<p>How important is the name of your undergraduate school later in your life? I mean this holistically, including job opportunities and "reputation."
I am currently a sophomore in Georgetown. Georgetown is certainly a good school with the iconic SFS program and a selective admissions process, but it is not a world class institution at the level of the Ivies, Stanford, UChicago, etc. Georgetown SFS was my safety, but I chose not to transfer last year because I thought Georgetown would grow on me. I was wrong.</p>
<p>So my question is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>With the same qualifications (same major, same GPA, same GRE/LSAT/MCAT/etc. grades), how great would the difference made by a Georgetown diploma and an Ivy diploma be?</p></li>
<li><p>Would it be advisable to transfer as a junior? Would the gain (being educated in and graduating from higher-ranked college) over-weigh the cost (only 2 years to make friends/bond with professors, having to adapt to the new environment in your 3rd year, investing time on the application process, losing some of the course credits due to different GE and major requirements)?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) It is unlikely to matter at all for grad school, but might a bit depending on the reputation of the department. It’s not like you come from a low ranked school. It won’t matter at all for law or med school.</p>
<p>2) depends on the credits that you would lose, if any. The rest is personal preference and what you can define that you would get out of it.</p>
<p>Undergrad rank really doesn’t mean much. It helps get your foot in the door and that’s it. Once you get your first job it doesn’t mean anything. It’s what have you done and what can you do, not where did you go to school.</p>
<p>I’ll give you an example…</p>
<p>My dad went to West Virginia University for engineering, it’s not even a top 100 school. He only got a 3.5 GPA. He has always strived for perfection in his field and now makes $225k+ yearly. He hires guys his age who went to top 25 schools to make half of what he does. </p>
<p>Unless you want to be an IBanker, undergraduate school rankings are a glorified ego boost. Graduate rankings mean 10x more.</p>
<p>You’re insane if you think a Georgetown degree will put you at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>Going off of what teenbodybuilder said, I work in a large company (generates $7 billion in revenue). The CEO of my company went to trinity college (via Wikipedia) and I’ve never even heard of it. The big guys here – nobody really knows where they went to be honest. They just know their name but honestly nobody really knows that they are an alumni of x and y university without asking or looking it up. I know the CEO of my branch went to my college, and we aren’t even really that big in name. I’m backing up what above poster said, because the executives in my company stress that networking and skills really help you out. They just mention getting a college degree is important, but nobody’s ever told me I needed to go to an Ivy. </p>
<p>At least I’ve heard of Georgetown is all I’m saying.</p>
<p>I have been working for a loooong time and my company still includes that I went to Wharton on my resume that goes out to clients. So, my answer would be yes, particularly if it is a well known, well respected school.</p>
<p>And as far as Gtown goes – it is an extremely well respected school so there is absolutely no reason to transfer to a higher ranked school just for the sake of being a a higher ranked school. If you are unhappy at Gtown and want to make a change to a school you feel is a better fit, that is another thing altogether. However, beware, transfers are not always easy (most people have their friend group in place, not all of your credits may transfer etc) so don’t do it unless you feel very confident that you will be happier at the school you transfer to.</p>
<p>At my last job, I worked with a woman with a Harvard MBA. She never mentioned it; it was something I found out from someone else after about a year. And yeah, people are impressed when they hear “Harvard”. But in her case, it just went along with our already existing opinion of her - that she was very smart, very capable and very impressive overall. We already thought that of her - Harvard was just icing on the cake. If she had been mediocre, lazy, not so bright, etc and we heard she went to Harvard, we wouldn’t have thought better of her. We would have thought “how the heck did she get through Harvard?”</p>
<p>In other words, in the workplace it’s your actions that matter. No one really cares where you went to school and they aren’t going to base their opinion of you on it.</p>
<p>If you are truly unhappy at Georgetown because the fit is bad, then a transfer may be best. Uf you’re thinking 1) Georgetown doesn’t have a Name; or, 2) only an Ivy degree is acceptable, then read the blogs and papers.</p>
<p>I think the name of your college matters a lot. For every successful person from a no-name college there are a hundred successful people who went to a prestigious college. Nobody has mentioned the great self-affirming affects of a prestigious school. It boosts self confidence and self esteem for the rest of your life. It will also give your children confidence that they can accomplish great things because of your example. Attending a prestigious college has a ripple effect through generations.</p>
<p>Of course, you still have to perform well in your endeavors after college but the association with a famous name accrues benefits.</p>
<p>I was a first gen college kid who couldn’t figure out the money so I went to a local university (but not the flagship). I’m a lawyer now in another state, I don’t think anyone I know/worked with could tell you where I went to undergrad. I know some of theirs but only usually because it’s part of our state university rivalry/college football. </p>
<p>My bf went to college in WV then grad from an Ivy. No one knows or cares where he went to undergrad. </p>
<p>Will it matter to some people? Probably. But it’s most likely to be brought up by the person themselves because once you are 30 or 40 no one else particularly cares.</p>
<p>If you are going to get a higher degree (JD/MD/Phd etc) the undergrad means less.</p>
<p>Work in a respectable field for a very large employer and I doubt anyone in my office even knows where the others went to college. A few know mine because of its football team and that is about it. Take it for what it is worth.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are unhappy and perhaps you should explore a transfer to somewhere you will like better with better prestige or not. I would hope that you gave Georgetown a chance and have not colored your whole experience through feeling it was “beneath” you as a safety.</p>
<p>College rankings do seem to play a role in investment banking as said earlier. A top student giving up a USNWR top 15 school for a merit scholarship at a 2nd tier school will still get a great education but find it difficult to break into Wall Street. How many kids know they want to go that route in high school and eventually do so? Probably not many.</p>
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<p>I thought that professional school was a glorified trade school. Given equal prestige in my case, I thought my undergraduate experience was more important. In hindsight if I had to go to my state flagship for either college or medical school, I would have definitely done that for medical school. I can see that for PhD work that would not be the case.</p>