<p>i go to one of the smaller universities in the state of Alabama called Jacksonville State University. i chose this school because it was reasonably close to home and the tuition was lower than the others here. its a pretty good school.
so my question is does it really matter where you go? like when i graduated would my chances of getting a job be better if i had graduated from University of Alabama or UGA or some other larger university? do employers care alot about that?</p>
<p>I research higher ed, and here’s my response:</p>
<ol>
<li>We don’t know the answer to your question yet.</li>
<li>I lean towards “going to college matters, where you go to college does not”. I don’t see any convincing evidence yet that going to one college versus another will have an impact on a student’s future (but it’s a very hard effect to measure).</li>
</ol>
<p>There are situations where a Harvard grad would be chosen for a job over a Jacksonville State grad.</p>
<p>lol well thats true. but i dont think i will be competing against alot of harvard grads…i hope i wont.</p>
<p>In my opinion, it matters. And a lot, too. I think employers, especially ones from large companies will ALMOST ALWAYS choose the harvard grad (or a grad from any elite uni) over the jackson grad unless the jackson grad has a lot more skill. </p>
<p>@lynxinsider— “going to college matters, where you go to college does not”
This statement is very true if your applying to grad or medical school since they’re the ones who don’t care what college you go to as long as you do well. However, employers WILL care. But don’t worry if you don’t go to a well known uni. Just go to a good grad school and employers will like you just the same.</p>
<p>I doubt employers from large companies will care a lot about where you went to school. The best benefit of going to a good school is the networking.</p>
<p>I live in Alabama…</p>
<p>What is your major and intended career? I know that it doesn’t matter for certain majors, but it does matter for others. For instance, many companies try not to hire engineers from a certain college here because the education isn’t strong in engineering.</p>
<p>@YaleRocks: I contend that there is no credible evidence that students of equal academic ability or skill level experience different outcomes (either employment or grad school) based solely on the name of the school on their diploma. Holding academic ability and skills constant, it seems to me that other factors like social capital are more influential in outcomes.</p>
<p>I’m happy to be faced with research to the contrary.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>If you’re saying that 2 students with the same intelligence and similar high school experiences & stats can go to two different colleges with the same major and come out with the same education and employable skills, I’m not sure that that claim can be made. If one such student went to a college that is weak in math, sciences, and engineering, he won’t get the same education as the one who went to a college that is strong in those same areas.</p>
<p>But, I would also say that for some majors, it probably doesn’t make a lot of difference where you went to college.</p>
<p>well my major is computer science but im not sure what i want to do with it yet…possibly computer analyst. im worried about when i finish if i will be able to get a good job. i will probably look out of state, theres not alot here.</p>
<p>What do you mean that you’ll look out of state? For your major or for a job? You don’t have to look out of state for either! </p>
<p>As for jobs…you’re lucky to live in the state that has the 2nd largest research park in the nation…Cummings Research Park which employs thousands of high tech employees. I know that there’s not much where you live, but that is certainly not representative of the rest of the state.</p>
<p>As for your major…there are other colleges in the state that will have a better CS program than JSU. Auburn, Bama, and UAH all have better programs and you’ll likely have a co-op job or internship while you’re there and a job when you graduate.</p>
<p>Going out of state for college in your case is totally unnecessary. The costs would be ridiculous in OOS tuition fees.</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t matter. That’s why this web site exists. =P</p>
<p>For CS, a lot of companies will heavily recruit from certain universities (UC Berkeley, CMU, UIUC, Harvard, MIT, et al). It does matter, but I’m still trying to figure out how much.</p>
<p>But if you’re planning on going to grad school, I think it’s safe to assume no one cares where you got your bachelor’s after that. The college that awarded your master’s or Ph.D would be more important.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>True…but totally not necessary when you have Cummings Research Park in your state.</p>
<p>i mean i will look out of state for work. this is one of the poorest states in the nation and i cant expect great pay or great job opportunities here. thats not to say i couldnt find IT work here, it just depends.
what and where is cummings research park?</p>
<p>*i cant expect great pay or great job opportunities here. thats not to say i couldnt find IT work here, it just depends.
what and where is cummings research park? *</p>
<p>LOL… OMG…you’ve got to get out of your county once in awhile!!! There’s a whole lot that you don’t know about here.</p>
<p>You think that you can’t expect great pay here? My H makes a very high salary here. You can’t assume that the entire state is like the county where your college is (which is rather low income and not high tech). </p>
<p>Cummings Research Park is in Huntsville. Huntsville has one of the highest concentration of PhDs in the nation. Cummings Research Park has a very high concentration of Fortune 500 companies and Fortune 1000 companies.</p>
<p>*Cummings Research Park (CRP) is one of the leading science and technology parks in the world. As a visionary public-private partnership, CRP has built a legacy of success for more than 44 years, and is now the second largest research park in the U.S. and fourth largest in the world. CRP continues to provide a competitive business advantage in a constantly changing high technology environment. CRP is home to uniquely focused alliance of business, government, and academic research initiatives. *</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cummings_Research_Park[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cummings_Research_Park</a></p>
<p>You really need to visit Huntsville if you think that there aren’t high paying jobs here. My H pays new graduate engineers $60k per year. Engineers make 6 figures after not too long.</p>
<p>BTW…the fact that you don’t know about Cummings Research Park is indicative that JSU is not doing its job. As a CS major, you should have been told about co-op/internship opportunities at CRP.</p>
<p>It matters in the quality of student you will be around and the general academic atmosphere. For some, regardless of the environment, they can succeed academically, not only in terms of scores, but in terms of really accumulating intellectual knowledge and stimulating intellectual curiosity. While you can make any college a life changing experience, the difference will be in the ease at some of the top-tier schools when compared to third and fourth tier schools.</p>
<p>And $60K in Huntsville is roughly equivallent to $100+ in Boston, DC, NYC or San Francisco. </p>
<p>At any rate, where you go to college may make a difference for some academic/career tracks. For example, if you were aiming to work for a major Wall Street Financial or Consulting firm, going to a high profile university would obviously help, especially if you have connections. At the end of the day, connections trump where you go to college, but the reputation of one’s university comes in at a close second for those types of careers.</p>
<p>I would say that going to a top college also enhances your chances of getting into a top MBA program or Law school. </p>
<p>Beyond those tracks, where you go to college matters less than your own abilities, drive, initative-taking and…luck. Of course, many companies have their core compentency requirements. For example, a firm like Pfizer will recruit their researchers from top Biotech programs. A firm like Lockheed Martin or Boeing will recruit from major AE programs like MIT, Caltech, Michigan, GT, Stanford and Purdue. A firm like Microsoft or Google will recruit at top CS programs such as Stanford, Cal, CMU, MIT, Cornell and UIUC.</p>
<p>But those firms will not fill all their needs at those major programs. They will also recruit heavily regionally, especially for non-specialist positions. </p>
<p>So, where CS majors go to college matters, but not that much. Of course, going to college at MIT, Cal, Stanford, CMU, UIUC, Cornell and a couple other programs will make a difference, but by and large, graduating from a reasonably respected program will open doors regionally.</p>