Sorry if I offended you. That was not my intent, but my point remains.
Also, who is doing the speculating ?
@itsgettingreal17: Are you a freshman in the Foundation Fellows program at UGA ?
My understanding is that the University of South Carolina, for example, tries to counter not being a core or target school by taking their top finance students to NYC each year in order to encourage recruitment & placement of their students by these type firms.
@Twoin18 don’t confuse who is more fortunate of your twins, that is yet to be determined, however for the one going to school on a full ride, it is definitely YOU that is more fortunate.
@CU123 There’s no difference to us, they got the same amount of money in their 529s (I don’t understand at all the attitude that this achievement should benefit the parents rather than the kid). So the twin with the full ride is definitely the more fortunate of the two for the moment.
But we’ll see if more spending on education at a more prestigious school produces a return on investment for the other later on. I’m doubtful it will, any difference will more likely be determined by their choice of career, family trade offs, etc.
@twoin18 Well if your looking for ROI then the full ride will win as ROI on zero is infinite. I guess then that 529 money will go to the full ride child when she graduates? if so then she is more fortunate. If it goes somewhere else well then that person will be more fortunate.
@CU123 Yes I mean the incremental ROI for her brother: how much will spending $X more on college deliver in terms of the NPV of his incremental lifetime income. And how will that compare to the ROI that she can make using the same $X left in her 529.
But I’m guessing that their respective career and family choices will be far more influential in determining the final outcome.
@Publisher, I will leave @itsgettingreal17 to decide what, if any, information to share, but I do know that @itsgettingreal17’s post is not based on speculation.
@Twoin18 My ds attended a lower ranked school on full scholarship. He has a close friend who attended a tippy top school full pay (close to $70,000/yr). They both applied to similar grad programs. Both were accepted to similar programs. Today they are both grad students in the same top 5 grad program.
Would the avg student from his U have been accepted? No. There is no question about that. But, he wasn’t an avg student, and the avg student at his U wouldn’t have been competitive for admission to a top UG school. His actual peer group at his U had similar outcomes to his. For example, his close friend who also attend on scholarship in the same specialized honors program is now a MD-PhD student at Harvard pursuing something to do with nanotechnology. She was involved equally stellar opportunities outside of the classroom as an UG, was a Goldwater Scholar, etc. (and she opted to attend that lower ranked U on scholarship as an UG even though she was from CA. 
)
Compared to the thousands of students graduating in their class, are these the normal outcomes for the academically avg student? No. But amg their equally high-levels-of-academic-achievement and goal-oriented peers? Yes, it is. Small in number? Yes. But it doesn’t negate their outcomes. (There were 40 kids in their program. I don’t know what all of them are doing, but amg his close friends whom he talked about all the time, all of them have achieved their individual goals.)
@itsgettingreal17 has shared information via PM with me stating that MBB opportunities do exist for UGA Foundation Fellows due to the efforts of a special Program Director hired by the University of Georgia for Foundation Fellows. I am aware of similar efforts on behalf of several programs at other schools.
This is wonderful news for Foundation Fellows students at the University of Georgia who probably are less than one percent of the UGA undergraduate student population. MBB core & target schools are consistently recruited on campus & place similar numbers year after year with these firms. Just think how ridiculous it would be for Harvard, Princeton or any other Ivy League school or Ivy equivalent to make an argument based on the top one percent of their student body.
While not impossible for UGA Foundation Fellows to intern with MBB, neither UGA nor UGA Honors College or Foundation Fellows is a core or target school for these firms. Whether or not they should be is another discussion. And, as I wrote earlier, an accounting major with a 4.0 GPA from any respected school can compete for a Big 4 accounting internship.
I checked the website for the University of Georgia Foundation Fellows for the class of 2022. There are 17 UGA Foundation Fellows in the class of 2022. Multiply by four & there are roughly 68 Foundation Fellows at UGA among the 26,328 full time undergraduates. That equals about one quarter of one percent of the undergraduate school student body.
Again, arguments based on the top one percent or less at any Ivy League school or Ivy equivalent would & should carry little weight–especially in the context of this thread.
@Publisher is correct an as I have previously posted, its the cohort that defines the college and when that cohort is homogeneous enough, (as it is at the top schools or a small subset of an average school) that is where you get the differentiation. IOW every student has passed through this sieve and been accepted to a top college (or an elite program within a university) will automatically get the benefit of the doubt that they are exceptional, just from the name on the degree (or the program from which they graduated).
But if students “will automatically get the benefit of the doubt that they are exceptional, just from the name on the degree (or the program from which they graduated)” there is a strong argument that picking a selective cohort experience at a lower ranked school is better than being one of many at a higher ranked school.
Is it better to be in the top 1% at Utah or in the top 10% at UCB/UCLA? Sure if you want to study CS then leave school and get a job in tech in Silicon Valley the answer may be obvious. But if you want to get into a top PhD program or win a prestigious nationally competitive scholarship it’s probably the other way round, because members of these selective cohorts get lots of support and opportunities to help them do that. And the extra money definitely tips the scales.
Some have stated that it does, but coming from the computer industry, I know better than that. An “elite” school is still only accredited as a bachelors degree. The only educational distinction employers make in job qualifications is between a bachelors and a masters degree. A masters degree from any university is worth more than bachelors degree. It’s a higher level of learning. But, education still only basic job training. Here’s the fun part…once you have job experience, your education becomes chump change in just a few short years. A lot of employers don’t even look at it for mid to senior level positions. If you want to go “elite” that’s great, but don’t fall into the debt trap over it. You’ll regret it.
