<p>^^^ The post that claimed that Ivy league students “think they are too good” to perform a task was like me saying every house outside of NY looks like every other house. Of all the students who have graduated from the Ivy league how many students have you met and how many have worked for you? I on the other hand have had nothing but positive experiences with most students who have attended the Ivy League especially those who have attended Cornell. I would hire a Cornell grad in a heartbeat because they are probably the most hardworking humble students, and I have met so many. There are a couple schools in the league that may have students who view themselves as better than a lower ranked school but that attitude has never been my experience with Cornell students. Of course I can’t speak for all, just as the poster who claimed she would not hire Cornell grads. I can’t say I am sorry about your attitude it leaves Cornell students available for those employees that aren’t going to look for an excuse to make them miserable because they were fortunate enough to be admitted to the Ivy league. If you want to meet kids who have attitude get to know the MIT grads. Trust me many of those kids have an attitude.</p>
<p>Having been hired, and having done hiring, yes, it did matter. At least in Silicon Valley, where tokens of intelligence have high value.</p>
<p>what about those in the bottom top 20 schools?</p>
<p>M3-- I think you may have been referring to me. But, what I actually said was that my Husband, who is in finance would ONLY hire a Cornell or Penn undergrad, and a grad school graduate from the other Ivies.</p>
<p>He believes that the Penn grads he has worked with have been exceptionally well prepared for the finance world, and he has used both MIT undergrads, and Cornell undergrads for modeling, because they are quite skilled at this, though so are others. </p>
<p>But, I think I’m the only one who even mentioned Cornell. As for the MIT rocketscientists he’s worked with? LOVES them.</p>
<p>My field is different. Find me a recovering junkie from Princeton, and I’ll take her. Otherwise, not so much. ;)</p>
<p>As has been said before the more senior the position the less important the university. Now that I find myself in a position where I am reviewing undergrad candidates and resumes I find myself looking first at their work experience, then at the university name, then at the GPA, and finally ECs, etc. I think the work experience piece resonates more with me as it really shows you how motivated the person was to be able to land a bunch of strong internships even if they had to use soft skills and networking to land them (shows me the ability to navigate the corporate world becuase let’s face it the most successful people are generally never the smartest…they are the ones that meet the minimum academic bar but have other soft skills that allow them to be successful). I look at the school mainly to see if they meet that minimum academic bar (top schools have generally already filtered down people that meet this bar so it is much easier to tell if they meet this than someone who went to a non-target school). I think out of the past, 5-6 hires that I’ve made it has been roughly 50/50% between people with pedigree school and people from flagship state schools, etc. Like I said for me it all comes down, at least in an initial resume screen, to work experience. The interview is a different story where you obviously test for intellectual aptitude, level of insight, soft skills, etc. </p>
<p>The last decision I had to make came down to a Harvard econ undergrad with a strong GPA but only one real internship at an average firm versus a guy from UCSD who hussled and had 4 extremely impressive internships at places that normally only hire from pedigree schools - i.e. think banking, consulting, PE, VC, etc. We hired the UCSD guy.</p>
<p>"
what about those in the bottom top 20 schools?"</p>
<p>Oh good grief. Uh, those are still among the finest schools in the nation. Don’t ask stupid questions.</p>
<p>Definitely depends on the job/industry.
We had an employee from Middlebury, and one from Trinity (CT) who started about the same time. don’t know, but I think most CCers would consider Middlebury a slight notch above Trinity.
