I’m only here to help my kids get into college and because I’m bored.
I meet a lot of people throughout the U.S. in a sales capacity (in the accounting, finance, tax industry) and there is always questions about family and kids, where they go to college and/or what they are doing for a living.
I just had a call with a prospective client in Dallas. I went to his Linkedin profile (as I always do before a call) and he was a graduate of Wake Forest. I knew that the Wake Forest v Duke football game was cancelled this weekend and mentioned to him that my D is attending Duke and we briefly discussed the “rivalry” and cancelled game as an ice breaker.
The bottom line is that your “resume” will follow you throughout your career and really for the rest of your life.
By the way, I read an article that was saying that Texas college grads were having a hard time finding good paying jobs. I wonder if the graduates from “prestigious” universities like HYPMS were having as tough a time?
Graduates of HYPMS are from far wealthier families than those graduating from Public Texas Universities, and thus would already be better placed to find jobs on graduation.
There would also be effects of location - most HYPMS graduates are from the coasts, while most Texas graduates are from Texas.
So comparison of these would have to be controlled by family income and home states and hometown.
They would also have to be controlled for sample size, since there are 5 HYPMS colleges with, at most, 6,000 graduates. On the other hand, there are 35 public universities in Texas, with more than 100,000 graduates a year.
We’re not talking apples and oranges, we’re comparing 1 lb of oranges to a bushel of apples.
Our son definitely did not have a hard time.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22967084/#Comment_22967084
A vague quote from an unlinked article is not a good reference. Was it quotes from a few cherry picked kids at an unnamed college who said they had trouble finding jobs? Or was it a good portion of students? I expect COVID-19 has negatively impacted new grad jobs in nearly all types of colleges, including “prestigious universities like HYPSM.”
Studies looking at new grad salaries have found that the salaries generally follow the student, rather than the college name. For example, studies that have controls for individual student characteristics usually find little or no financial value in attending more selective colleges. The classic example is the Dale and Krueger study, which found that average earnings were similar among students who applied to and were accepted to a similar set of colleges, regardless of whether the student chose to attend the relatively more or less selective college. In short, the individual students and their backgrounds were the driving force for their future earnings, rather than prestige of college name.
I’m sure not seeing Texas college grads having trouble getting good jobs. The pandemic has thrown a wrench in things for everyone, but there are still plenty of jobs out there.
I’m interested in colleges and where people and their kids went/go to college. I find it to be a fun topic of discussion.
I can post this until I’m blue in the face but here goes for another generation of college parents.
It doesn’t matter if your home town/city/rural area/beach is paradise or heaven on earth. Unless your kids nephrologist or oncologist (god forbid) insists that your kid cannot relocate after college, you are making a mistake if you don’t encourage your kid to look broadly for that first and second job after college.
So many jobs that we all think of as “secure” are subject to the same ups and downs in other parts of the labor market. The kids who became petroleum engineers because that was a high paying “can’t miss” career but who graduate when oil prices are going down the drain- and all the fossil fuel companies are cutting their hiring targets around the world? The nurses (what could be more secure than nursing?) who graduate just as three big hospitals in your region are consolidating and the unions are insisting that the long tenured nurses get a crack at the jobs that the newbies used to get? The software engineers, the accountants-- every single profession has ups and downs and disruptions.
I am amazed- shocked, actually- by how many new grads I talk to and counsel and try to help who are insistent that finding a job “close to home” is priority 1. Kid wants a job in museum management- Smithsonian not hiring. Oh well- there are only about 2000 other museums, historical societies and archives around the country. Kid won’t leave DC metro area? Well I guess that fantastic entry level job in Kansas City (fabulous museum, by the way) will go to someone who is a little more flexible.
Kid wants a job in the media industry and the only companies on the target list are the major networks. Big, big mistake. Maybe it will work out and maybe it won’t. But if you don’t accept that the traditional and time honored “route up” is to start in Duluth, work your brains out and get promoted to Indianapolis and then after a few more years FINALLY get offered a job in Houston (note- still not in NYC)-- then you don’t understand how the labor market works in your chosen field.
Kids in Texas- some of you will need to leave Texas. Most of you don’t want to. Hence the disconnect between the jobs that are out there and where you want to be. I’m not anti-Texas. I could be giving the same speech to kids in SF, Portland, Seattle, DC, Boston, NY, Philadelphia (PA is the LEAST mobile state in the country, so I’m never surprised when someone calls me to help their kid who was born in Bucks County, went to Penn State or Kutztown or Temple, and can’t fathom NOT living near mom and dad.)
