<p>Do you think the name of the college matters? I am not referring to Ivy League vs other well known schools. I am meaning if no one seems to have heard of the school your child attended, or it is the same name as a community college (very similar, one is called X community college and the other is called X college, and everyone here seems to know what X community college is) will it be harder for your child to get a job when he graduates?</p>
<p>Please do not berate me for this question. I have actually been a little worried because when I list the top 2 colleges my child might attend to those who ask, people think the one college is a particular community college, that has a similar name, and have never heard of the college, even though it is near where we live.</p>
<p>We live on the east coast. Our kid attended Santa Clara University. NO ONE here ever heard of it. When we told folks were DD was going to college, they asked us why we were paying OOS fees at a UC. Ahem…it’s not a UC. Didn’t matter to DD or us at all. We knew the school was terrific!</p>
<p>Depends where your child intends on getting a job, of course. </p>
<p>The average person doesn’t know anything about colleges, and only knows a handful of big names and then the local schools or schools friends / relatives have gone to.</p>
<p>Does it matter to whom? My son went to a very well regarded private college; well regarded in the part of the country where it is located, that sounds like a small non flagship school in name to anyone who isn’t familar with it. His friend went to a college with the same name as an ivy and he ahs to correct people who make that assumption. I suppose that it might cost my son some opportunities that he might be getting if he had gone to some other like college in the area that everyone knows, but I don’t see those opportunities a poppin’ out all over the place. The type of jobs for which he is in the market are more interested in the courses he has mastered, as they are sought after. If he can do it, then that’s al they care. And those who have not taken those sorts of courses, tend to all be having a rough time finding jobs,and clinching one has more to do with individual attributes than the college name.</p>
<p>Not always the case You are not referrring to Ivy League or other well known schools, but in those cases it can make a dffierence. Sonia Sotomayer in her autobiographical book writes how differently her mother and she were treated when people found out she was Princeton bound. And getting a spot on the Supreme Court without a top law school degree, even an clerkship there is just about impossible. Also there are firms that do look for those who have “name schools” on their resumes. Won’t deny that. But I liven in the NYC area, and I can tell you that I know many without such name schools doing just as well at prestige firms. Water does tend to rise to the level, and though there are some exceptions, for the most part, if you are an asset to a company, they won’t care.</p>
<p>But “prestige firms” are only prestigious in the eyes of, well, those who care about prestige. People employed by these “prestige firms” are kidding if they think the names impress anyone other than themselves. Most people don’t <em>want</em> to work for those firms and they don’t exalt them or bow down to their employees when they enter a room. From the standpoint of most people, what are referred to as “prestige firms” are simply – well, some other companies, no more or less important than anyone else. And you can make a plenty good living elsewhere. There seems to be this CC myth that only those industries pay well, which is just laughable and naive and frankly, reflects poorly on the people who think that way.</p>
<p>Around here, it’s expensive to live. High COL, high housing costs, so , yes looking for jobs that pay a premium is a big deal because a lot of generic jobs pay no more than the same position in,say Cleveland, where the living costs are much less. So, yes, getting a job at a "name"firm that pays a lot is something people seek around here. And some of them look for “name” schools. We’re friends with number of such snobs,but let me tell you for certain key positions where the skills are important, the folks manning those jobs come from all over. But for those early entry jobs, it does help when you want a better chance at higher pay position to have a "name " school on your resumee. </p>
<p>I say this without exalting the name schools. And I have kids who turned down name schools because they didn’t like them.</p>
<p>The answer you don’t want to hear: it depends.</p>
<p>If your kid wants to teach third grade, then the name doesn’t matter as long as the school will position your kid to get a Master’s (required in most states for public school teachers) or has a good track record getting its graduates hired in private schools. If your kid wants a job as an aerospace engineer and the engineering program is weak or unaccredited and no aero company has recruited there in 20 years then yes, the name matters.</p>
<p>People who hire for a living have very deep familiarity with their core schools (maybe the 20-30 schools which comprise the bulk of their new grad hires); good familiarity with another 30-50 schools; and then cursory knowledge of another hundred or so. If someone has hired in multiple industries and lots of different geographies then they will know more schools and have a bigger frame of reference than a 35 year old recruiting leader at a regional bank in Ohio who has never worked outside the banking industry.</p>
<p>So it depends.</p>
<p>I don’t think the “man on the street” reaction would give me pause about a particular college. I would do more research (the college’s own careers website and career development office in particular) before concluding that the school is too small or doesn’t have a big enough profile.</p>
<p>One of my favorite U’s of all time is U Missouri at Rolla (which has now been renamed but I always blank on the name.) When I hired engineers it was a hidden gem of a school- fantastic students, fantastic faculty. But if my dry cleaner had never heard of it- who cares? Other people in engineering- large companies, academics at other universities, etc. knew it well. When I hired writers and editors I loved Reed. On the East Coast it still has somewhat of a hidden gem quality to it, but boy, its grads can write. I recently had a colleague telling me about a fantastic department at Southern Illinois University-- not necessarily thought of as a top 10 kind of place- and how excited she was to have hired a new grad from there.</p>
<p>But if you wander too far off the grid I think you need to do some homework. I have friends who bemoan the kid on the sofa who can’t get a job in DC or Boston or Chicago or St Louis and I wonder, “well why did they have to go to a small college in Georgia which most people in Atlanta have never heard of, let alone folks in DC or Chicago?”</p>
