<p>I think it’s an excellent traditional strategy. You have to remember though that an elite school isn’t enough, it’s only an opportunity. YOU have to create your own value. You have to make valuable people who invest their valuable time in you (professors and employers) very glad that they did. Always ask yourself if this person who invested their time is getting THEIR return on investment.</p>
<p>“If you are hiring for some regional manufacturing company, an honest hardworking graduate from a decent local college would be just fine.”</p>
<p>We still manufacture something in this country? Learn something new every day.</p>
<p>I’m in law. An Ivy League pedigree can certainly help you get your foot in the door when you are trying to land your first job out of law school. But after that, it matters little. In 30 years of practice I’ve never had a client hire me or not hire me based on what law school I went to (UC Davis). Very few have even asked. And watching lawyers in action all the time, it is impossible to tell the difference between the Ivy League law grads and the lower tier law school grads.</p>
<p>My young friend who is starting at a prestigious consulting firm this fall (after some initial money from them funded some fancy downtime this summer) is one of 25 or so chosen out of thousands. And yes, she’s Harvard and so were plenty of those she bested, plenty who won’t be in IB this fall. But, she played her cards right at every stage of college, developed a keen set of analytical, problem-solving and time management skills. She may have gotten some attention because of the college prestige, but she didn’t get the job because of that.</p>
<p>It’s an important consideration. In hs, kids can get ideas of what they’d like to do, who they’d like to be. What happens next isn’t always a result of the goals; it’s the follow through. And, that requires skills of its own. </p>
<p>Pick the environment in which you can flourish, hone and come out with a value to offer. The school’s rep is about the school.</p>
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<p>What do you mean by consulting? If you mean McKinsey or Boston Consulting or Bain, then a top MBA would help. They don’t hire much from undergrad anyway. But as soon as you get lower on the list (Deloitte, Accenture, etc), you can get in there from many, many schools. I used to recruit for Accenture (all consulting managers do, and I was one for several years), and my daughter’s boyfriend works for Deloitte now. We used to recruit at the local public universities, LACs in the area (some ranked as low as 100 in the US News rankings). Now the stronger schools generally gave us stronger candidates – more polished, stronger intellectually. But there were certainly exceptions, and we hired 'em. My D’s bf went to a liberal arts college ranked around #50. He interned with Deloitte’s consulting arm one summer and was hired after graduation just last year. When I think about the Accenture partners I knew (it was a partnership then), I don’t think hardly any of them went to what you would consider a “top college”. Those firms are recruiting for smarts, drive, and interpersonal skills. You don’t even need an MBA to work for them, nor do you need a top degree. Now they will chew you up and spit you out if you can’t do the work, keep the pace, and get along with clients. But it isn’t as hard to get in the door as you would think. The school you go to generally won’t make much difference.</p>
<p>Now I will say that major does make a signficant difference in their hiring process. Some kind of business, econ, or MIS/IT degree is far more likely to get hired than a liberal arts degree. Easier to get the interview and much more likely to get hired. I am sure there are a small number of exceptions, but if you want to work in that field, then pursue one of those majors.</p>
<p>^ She’s headed there, without an MBA. (Double major, something related to business plus STEM- good, eh?) I suspect she’ll be used for both her financial and her science savvy.</p>
<p>“smarts, drive, and interpersonal skills.” Absolutely. You don’t get that because the sheen of the college magically sprinkles on you.</p>
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<p>Or e) someone like me, who was working full-time, going for an MBA in the evening (sponsored by my employer), but became pregnant with twins and wasn’t able to finish, and after the twins came, said - I can’t do all three things, school’s got to go! 
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<p>But generally speaking, though, I do agree with your point. Thinking of my friends from my undergrad, I would agree that most went on to get a graduate degree of some sort, ranging from business to communications to law to medicine to divinity.</p>
<p>Or that sweet bullet, the JD/MBA.</p>
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<p>Ah, entry level consulting. Sounds so glamorous, right? You’ll travel to exotic lands and CEO’s will be waiting breathlessly for your recommendations on how to manage their businesses! Entry level consulting jobs are chew-them-up-and-spit-them-out. There’s nothing glamorous about sitting in the Marriott in New Jersey at 2 am working on excel spreadsheets for someone else to get the credit. Don’t get all starry-eyed about it.</p>
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<p>I knew several people from my NYC public magnet who were admitted to UMich with GPAs in the -B/B range…and with FA/scholarships to boot in the mid-'90s so ClassicRockerDad’s account is believable.</p>
<p>Yes, where you go to college matters a lot more than it used to. In the past, most people didn’t go to college. It was rare, so going to college was a great credential to have.</p>
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<p>Yeah, but you went to Stuyvesant.</p>
<p>I’m aware that success takes very hard work. When I’m a 22 year old out of college with high expectations of myself, I think a job like consulting will be ideal for me.</p>
<p>You don’t really get much better exit opportunities also. I don’t want to narrow my career down to quickly</p>
<p>You’re at NU? So do you feel you are getting the prep and/or that it is going to get you where you want to go? You are building that resume now?</p>
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<p>Over the course of a long career in consulting you can get some really varied experience. But sometimes you get socked away in the bowels of a big project for a year or two – and you have no control over what the project is (location, industry, role). As Pizzagirl said, it is not as glamorous as you may think.</p>
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<p>Sounds like you are making a case for GOING to college generally, not attending a specific institution. Just saying.</p>
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<p>No, what I’m saying is that if everybody has a college degree, then having one doesn’t distinguish you much from people applying to the same job. I would bet that there are a lot of jobs today which require a college degree which wouldn’t have asked for one in say, 1950. Therefore, where you got your degree, or also how you did there (i.e., GPA), would matter more than it would have decades ago.</p>
<p>Read the article in this thread. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1532205-falling-love-my-safety-school.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1532205-falling-love-my-safety-school.html</a> Well done</p>
<p>collegealum, I see. </p>
<p>But I still don’t think it matters for most people in most fields.</p>
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<p>You forgot one college degree which students are quite successful without ever needing a graduate degree. BS in Econ from University of Pennsylvania.</p>