You can read an article in Forbes about the implications of a teacher shortage and wonder “what the heck are they talking about” if you live in a state where entry level teachers have trouble finding jobs unless they are ESL certified or have a Master’s in Special Ed.
It’s not forever- but sometimes the economy is going to require that a young person start out far from home to launch.
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From a simple time perspective and the ink stamp at the top of your diploma - to reference your brand of four fleeting years somewhere between ages 18-22 becomes less and less relevant with every passing moment. I mean, if someone has it placed at the tip of their tongues ready to articulate during conversation, is that what they consider as their last meaningful accomplishment? Is it the primary standard by which they define their children? There becomes an assumption: the topic of alma mater is their adult hobby. Perhaps I’m fortunate to know a plethora of people who have found great success via their own boldness and talent polished by their regional flagship or liberal arts college; who have a more nuanced perspective on the prominence of college years in the continuum of learning and earning.
Texas is huge and not everyone is from one of the big cities, you can relocate 10 hrs away and still be in TX.
I don’t personally know any recent grads that went to school here in TX, that are sitting at home unemployed or underemployed. I would be curious to see the article you read.
A very random interaction that could play out in countless different ways with a different school on your resume.
OTOH, how do you account for so much emotional stress (admittedly, among a certain stratum of society) purely around the goal of getting an entry-level job that will, on average, last maybe a year-and-a-half?
Some people get extremely stressed about all kinds of things. There are certainly some people that believe their life is over if they get rejected by Harvard, or get a B+ in chem, or if something mean is posted about them on social media, or if someone they care about is unhappy with them, or countless other things. It doesn’t mean that those stresses must be rational reactions to the true importance. In many cases, the stress will be have negligible emotional impact a few weeks after the event.
Oh, I agree with that to a certain extent; I always try to counsel posters, especially the younger ones, that their lives aren’t over because they didn’t get into their dream schools. But, again, that’s a tacit admission that there are dream schools.
Moreover, I can’t help but observe that the absence of any middle-ground between those who find where people were located between the ages of 18-22 (I mean, why wouldn’t that include the possibility of military service?) a window into the soul and others who find it a third rail, suggests to me that like everything else, this is highly contingent on your zip code.
Of course there are dream schools, but your dream is not my dream. Way back in the dark ages when I was applying to colleges I only applied to UNC-Chapel Hill because that was where I wanted to go. I thought about applying to Duke just to see if I could get in, but decided to save my $75 because I had no intention of going there. I know Duke is a “dream school” for a lot of people, but certainly not me (or probably half the population of the state of North Carolina —Go Heels!). I had no desire to go to any Ivy League school. UNC-CH was my “dream” school I guess, but it wasn’t really a “omigosh, I’d just love it if I could get in there” hearts floating above my head kinda dream school so much as a practical “that’s where I want to go” school.
I am not sure this is an accurate assessment at all. I think for most people it is middle ground. I don’t think anyone who is saying they don’t ask grown up adults where they went to college 20 years ago is not doing so because it’s a taboo “third rail” subject. I think they don’t do it because it’s boring and not relevant to what is happening right now. I don’t ask people where they went to elementary school either unless we find out we grew up in the same city during those years. If some circumstance of conversation makes college relevant then I would gladly talk about it, but it mostly doesn’t come up in conversation unless we are talking about where our kids are looking at going. It is all middle ground.
LOL. Your middle ground is not my middle ground. 
I hate to break it to you but, there does come a time in life when your’s no longer revolves around your children. Most of my friends are empty-nesters.
By the time you are an empty-nester you are 20-30 years removed from your own college days. If at that point your starter or primary focus when you meet someone is where you went to college decades ago, there is a good chance you haven’t done a lot that is interesting since.
I think that the importance/relevance of the college someone attended is at its peak right after graduation. Then it slowly wanes over time. If you consider a new college graduate’s resume, college attended, major, and sometimes GPA are typically listed at the top. Subsequent resumes have college/major towards the end.
LOL. You say that now. Wait until you’ve put in 20-30 years of worrying about other people’s money, health or welfare. I guarantee you’ll be glad to talk about something else. 
How old do you think I am? Giving you a hint, I live in a nest that is empty with decades of work in the rear view mirror. Care to put any money behind that guarantee? 
Fortunately, I don’t have to. David Brooks arrives on our doorstep with the correct answer (and, not a moment too soon):
In other words, there are many, many, many places (mainly outside of New York City) where the spectre of “You think you’re better than me?” is a real thing, where the question is indeed something of a third rail.