<p>I am talking about top notch LACs like Carleton, Grinnell and Orberlin.
Hows the recruitment situation of top firms? Eg. McKinsey, Accenture, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, IBM</p>
<p>Any specific details? </p>
<p>Do the kids get into these firms because of the school plus their personality or because of the connection they already have?</p>
<p>any input would be appreciated</p>
<p>First, no one recruits at Grinnell. Second, Carleton's placement is excellent, and Oberlin's is respectable. </p>
<p>Having one of the best economics departments in the Midwest and country, Macalester has reasonably good placement for its economics graduates (I'm assuming that's what placement your concerned with). It's also in a great location, which makes internships plentiful.</p>
<p>Companies actively court economics graduates in good academic standing from Oberlin, Macalester, and Carleton.</p>
<p>I don't think many of those firms come to those schools at all. LACs are very tough to get placement data on. However pretty much only the top tier NE LACs are heavily recruited by top firms.</p>
<p>Macalester and Carleton graduates land jobs with those firms. I'm pretty sure that Grinnell does, in fact, recruit.</p>
<p>I know for fact that Macalester has had students work at Morgan Stanley, Meryl Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Microsoft recently. Carleton has a greater range of students go to a greater variety of firms. I know a few students wen to work at McKinsey, a decent amount at Goldman Sachs, none for Meryll Lynch, but some for a few other firms. Does IBM recruit anywhere but MIT?</p>
<p>Grinnell I'm not so sure, but it's a top LAC so someone recruits there, probably some great firms too.</p>
<p>Oberlin, I'm not sure about at all. It's in Ohio -- that's all I know.</p>
<p>Generally, you don't want to go to a mid-western LAC if you want great job placement (I guess Mac's location might help, but certainly not with getting a job with the firms you're interested in). Go to UChicago. Go to MIT. Go to UMich LSA Economics or Ross. Go to UPenn. Go to a highly ranked Northeastern school. Go to Northeastern. But do not go to a mid-Western LAC for job placement -- not even Carleton.</p>
<p>Alchemy and barrons, you seem to have contradicting statements.</p>
<p>So among the schools listed, Oberlin and Carleton have better job placement?
How would employers compare graduates from Carleton and Oberlin and Grinnell with graduates from Northwestern and Chicago?</p>
<p>If really no one recruits at Grinnell, I wonder how would there be such a high proportion of people in Grinnell who wants to go grad schools(I assume they have thought about the future placement when they are selecting schools).</p>
<p>Carleton has far and away better placement than either Oberlin or Grinnell.</p>
<p>However, even Carleton graduates will not compare to a Northwestern or UChicago graduate to employers. If you want an LAC experience, go for it, but otherwise, go to a respected Midwestern university <em>cough</em>UMich<em>cough</em>.</p>
<p>Recruitment and graduate school applications and admittance are mutually exclusive. Your flagship U proves that.</p>
<p>Wow, I thought they were peer schools(Carleton, Uchicago, NWU).</p>
<p>Is it because the students at LACs(Carleton) are more graduate school oriented and have less interest in jobs right after graduation than UNIs(Chicago,NWU) or because companies just think that students from UNIs are better than those from LACs?</p>
<p>and how would UIUC compare to Carleton and Macalester in terms of job placement? (Seems i am stuck in Mid-west haha)</p>
<p>This is a very good program at Oberlin:</p>
<p>I believe you will find relatively few employers come to these campuses to recruit. It is simply not cost-effective for recruiters; too few interested and qualified candidates to justify the trip.Exceptions may be regional employers near their respective cities, where the "recruiting trip" is just a trivial drive.</p>
<p>By contrast schools that are : i)bigger; and ii)have greater proportions of students interested in, and qualified for, business careers will, by the same principal, attract more recruiters.</p>
<p>One can obviously get a job from a non-target school, but it may require additional effort and initiative that your Northwestern,etc. cohorts may not have to undertake. Such as the Oberlin program described in the link above.</p>
<p>When D1 was applying to schools, one of the college data websites actually had stats on the number of recruiters that came to each campus. My recollection is that this data showed that Carleton was not, in fact, any better than these others in this regard, and none of them were very good.</p>
<p>Suggest contacting Career Services at each school and see what they can provide.</p>
<p>To answer your first question, it's partially because LAC are more graduate school oriented, and because they generally lack the name recognition and prestige of major universities. There are actually the majority of LAC graduates do enter the work-force after graduate. But, as I said, they are generally attending a graduate or professional school afterward.</p>
<p>And, as monydad has stated, there are less students to actually recruit (that's probably the prime reasoning). </p>
<p>Don't let that stop you from attending a LAC if that's the experience you want. I assure you that plenty of LAC graduates get excellent jobs. You just have to be more active (you will, after all, be a liberal arts student).</p>
<p>For computer related fields, UIUC has excellent placement, better than any LAC you can think of (except Harvey Mudd College). For economics, I'm not so sure. ConfusingSenior: University of Michigan.</p>
<p>Yes, I want an LAC experience, but I wish to work after graduation, so I am quite hesitated abt the choice between say Carleton and NWU and maybe UMich. How would UMich and NWU compare?</p>
<p>To some, NWU kicks the crap out of UMich, to others, they're pretty much the same. It really depends on what you're studying. If you're out of state, and NWU is cheaper (it WILL be cheaper) go to NWU.</p>
<p>If you're looking for a Midwestern LAC, you'll have to ask yourself some questions:</p>
<p>How much does prestige mean to me? (not much since you're going to a LAC)
Does location matter?
