i think this thread is so funny because it’s so, so true. like, painfully true. out of the eighteen schools to which i applied this round (don’t chastise me! application anxiety [clearly] got the best of me after i was rejected from all my schools last year, and i freaked the heck out), i had only ever heard of three. three. i didn’t know grinnell—the school i’ll be attending in the fall and am shamelessly and unabashedly in love with (if you couldn’t tell)—existed until 6-8 months ago. it’s very crazy how this website, in particular, can open a student’s eyes to the opportunities in front of him/her the “real world” cannot.
I hired for years for a corporate fortune 100 company. We had a selection of schools where we would recruit on campus - none of them ivies. The focus was on spending our money and effort wisely so we would go to nearby large state schools and then midsize well respected technology schools. We would fill our graduate positions in this way. For our experienced positions, as soon as someone had any job experience at all - the school they graduated from no longer mattered.
I grew up in the midwest mostly and only moved to CA for grad school (and then stayed here). I remember about 15 years ago my neighbor’s kids were going to college at San Diego State and San Jose State and I was so unimpressed by that… like… gosh, this is a nice neighborhood and don’t your kids have higher ambitions than that??? LOL, Clearly I’ve now been schooled on a) how expensive it is to go private when you live in CA and b) how hard it is to get into the UCs.
^ @washugrad that’s pretty typical for CA kids to attend a UC, CSU or Community college right out of high school. It’s the expense factor and with CA being so big and having so many good colleges to choose from, you really don’t need to leave the state. Why? To pay OOS fees? It’s the exception than the rule if a CA kid leaves the state…they’re either a recruited athlete or their parents can afford to send them wherever.
Kids get a great education at our public universities and while most people outside CA or the western region wouldn’t know all the names of the UCs or CSUs, employers in our state sure do and love to hire them! More CSUs are tailoring their curriculums to meet the needs of industries so they graduate students who can immediately contribute to them. One of my relatives graduated from a newer CSU and because of the school’s connections with local employers, she had excellent internships during her last two years. She landed a great job and has moved up the corporate ladder quickly. So I guess in our neck of the woods, the real world views our state colleges favorably.
Not every kid in a nice neighborhood anywhere is academically able to be admitted to a highly selective college.
Random person in CA asked my D,“Where are you going to college?”
D: “Pomona College”.
Silence
Random person asked my D’s friend.“Where are you going to college?”
Friend:“UC Santa Barbara”.
“Oh, you must be very smart!”
I get how people away from the east coast know about publics so much more than privates. Huge numbers go to the state schools in most areas and they have universities known for high quality. One just doesn’t hear how good east coast public U’s are. Are they that bad compared to the myriads of small private schools heard about on CC? Or does the vast majority ignore sites like CC, as do most from elsewhere in the country? I wonder how many of the top percentile go to their flagship U in various states/regions?
@wis75 I’ve heard in state people describe Umich and UC Berkeley as “dream schools.” I’m from NJ and people go to Rutgers for financial reasons or distance from home or because their stats aren’t that great. It’s not a bad school but I’ve never heard it described as anyone’s “dream school.”
Know two girls who went to Rutgers on soccer scholarships. UCLA probably will surpass Berkeley as a top preferred CA state undergrad in 10 years.
While here on CC there is much talk about the USNews rankings, the college rankings that matter to most Americans is the ESPN rankings.
@cbreeze, luckily CEO’s, and their recruiters, know the top-ranked schools.
I completely agree with the premise of this thred! However, I would like to throw in that most people know what they are interested in knowing! I grew up in Midwestern Ohio in the mid-1980’s, when I was applying to college I spent hours, days, weeks pouring over The Princeton Review and similar college “encyclopedias” ( if only I had spent that time prepping for the SAT!). I was fascinated by by the whole proccess, I daydreamed of escaping Ohio and I became very, very, familiar with all sorts of opportunities beyond Ohio’s borders. I dragged my Mom on tours to small LACs like Westminster College (PA), Hope College (MI) and Roanoke College (VA); I knew enough that my grades and test scores were not going to open the door to the schools that I was really interested in…The University of Virginia and William & Mary. In the end, I choose Ohio University because I loved it, it was affordablbe and it offered a degree in International Studies.
