<p>How</a> To Choose a College That's Right For You : NPR</p>
<p>A</a> better way to choose a college | csmonitor.com</p>
<p>Who</a> Needs Harvard? - TIME</p>
<p>This is what I think, but I may have trouble walking the walk myself.. I've just been brought up too long to completely rule out reputation. :( But I really do agree with the aforementioned.</p>
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Judging by that conversation, I'm guessing your friends do not/will not have the power to make hiring decisions.
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A CEO of a public company who went to Stanford for his PhD does not know Amherst/Williams college when my sister told him where I was accepted to.
In fact, more than 50% of the employees at my sister's company graduated from either Cal or Stanford do not know anything about liberal arts colleges.
Another frequent poster, mini, who graduated from Williams years ago said that in his professional career (30+), Williams has never helped him solely on its name.<br>
Most educated people can't tell between Penn State or UPenn. You squint and they appear to be the same.</p>
<p>Living in the NYC area and having worked on the street in for 20 years I assure you Williams is very very well known and the difference between the Penn's is understood completely. In a graduation class of any small LAC like Amherst or Williams maybe 20 go into finance so it should not surprise you that that some grads from there are not familiar with how the name plays in certain circles, and that's ok. I could not tell you from 1st person experience how the name Williams plays in the art world, but I know it is exceptional from general knowledge. The private equity guys on Sand Hill Rd know Stanford, the hedge fund guys in Greenwich know Williams.</p>
<p>Going to a 'good' school just means you have a higher possibility of 'doing better' whatever that may mean to you.</p>
<p>I don't think we should rank them, just evaluate them relative your needs and capabilities. It is irrelevant if Harvard is ranked #1, and you have a record that will not get you into any ivy. You need to concentrate on schools which will leverage you potential.</p>
<p>One of my employers had never heard of Cornell, and thought Dartmouth was a member of the "Ivory" league. You'll find people who aren't knowledgeable about colleges everywhere, but by and large, the ones making the hiring decisions at the more elite places will not only have heard of Cornell and Dartmouth, but will be very familiar with Williams and Amherst.</p>
<p>In the Bay Area, not many people have heard of top LACs or even UPenn or Dartmouth. I wish a lot of us get to go to elite places after graduation but realistically the majority will not. The majority of employers do not know about Penn, LACs, Brown, or Dartmouth for that matter.
I think the top school will educate you and prepare you enough so you can wow prospective employers during job interviews, but the school name will not do anything for most of us.</p>