<p>In terms of the engineering world, going to the engineering program at PennState and being at the top of your class will get you better job placement than from Princeton, or at least that is my firm belief backed up by employers that I know in my area (I live right by Princeton). The reason? Alumni connections. If the company is going to be hiring based on academic merit and school name alone, then they'll be hiring from MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Cornell, etc., where Princeton is lower on that list. But PennState for example has a HUUUGE alumni network that just love to hire their own, because they personally know the rigorousness of their engineering program by firsthand experience.</p>