<p>Don’t pick a college based on name alone. Don’t pick a college based on its career development operation alone. But don’t ignore them either. And don’t ignore the alumni networks. I’ve observed first hand the network at SMU, Notre Dame, Smith (to name three very powerful alumni networks) and it really helps when your kid can just ping a grad working in a cool job and know they will get a helpful response.</p>
<p>I like Pizza’s answer. There are several very well known…but only in the region…colleges in my neck of the woods where when you “say” the name of the college you get a smile and a head nod, but those same kids traveling to another region would encounter many, many people who know not a thing about the college…so if name recognition is something that will make the student happy post college then much will depend on where they spend the first handful of years post-college.</p>
<p>One of my closest friends recently got her dream job at a major university. And she HAD to have a masters to get that job. Thank goodness, she did, from a now defunct program through a correspondence course while her DH was in the military. People had actually said to her while she was doing this, “why bother to get this no name degree?” Well, she got the interview at the university based on her previous job at a small firm, and she did know a number of those who wanted to hire her, but without that Master’s from literally now no where, she could not have gotten the position as it was a requirement. No one cared from where, and we are talking a top 50 major university here where you would think there would be name snobbiness. Nope, not at all.</p>
<p>I like your answer too, Blossom. And I agree there are programs at small lesser known schools that are well-known to industry recruiters. You dentist might not have heard of it, but who cares if you are in that industry and you attended that college/uni.</p>
<p>Pizza, I have to respectfully disagree in some regard. There are many firms where the college you went to might not be important, but the law school you go to definitely makes a difference. And it makes a difference not only to the firm, but to the clients who keep those firms in business. They may not know exactly which attorney went to which law school, but they do feel they are getting the creme of the crop and they are willing to pay for that. I work for one of those prestigious law firms and they want their associates to come from the best of the best. So at least regarding law firms, and prestigious big name NYC law firms, your law school name definitely will matter.</p>
<p>I agree law is a profession in which school name matters, but so what? The majority of people aren’t ever interested in going to law school. No one is saying that there aren’t industries in which pedigree matters. Of course there are. They just aren’t the only “good jobs” out there.</p>
<p>As I said, there are times and places where it makes a difference. However, having a local law degree is often much more important in more law firm venues than being a “carpetbagger” with a top name degree. It all depends on where you are seeking a job. The same with getting a teaching position at a public school. State U or the once known as teacher’s colleges are where to go. And the fact of the matter is that there are more of those jobs than there are the ones that cater to just top name schools.</p>
<p>It depends on the job and where the job is. But once after you’ve landed the first job, no one cares. </p>
<p>I’ve been working for 20+ years. On my CV, my education is mentioned on page 4, and to shorten the document I’ve even dropped mention of my undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>UCB- thanks for helping out my senior moment.</p>
<p>Great university with a low profile on either coast- which is a surprise given the rigor of its engineering programs!</p>
<p>GMT- again, it depends and I wouldn’t say “no one cares” after the first job. In some fields it is more accurate to say that the undergrad institution matters a great deal; in others it matters not at all, and in many cases “it depends”. I don’t use my alumni network at all- zero, zip- and never have. But I have friends in different fields who 35 years after graduating from college have landed tremendous opportunities not that long ago by leveraging the network. I think that’s great. It doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that matters… but if you are deciding between one of the communications programs at Syracuse-- which have national reach and reputation- and one at your local private college which serves as a feeder to a local cable access channel and a small county-owned news website but not much else… and doesn’t have grads who have eventually landed at a national network or publication… it would give me pause. Even though working a behind the camera job in television is not traditionally thought of as a prestige obsessed arena. Even though skill, experience, an award or two is much more important. But the “brotherhood and sisterhood” of this profession can make getting that second and third and fourth job so much easier.</p>
<p>So it’s a balancing act.</p>
<p>A cousin of mine is a speech therapist. People are still reacting to the name of the university on her resume (she’s been in the field for over 20 years.) In many fields there are the “door opening” kind of programs, and the ones that even the experts have never heard of. Even in fields like speech which are not thought of as prestige- hound kinds of fields. There is still a pecking order, even if it’s not the Harvard trumps Cornell trumps SUNY Binghamton pecking order you read about in the kids threads here.</p>
<p>I think we ought to be careful about saying such things as “you have to go to a certain law school to get on the Supreme Court.” That may be the case now, but times change. Forty or 50 years ago there were no women or minorities on the Court. And that’s about how much time we are talking until our college-age kids are up for the nomination.</p>
<p>Also, to that point, there is another thread running right now about the undergraduate institutions Harvard Law students attended. You do NOT need an “elite” undergrad degree to get there if you are competitive otherwise. (Same goes for med school, from what I have read.)</p>
<p>I’m a speech pathologist who got my masters from a no name but accredited school. I have the same credentials as the person from the big name schools. I am retired, and I get calls daily about jobs. In speech pathology, it’s all about licensure, ASHA-CCC, and experience. It’s a shortage field in most places.</p>
<p>Not saying those tip schools aren’t great…but they are not essential to a successful career in this field.</p>