The Middlebury guy seemed sharper and more articulate, but ultimately did not work as hard or bring in the results that the Trinity guy did. Guess which one is still with us?</p>
<p>When I interview potential employees, I notice where someone went to school, but if they don’t show well in an interview or, worse case, are full of themselves because of where they went to school, it can work against them.</p>
<p>No difference one way or another here. The last three hires we made had undergrad degrees from Cal-Irvine, Western Washington University, and Evergreen State College. We rejected one from Princeton, and one from Dartmouth. All three are working out great.</p>
<p>For my d’s current job, there were 200 applicants, and 60 were interviewed. Many from Penn-Wharton, Georgetown, Princeton, etc. I would think it helped them get interviews. But she got the job.</p>
<p>I had an intern a few years back for a spring break program Harvard has. I have to say that kid was amazing. Eager beaver, gave me a new website from scratch and was great to have around. I’d have been happy to have him for longer.</p>
<p>I was hired twice for my Harvard degree (and both times they pretty much ignored my Columbia architecture experience) even though they were architecture jobs. In both cases they basically said they figured with the Harvard name, I’d be smart enough to learn quickly on the job. I did my best to live up to their expectations, since I’d learned nothing useful at Harvard, and only a little that was actually very useful at Columbia.</p>
<p>What matters for hiring, and what matters for successful tenure, two different things. Also depends on whether job requires broad skills not produced by training programs, or specialized skills taught or licensed.</p>
<p>My father used to hire engineers. He said when HR sent him a stack of resumes, as he went thru him there were certain colleges that would catch his eye and he would always put them aside for a second look. Among the colleges whose engineers he would always give consideration to were Univ of Lowell (now UMass Lowell), Rennselear, Lehigh, Lafayette, Clemson (his alma mater ;)) and Cal Poly. I’m sure there were others as well, but I remember him mentioning those. He’d just had good experience with well-trained undergrads from those schools.</p>
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<p>(You mean “history”?)</p>
<p>Seems like the problem has more to do with hiring someone with a non-technical background into an engineering position.</p>
<p>From what I have read, Wall Street seems to be very [brand</a> conscious](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/01/news/economy/ivy_league_advantage.fortune/index.htm]brand”>Ivy League is the best route to a job on Wall Street - Jun. 2, 2011) about Ivy League schools (and some are more “acceptable” than others).</p>
<p>But other employers and industries are often a lot less picky about school pedigree – a school’s prestige in the major being sought can attract non-local recruiters to its career center, but the companies often also recruit locally at lower prestige schools, accept resumes from graduates of other schools, and may not care that much about the school background of an applicant with significant work experience.</p>
<p>Oops! I am getting old. Yes, history major.</p>
<p>Engineering here. The top two schools new hires come from in our area are Penn St and Va Tech. (We’re located in southern PA.)</p>
<p>Certain companies recruit only at a limited number of colleges. You can find this information on their web sites. They may be colleges that offer degrees in a specialized field, colleges in the company’s region, or, in some instances, highly ranked colleges.</p>
<p>It is possible to get hired outside the formal campus recruitment process, but it is harder than it would be for someone who attends one of the colleges where the company recruits.</p>
<p>A Haverford alumnus, now working for one of the big four consulting firms, recently ran a “how to interview for consulting jobs” workshop at his alma mater. At the end a student asked if his company hired summer interns. “Yes, but we don’t take interns from small colleges. We are recruiting mainly from Princeton and Wharton. You are welcome to apply to our full-time positions though, provided that…”</p>
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<p>Graduating from the top 10-15 schools will always make it easier for students to attain competitive jobs. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for good jobs, it’s definitely not necessary to attend an Ivy+Plus though, but it helps a lot.</p>
<p>As MOWC stated, my sister’s Ivy UG and Stanford law continue to open doors for her. If an applicant is right out of college, I will pay attention to their UG. With few years of experience, not so much. There was a time when we were hiring a lot of Chinese programmers. Without knowing their skills, we went with where they went to colleges. It is kind of a good filter.</p>
<p>My H has hired engineers for many years, experienced ones & recent grads. He has often remarked to me that when a group of people are in a conference room, making that final decision about which one of the applicants they are going to hire, the name of the applicant’s college is never discussed. Rather, person’s experience, internships, skills, ability to fit in with co-workers comes into play. Prestige of the school is something my H has always said is rather overrated. </p>
<p>Once he asked me if I had ever heard of Harvey Mudd?
“OMG, I said, hire him.”<br>
“You are stereotyping, he is a SHE,” he replied. :eek:</p>
<p>My H does some consulting work, and he feels that his MIT degree definitely gets him “credibility” and believes that he has gotten some consulting projects mainly because of that factor.</p>