Some have stated that it does not, but coming from the computer industry, I know better than that. It certainly does matter. An elite school does carry weight when resumes are screened.
“And, just about everything a new grad offers as far as expertise and experience comes from the college they attended. Some schools are simply better at building both the expertise and experience of their students.”
Ok, so for silicon valley, high-tech, what schools would these be, outside of Stanford and Berkeley which have deep tie-ins to the industry that no other school can match?
“The higher salaries will go to those with the best expertise and experience in the most sought after skills.”
The expertise and experience will get the interview, then the determination of an offer would be based on how the person does on the interview, both the technical questions and whether the applicant would fit in the culture. That fit is also determined by how well alumni of the college have done at the company. And at Google I know for a fact, that the salary is partially determined by how you do in the interview, which is why Google tells people not to reveal their interview questions.
For SV (or anywhere actually) I don’t think it comes down to a list. I’m more with the general position that it does matter where someone graduates from because all schools are not the same. Would it be safe to say that Cal has a better engineering program than (say) the #8000 school on the US News list? Probably. Would it be safe to say that Harvard’s is better than CMU’s? Maybe not. So what happens when an interviewer is scanning through some resumes and sees candidates from Cal, CMU, Harvard, and the #8000 school? Someone will certainly come up with a scenario where the #8000 candidate is better, but that would be the exception. So the best recommendation for a high school student is to get into the best program you can taking in all the dimensions (inc money etc).
Agree with your comments on interviews, but there is a twist. One way to land a position is the old-fashioned way; submit resume, wait for call, pass phone screen, pass any number of code tests, go to f2f interview, receive an offer. Another way is to be approached by a hiring manager at a poster session who says “Awesome presentation, can I contact you about a potential job?”. The latter example is probably a better path. You may still need several interviews, but being brought in by a manager is an edge.
It’s just that where you went matters, but it doesn’t stop in the top ten. Yes somewhere along the continuum there is a big drop off. Dedicating an entire thread to where this is and what majors are impacted is a bit pointless. Especially when this is all personal anecdote and speculation. As in all things it usually comes down to the individual whether it matters or not. Lousy employee with great pedigree gets more chances than same performance for directional state in most cases. Great performer from either have high limits.
Different employers and persons reviewing resumes have different policies, but the general consensus is that college reputation has little impact compared to various other factors when reviewing resumes. In the previous linked survey of hundreds of employers, one of the questions they asked about hiring new grads was:
Employers as a whole said there was little difference between an elite college and nationally known college for hiring decisions. However, there was a large difference between either and an unknown college. Among the 100+ surveyed science and tech employers, the average ratings were 3.89 for elite colleges, 3.83 for nationally known, 3.77 for regionally known, and 2.63 for unknown.
So in the end we agree that it does matter where you go to college.
So then the discussion is the differences then come to industry and degree. For instance tech. And here is where I argue that it is the individual program that matter.program that matters. For instance if you look at the Quartz article mentioned earlier you will see a list of colleges commonly associated with strong programs: Cal, Stanford, CMU, USC, UT Austin, GTech, UIUC, SJSU, UCSD, and Az State. So SV hires students from California, to Arizona, to Illinois, to Pennsylvania, to Georgia.
https://qz.com/967985/silicon-valley-companies-like-apple-aapl-hires-the-most-alumni-of-these-10-universities-and-none-of-them-are-in-the-ivy-league/
Also, if you recheck the THE article it is interesting to see which companies hire predominantly for top 10 schools.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/which-colleges-do-facebook-google-and-other-top-employers-recruit
And of course every survey need to be taken with a gain of salt since most that I have seen are either dated, or do not show enough of the internals.
@Data10 need some definitions there what is an elite vs nationally known college? This of course is just a STEM survey so that is a BIG limiting factor. I mean if your a hiring manager for a tech company would you hire an engineer from an elite LAC that doesn’t have engineering? Stats tell easily tell you what you want to hear.
704 employers from a variety of fields participated in the survey. Only ~100 of the ~700 were in tech. Employers in all 8 of the surveyed fields had reasonably similar views on college reputation. Some example more detailed numbers are below, for how employers in different fields ranked different types of colleges. As you expected, tech employers ranked LACs lower compared to other industries. It’s far from the only employer survey that came to this conclusion. For example, the NACE surveys found employers rated the same criteria as more influential than school attended as did the Chronicle survey (when both asked about same criteria), with the exception of volunteer work.
Most Influential Factors When Evaluating Resume of New Grads (>15)
Business: Internships and Employment During College
Education:Internships and Employment During College
Tech/Science: Internships and Employment During College
All Others:Internships and Employment During College
Other Factors At Least Half as Important as Internships and Employment During College
Business: College Major, Volunteer Experience, ECs
Education:College Major and Volunteer Experience
Tech/Science: None
Least Influential Factors When Evaluating Resume of New Grads (<7)
Business: College Reputation
Education: College GPA and College Reputation
Tech/Science: College Reputation
**Desirability of Different College Types for Hiring of New Grads/b
Business: Public Flagship: 3.92, Elite: 3.86, Regional Public: 3.83, LAC: 3.70
Education: Public Flagship: 3.93, Elite: 3.84, Regional Public: 3.85, LAC: 3.89
Tech/Science: Public Flagship: 4.03, Elite: 3.89, Regional Public: 3.85, LAC: 3.21