What majors am I interested in?</p>
<p>Prestige means nothing to me, but if I will have trouble finding jobs, then it means a lot.
Erm this is what I mean: If everyone single man on streets has not heard of my school, but most of the people in Human Resource Departments of top firms know my school, I am satisfied.</p>
<p>Hmm among the LACs listed Carleton seems most appealing to me and I wanna study math/CS/econs.</p>
<p>the location does not matter.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it's the applicant, not the school that gets the job -- remember that regardless of where you go. </p>
<p>If you go to Macalester or Carleton employers from the Twin Cities area (a really great place for college students, actually) will know and respect your college. As you go further from Minnesota, your degrees prestige will wane. </p>
<p>But every degree's prestige is mostly regional (except HYPSM). I know HR's that don't know the difference between CalTech and VirginiaTech outside of the names and location. Likewise, I know some that think NWU and UMich are just Big Ten schools. It depends on which region you go to.</p>
<p>Carleton is overall better than Macalester if you can handle the location. Same with Oberlin and Grinnell. Macalester's hook is it's diversity, international focus, and location. And it has a particularly great economics department. In comparison, it's Math and CS department leave something to be desired.</p>
<p>Go with Carleton or Grinnell. And check out UChicago -- it's very LAC like.</p>
<p>does ur comments about prestige apply to even those top firms i've listed?</p>
<p>Does it apply to the firms you mentioned in that you generally are recruited to the firm? Prestige matters to a degree when getting into those firms.</p>
<p>Does it apply to the firms in that they don't perceive Carleton and Macalester and other top Midwestern LACs prestigious? They hire graduates from those schools strikingly often (considering their size). Midwestern top LACs are favorable in firm's eyes to a degree.</p>
<p>I meant your comments like "as you go further from minessota, your degrees prestige will wane & every degree's prestige is mostly regional". does these apply to the top firms?</p>
<p>Erm, imagine i am admitted by harvard, and i know i can easily get those jobs from there. but out of personal reasons(preference) i chose to go to Carleton/Mac, but I stay whom I was, and kept doing hardworks, would i get into those firms as easily as if i went to harvard(easy in terms of my chances, if i work hard to network, attend workshops etc)? If not, I guess your comments "Ultimately, it's the applicant, not the school that gets the job -- remember that regardless of where you go." is wrong.</p>
<p>Well, it's not that black and white, ConfusingSenior.</p>
<p>If you can get into Harvard you don't need Harvard. I'm pretty sure studies prove that students that get into prestigious universities but opt for less selective institutions makes as much as their peers at the premiere schools. </p>
<p>If you go to Carleton/Mac/Grinnell/Oberlin you'll have to work harder than if you were at Harvard. You'll have to be a go-getter and a self-starter. But believe me, it's the go-getters and self-starters that not only get the jobs, but get the promotion and leadership positions. Consider the greater difficulty in getting a position at those firms a strength -- by the time you'll have a lot of experience starting and finishing projects.</p>
<p>Yes you've totally convinced me. Thanks
I am admitted by Cambridge and LSE but want an LAC experience.</p>
<p>Then go for it.</p>
<p>I also think of Chicago as LAC-like (echoing a previous poster) and not career-oriented at all. Along with Carleton, Oberlin, and Grinnell, we send a lot of graduates on to PhD programs. At the same time, the simple fact that Chicago's a university might be a leg up with name-recognition and job prospects. And for econ, it's definitely, definitely worth looking into.</p>