How important are college rankings?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Obviously a degree from Harvard would look better than a degree from your typical state school, but how much emphasis do employers really put on the college you came from? Are you really that much more limited coming from say, a University of Delaware or University at Buffalo (two schools I'm interested in)?</p>

<p>Also, does prestigious program look better than a prestigious school? I ask because I'm interested in UMass Amherst, which isn't ranked highly at all, but has excellent science and engineering programs. Would a degree in nanotechnology from UAlbany (top nano school in the country) look better than a similar degree from a more prestigious college (assuming, obviously, that you were to go into that field)?</p>

2

<p>bump…</p>

3

<p>Also, how much better would a degree from U Michigan or UVa look than a degree from U Maryland? Would it make a huge difference?</p>

4

<p>Grad school is the important one…</p>

5

<p>gotcha…well then…how important are undergrad college rankings to the grad schools?</p>

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<p>I’m sure they make a difference. A graduate of Harvard undergrad vs. a graduate of University of North Texas simply won’t be looked as the same by employers, grad schools, and the public in general. However, Michigan vs. Maryland? Not a huge deal/</p>

7

<p>My dad went to U of Maryland for undergrad and got into U Penn (Wharton) for grad school…</p>

<p>As well as you do excellent in college, (and maybe take off a year or so for job experience) you can get into a great grad school…</p>

8

<p>Your questions have so much in common with student01’s…</p>

<p>The bottom line is it depends on what you want to do. If you want a typical engineering job, school matters little. If you want an elite business job, it matters a lot.</p>

9

<p>x2 on what hmom5 said</p>

10

<p>thanks!!!</p>

11

<p>FWIW, SUNY Buffalo has a great engineering program that’s very well respected throughout NY, and I also have no idea where the SUNY Albany = #1 nano is coming from. It may be true, but as a NYS resident who has a degree in chemistry, I do not connect nano to Albany.</p>

<p>A lot of the difference between the schools you listed (which were all the places my sister applied to and got in, she chose Buffalo) is quality and style of life.</p>

12

<p>You can go to a state school and do really well, get involved, etc. and be admitted to the best grad schools in the country. It’s what you do with yourself that counts.</p>

13

<p>Thanks, guys. And modestmelody, UAlbany does have the best nano program in the country. I live in Albany (aka tech valley) and the nano lab is really impressive. They will have an undergrad program for it starting this fall.</p>

<p>Here’s a link to prove it: [Top</a> universities for micro and nanotechnology | NetworkWorld.com Community](<a href=“http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/5896]Top”>http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/5896)</p>

14

<p>That being said, I don’t really believe in the notion that “nano” is a discipline and disagree with the idea of creating separate programs for nano science.</p>

<p>However, cool to learn something new. I never heard it mentioned, but I don’t do a lot of materials work.</p>

15

<p>Just to say, I know that UMass has excellent and underrated academic programs as a whole but there are many other reasons why many people (including me) decided not to choose UMass…</p>

16

<p>Being a materials science major and having taken a nanomaterials class, I have to say that it is radically different than most any other field and deserves recognition as it’s own discipline. The combination of ‘traditional’ materials science, quantum mechanics and the unique characterization problems in addition to some of the things that are being done with the technology make it worth putting money into, in my opinion.</p>