Graduating from a "Lesser Tier" School

College Majors Business Major
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<p>I am an excellent student, but like many others in these hard times, had to choose the honor's college at my state's flagship university (Louisiana State University) over a Tier 1 business school.</p>

<p>While not Harvard by any means, the undergraduate program is solid, ranked #88 overall by Business Week. I will have the benefit of graduating with no debt. I plan on majoring in International Trade & Finance and am looking forward to starting school.</p>

<p>I see a lot of people saying, "if you want x job" you need to have graduated from a top school. There is no doubt that the top programs will give you great connections and a stronger foundation to build on, but what about the vast majority of business students from other programs?</p>

<p>Can I still get a great job after graduating, and am I necessarily stuck in my region? What can I do to make myself as competitive as possible? I plan on keeping my grades up and working internships, but what else do grads from solid but not top schools do to get an extra edge?</p>

<p>Nearly all of the topics here are about "top" schools, which is fine, but I think it provides unrealistic expectations about the real world.</p>

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<p>what was the business school you chose not to attend?</p>

<p>Also, are you planning on going to grad school? Then you shouldn’t worry, most employers are interested in what grad school you graduated from</p>

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<p>As someone who has hired dozens of business school grads I can tell you its not the scool, its the person. Yes a Tier one school opens more doors initially, and yes it will result in a higher starting salary, but after 7 years there is little, if any, difference in top school business grads comp and those from well-regarded, quality institutions. Pick a school that works for you…forget the rankings, ignore the BS you read from, so called, experts and focus on being the best you can be. Success is measured by a lot of things, not solely where you went to school or what’s your starting comp out of college.</p>

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<p>bump bump 10</p>

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<p>Too many of the posters here on CC get hung up on the prestige of the “top” schools. In the real world, employers only care about what YOU bring to the table that will benefit the company – your skills, talents, attitude, work ethic, etc. Yes, the name of the school on your diploma might open a few more doors for you initially (and even then, it’s mostly the doors of people who went to that particular school or to another Ivy or similarly selective school). But a few years out from school, no one will care where you got your degree; by then, it will be all about your work experience and what you have been doing since you left school.</p>

<p>You are indeed in a very fortunate position to be able to look forward to graduating from a solid business program WITH NO DEBT. That is a huge advantage. It gives you all kinds of options – including getting an MBA from a top school!</p>

<p>Just do your best at LSU and you’ll be fine. Good luck!!</p>

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<p>Isn’t this a bit contradictory if prestige is so negligible?</p>

<p>Over 65% of all college graduates have a bachelors as their terminal degree and since most people have only one shot, it is important to go the best college you can safely afford to.</p>

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<p>Cbreeze, reading comprehension man reading comprehension.</p>

<p>Worried_mom basically said the prestige of the undergraduate school shouldn’t matter too much. It all depends on what kind of student you are.<br>
Graduate school prestige definitely matters.</p>

<p>RIP Michael Jackson.</p>

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<p>You are the one with reading comprehension. I am saying undergraduate school prestige matters as much as graduate schools. Not many college graduates go to grad school. One’s terminal degree should be prestigious whether undergrad or grad, if one believes in prestige at all.</p>

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<p>I agree that people get “hung up” on prestige, but here’s the problem: LSU doesn’t have the same companies that recruit there as, say, Wharton. So why is that a problem?</p>

<p>Let’s say you want to go for a Harvard MBA. How do you get into HBS? One thing you need is some high level contacts that will write excellent letters of recommendation - and not some boss somewhere in some little company, but a director or C-level executive at a Fortune 500 company. You also need high level experience. How do you get that in 3-5 years after your undergrad? One of the best ways is to get hired into an HBS “feeder” company (a major consulting firm, VC firm, etc). How do you get a job like that? You go to a top undergrad program where those companies hire.</p>

<p>I agree with you that no one will care that you went to a third tier public school if you earn a Harvard MBA: but what’s the chance that you’ll get into a Harvard MBA from a third tier public school? Slim. You won’t be recruited by the “right” companies, you won’t be hired by the “right” companies to get the “right” experience.</p>

<p>And even more important - you might not find a job at all. Business degrees are a tough sell these days. Every school in the country seemingly offers a business degree, so you see tens of thousands of business grads every year. In addition, you have engineering major, econ majors, and other technical majors that also throw their hat into the business world. How can you stand out in that sort of environment? Short of making some incredible discovery or some major hook, the easiest way is to go to a first tier school. Ceteris paribus, people take the top program students over the lower program students, which reduces your competition from tens of thousands to hundreds.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. </p>

