<p>I frequent WSO (Wall street oasis) as much as I do here on CC, and many users on WSO seem to focus heavily on the prestige of the school. Just for 1 example there was a thread discussing "Berkeley (Haas) vs Cornell" and many supported Cornell simply because it had the ivy brand, and hence was "better" to potential employers.</p>
<p>On that note on CC, there seems to be a fair divide among users who believe either Cornell's ivy name doesnt matter since it's the lowest ivy, and those who still believe it's ivy brand helps a lot.</p>
<p>SO from the experienced adults - Parents - I'd like to hear your opinion on how important a school's name matters in business in general.</p>
<p>In my opinion prestige doesn’t really matter for accounting and professional services, even for Big Four firms. I didn’t go to anywhere near one of the top schools in the country and I can’t think of a single person in my graduating class who couldn’t find a job in accounting. (Frankly, there’s way too much turnover in a CPA firm to limit themselves to only take Cornell grads!)</p>
<p>Agreed, banking and accounting are apples and oranges for sure. </p>
<p>In the accounting world, good grades from almost anywhere can get you a Big 4 job. </p>
<p>In my (then) Big 6 days, we hired grads from all over the place. There were certain top school that were “targets” for recruiting, but people were also hired from in from all the local Cal State schools and less prestigious UCs & privates as well. </p>
<p>When I was in undergrad, it was the Big 8 (and before that it was the Big 10). Then there were a few sets of mergers and we got down to 8 then 6 and now 4. Also, after Enron, Arthur Andersen disappeared. </p>
<p>From what little I know of banking, it is all about the school you attend. If you are not at a target school, you stand little chance of being hired regardless of your grades and accomplishments. </p>
<p>Jarjarbinks…are you still tying to come up,with a justification for attending an unaffordable college? Like NYU or University of Michigan? Neither will guarantee to meet full need for you, as you know.</p>
<p>a Cornell accounting degree is not worth anymore than a SUNY accounting degree. The Big 4 hire from everywhere.</p>
<p>OTOH, The Street is all about prestige. (Some even ask about SAT scores.)</p>
<p>btw: ask those that rank Cornell far ahead of Haas where they live. (CC is northeast-centric.) There is also some self-selection in play: many at Cal-Haas are targeting high tech and VC’s, not necessarily IB’s.</p>
<p>In that respect it may then have to depend on what you actually want. It sounds like from the other folks here that banking is not the same as accounting and professional services (which is where my experience is). </p>
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<p>Right now we only have the Big Four, but after them are BDO and Grant Thornton which are both fairly big in their own right. </p>
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<p>Another thing that sometimes college students overlook is that finance is not limited to Wall Street firms like Morgan Stanley or Goldman. If you’re considering a job as a CFO at a private company, or a financial manager of a city or county, you might not be as beholden to prestige. In addition, you might want to work for a boutique firm or a start-up somewhere.</p>