I live in TX now… when it came time for my own kiddos to find a school we were aware of Grinnell, Macalester, Evergreen State, West Chester, Southwestern, Trinity (TX) and 100s of other schools that most people have never and will never hear about. We weren’t afraid to look at small unknown LACs or state flagships in places like Iowa or Minnesota. DD#1 choose Marquette (which is met with a blank stare by most parents in Texas) but was familiar to my family in Ohio and my husband’s Catholic family from New York. To this day I can’t name most NFL, NBA or NBL teams. Sometimes people ask if I watched the game over the weekend and I just smile and nod while thinking think “nah, I don’t follow sports. But, I did watch the documentary ‘Ivory Tower’ not that you’d be interested…” :-B
@Chembiodad And luckily CEO’s and their recruiters are not as star struck by the top ranked schools, except in a few job categories.
Out of curiosity, how many of you knew what a “directional” was before coming here? I had no idea what they were or why people kept talking about them in such derogatory terms.
In California high school in the 80’s, you felt sorry for anyone that wasn’t going to a UC unless they were going to Harvard. We really had little way of knowing the diversity of schools available without the internet or family that had lived in other areas of the country. Our school library had a book on scholarships but not colleges. I trained as a stage manager and so even when applying for jobs, college was never brought up unless you didn’t have enough real life experience and really, it’s still a lot like that.
These days, Our btdt friends all know what’s up. Our younger new parent friends have a better clue because they were just in college (we had a surprise late in life baby connecting us to younger circles not much older than our eldest.) Our older friends starting families late though… they still look at me blankly when we answers what schools our children go to or are looking at.
As the economy has grown, higher paying jobs have become more and more locally available. Since three quarters of jobs in this country are done by smaller to medium sized companies, it’s more cost-effective for employers to hire talent locally than recruit them out of state. That’s why the tech hub cities like Austin, Columbus, Salt Lake City, Dallas, and Raleigh are growing so much. These cities are conveniently located in and around major flagship and regional universities. Employers can easily build their companies around the local talent in the area.
@gallentjill I still don’t really know what a “directional” is – without hijacking the thread, could someone offer a brief explanation?
@coolguy40 ^ that’s what I was pointing out in post 43. In CA, there is a push to educate the labor force and now there are more programs with k-12 system to help get kids college ready. There are agreements in place with schools such as SDSU and high schools in under privileged areas whereby students automatically gain admittance if certain gpa, classes and scores are met. They want to give access to college to those populations (mainly the school districts close to the border) and keep homegrown residents in state and educate them for the labor force.
@gallentjill I’ve always thought the term ‘directional’ schools really to be a derogatory term moreso than the literal meaning. For athletes getting recruited and receiving scholarship money, directional schools aren’t seen in the same light. Their goal is usually to get school paid for and be able to play their sport. A lot of kids from the area I live that play football or basketball end up at directional schools because it’s so hard to play at USC, Cal, UCLA, SDSU all Top D1 schools in those sports.
@madgemini4 the term directional literally means the school has a direction such as NEWS (north east west south) in the name of the school (public not private school). Think East (State) University, University of South (State). The reputation of directional schools is high acceptance rate and not as challenging as other schools.
“Not every kid in a nice neighborhood anywhere is academically able to be admitted to a highly selective college.”
Right - yes, I guess my point was that 15 years ago, my response to SJSU and SDSU was the thought that “I guess your kids aren’t very academic” (and that ties in to the general thread that although some great schools are well-known by everyone, there are a lot of great schools that only have a more regional name recognition, if that).
Now when I hear of kids getting into SJSU and SDSU I think they’ve made a great choice. I’m guessing Joe Random midwest resident or east coast resident wouldn’t be all that impressed, though.
One of the issues is that there are over 2,200 4 year colleges who produce many grads who have good jobs. There probably is not much difference if you attended Middle Tennessee State University and Sonoma State University.
Where it matters is if you attend a top 25-50 college versus one of the above schools. All things being equal, the top colleges are going to get you a better education and highly selective (and expensive) for a reason. Some exceptional students want to learn from the best and brightest in their fields, be around equally gifted peers, get great internships and jobs, and have great opportunities and experiences.
For example, last night was talking with a close friend whose son attends a top 20 college, studying international relations This semester he is studying abroad in Geneva, Switzerland and will be working with members of the United Nations, among other international dignitaries. During the semester, he will also get to travel throughout Europe on academic assignments to prepare and present a research paper. It’s an incredible experience and education that most probably would not be available to him had he attended some regional, no name college.