get your butt to San Diego post graduation if you can’t afford to attend school there. The CA grads may have a slight leg up on you, but if you are physically present, you’ve at least got a shot at an interview.
Not all industries work this way and do recruit outside of candidates who live in the immediate area, but I do think it’s common. If you know you want to settle somewhere other than where you live now, my advice would be to try to attend college closer to where you’d like to end up.
It might make a difference in that it may take you longer to make connections but it’s not a deal breaker. Your accomplishments are more important than the schools reputation. I wouldn’t put it high on my list of must haves in a school.
For the engineering pipeline at my very large employer, it’s more about what schools the company (and individual leaders) have a relationship with AND grads who have a good track record of achievement and longevity in our organization, than how near or far they are. Sure, it’s easier to visit regional schools to recruit, but that’s just one factor.
We have standout folks from our two in-state engineering programs, and grads from those who end up being mediocre or not staying, and the same with the schools in the surrounding states. My school out in the desert is not on anyone’s radar, LOL - but I was hired with significant experience.
We have a slightly higher proportion of grads from Florida (FIU, Florida State) than one might expect, because candidly that’s a shorter putt to getting your diversity numbers up.
Try to co-op if at all possible. Nearly all folks in our new grad engineering leadership program now have put in one to three co-op terms with us. There are walk-ons, but not a lot.