<p>G.P.Burdell, I see some truth to your post, but I think you are exaggerating. Your attitude is exactly the kind my original post was targeted towards.</p>

<p>I compared the top hiring firms and percentage of students offered jobs at LSU with Ross, Wharton, and Goizueta (because it is in the same region as LSU). I used BusinessWeek.com for all my data.</p>

<p>LSU has a significantly lower rate of students being offered jobs before graduation- 68%. The average of the other three was right around 91%. Interesting enough, though, there is notable overlap between the top hiring firms.</p>

<p>LSU: Ernst & Young Deloitte Touche Tomatsu Chevron Corp. KPMG LLP State Farm JPMorgan Chase & Co. Exxon Mobil Corp. PricewaterhouseCoopers Postlethwaite & Netterville APAC Grant Thornton, LLP, CPA Firm Protiviti Inc Shell Guaranty Broadcasting Corporation Laporte, Sehrt, Romig & Hand CPAs Ryan & Company</p>

<p>Emory:** PricewaterhouseCoopers** Deloitte Touche Tomatsu Ernst & Young Lehman Bros. KPMG LLP Wells Fargo Goldman Sachs Group Bank of America Corp. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Merrill Lynch Mercer Consulting Wachovia Securities Macy’s</p>

<p>Michigan: JPMorgan Chase & Co. UBS Credit Suisse Group Lehman Bros. Ernst & Young Deutsche Bank AG Morgan Stanley Citigroup Inc. Bank of America Corp. Microsoft Kraft Goldman Sachs Group McKinsey & Company </p>

<p>Wharton: Goldman Sachs Group Lehman Bros. Citigroup Inc. Merrill Lynch Credit Suisse Group Deutsche Bank AG JPMorgan Chase & Co. UBS McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group Morgan Stanley Bain & Company Deloitte Touche Tomatsu Oliver Wyman The Blackstone Group </p>

<p>If the differences between tier 1 and LSU are as stark as you claim, there would be no overlap between these lists. While it is true that the better firms are taking more graduates from top schools, your claim that “LSU doesn’t have the same companies that recruit there as, say, Wharton” is wrong.</p>

<p>Clearly the students from the better schools are getting better jobs on average. But the top recruiters aren’t ignoring lower tier schools by any means. </p>

<p>And if you looked at the complete list companies hiring LSU grads, I think you would find that even the very best places take a few of its students. Sure, these places might take many more graduates from top schools, but they clearly don’t ignore the best students at lower tier schools.</p>

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<p>Yeah we all know how you Ivy leaguers are god’s gift.</p>

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<p>Actually, I don’t have an “attitude”, I just see how it works as a graduate from an ivy league school, a different private school, and a public school.</p>

<p>Recruiters don’t ignore “lesser tier” schools for several reasons. First, practically if they need to hire a large number of people (see PWC), they can’t limit their options. Second, if they’re recruiting for a specific area/city (e.g. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Lake Charles), they’ll recruit from good nearby schools (it’s much harder to find a Columbia grad willing to go to Lake Charles than an LSU grad and vice versa for upstate NY).</p>

<p>But, regardless, Deloitte as LSU will have higher standards than Deloitte at Wharton and will hire more at Wharton than at LSU. That’s just the way it is. They might set a 3.5 minimum GPA at both schools, but at Wharton they’re competing with many boutique firms offering top dollar whereas at LSU they have little competition - they’re the preferred hiring company.</p>

<p>Also, notice that the I-banks on those lists. Notice anything strange about where, say Goldman Sachs goes? The entire industry skips LSU evidently.</p>

<p>Further issues with the analysis: you’re not accounting for positions (a Wharton grad is more likely to get placed in a NY high profile position than a SUNY grad), you’re not accounting for smaller boutique firms that hire for high paying positions like VC. </p>

<p>Am I trying to say that people at LSU are screwed? No. You can be very successful coming from any school. But will you have the same opportunities at graduation? No, and anyone that tells you otherwise is lying. But does that make you automatically worse-off than Ivy League grads? I wouldn’t say that. I knew several Ivy League grads with $200,000+ in debt at graduation that took $50,000 / year jobs. I’d say an LSU grad making $50,000 / year with no debt is in a much better position financially for the first 10-20 years of his or her life.</p>

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<p>@Sleepy_Sentry</p>

<p>I’m not arguing for or against LSU but I just thought I’d point out that even though the same companies offer jobs to LSU\Emory\Michigan graduates the positions within the company can differ greatly(Back Office job vs. a Front Office job).</p>