I think you’ve put your finger on what I found frustrating about answering the question. If the OP is already ascribing a particular college as belonging in “a danger zone”, then they are half-way to answering their own question. Everything that’s followed is just a lot of people in and out of the hiring lane of various companies, arguing with each other.
2 Likes
FWIW, outside of the elite finance/consulting type jobs, in my kids’ experiences major and GPA were used as automatic screens far more often than college name.
3 Likes
Perhaps we can move past causes of inflation and unemployment and return to topic.
As I’ve said before, my child is a long way off from college, so at this point, this is an educational exercise for me for once we get to the point where my child is looking at colleges and providing advice (as I doubt the high school guidance counselor will be able to assist much). It’s also an exercise in seeing what options exist outside of our state flagship that we might be able to afford, and what possible outcomes might come from those other options. I do not take the view that a college education is strictly for vocational preparation and ROI. College is a time for exposure to new subjects, new people, new ideas, and learning to become independent and engage deeply in new passions.
That being said, however, money does not grow on trees (at least not in my backyard). I would like for whatever college our child attends that doors remain open, whether that is a respectable graduate school or employment that requires a college degree. If a college doesn’t leave those doors open or has them 80% closed, then that’s something I would like to know. If our child selects our state flagship (for which additional scholarship money would probably also be granted), then that could equate to a 5th year of college being covered, or a nice chunk towards grad school, etc. There are many reasons why a non-flagship school might end up being the best fit for a student, but I would prefer if the options upon graduating are not significantly lower than what they would have been had our child attended our flagship. Does that make sense?
@eyemgh Based upon responses to the theoretical list posted above and additional research, schools that were listed in the Private Schools category would likely be in consideration (but less likely the Lower tier Private Universities). The public NC colleges would probably remain in consideration.
To prevent people from having to scroll through the thread to find the original list, here it is:
Private Universities
• Berry College
• Birmingham-Southern College
• Loyola University New Orleans
• Mercer University
• Millsaps College
• Presbyterian College
• Samford University
• Shenandoah University
Lower tier Private Universities than the above (at least vis a vis grad rates)
• Catawba College
• Centenary College of Louisiana
• Lenoir-Rhyne University
• Oglethorpe University
• Queens University of Charlotte
• Spring Hill College
• Wingate University
Public Universities
• Appalachian State University
• Louisiana Tech University
• Nicholls State University
• Radford University
• University of Louisiana – Lafayette
• University of Mary Washington
• University of Montevallo
• University of North Carolina – Charlotte
• University of Southern Mississippi
Speaking only for one of the “you guys,” I don’t live in a dream world, I’m not a recruiter so I don’t have recruiting targets but I do manage a rather large budget and make high stakes hiring decisions. When one of those opens, we get resumes from all over the world.
With that out of the way, I feel as though we are, again, dealing with a context problem. My comment was made in response to another post, the gist of which was “I slot lower selective private below lower selective public.” I thought the poster was basing his initial cut broadly across categories in a less than thoughtful way. I’ve gone back and re-read his posts and realize I made a mistake in that I failed to read where he mentions that he’s had better experience with one particular public college as compared to a particular private college. That seems to me to be as good a reason as any to prioritize accordingly. So yes, “some way of whittling,” of course; but not just any way.
Even with my oversight noted, how did you get out of my post that I think companies and recruiters shouldn’t try and avoid hiring unqualified people?
Is that a statement or a question? Not sure what you mean.
ETA: Are you referring to the cost of your state flagship?
1 Like
There are almost 4000 accredited post-secondary institutions in this country. It’s certainly major dependent, but you’d have to go pretty far down the list for this to be the case.
Again, very major dependant. There are degrees from Ivy institutions where the holder might end up very underemployed. That said, as passionate and engaged as you are this far out, I don’t suspect your child will be looking at any of the sketchy options. 
3 Likes
My husband is in a hiring position and I think this is key and qualifications. I don’t think the college matters that much for a lot of professions, but so much depends on the profession the kid is interested in.
If you have any inkling of what your kid might be interested in (if they are 3 or 4 maybe not, but if they are 11 or 12 it’s possible) then that can help narrow it down. Since I am in NC I will list the private NC schools that I guess are most favorably looked upon by other NC-ers in very rough order just based on gut feeling/reputation: Duke, Davidson, Wake Forest, Elon, Campbell, Meredith, High Point, Guilford, Warren Wilson, Catawba, Peace, Lenoir-Rhyne, Brevard, Greensboro College, Johnson C Smith, St Augs, Johnson & Wales, Shaw, Lees McRae, Methodist, Mars Hill, Belmont Abbey, Barton College, Pfieffer, Wingate, Mt Olive, etc.
The first three are highly regarded with Elon coming up pretty strong in 4th. Campbell is well known in NC, but probably not very well known outside of it. A NC company might look favorably on it depending on the company (it’s a conservative Baptist school, but not Liberty University conservative). Meredith is a pretty well regarded women’s college. Should not have any problem getting into grad school, etc, with an undergrad degree from Meredith. It does start to drop off there at the end. Folks who go to somewhere like Barton College or Pfieffer are gonna have that piece of paper with the 4 yr degree on it, but they do not have the name recognition that the others do and they will need to prove themselves in their next steps of their career arc.
I think most people on this board could name the top 5 private universities in their state and another 5 or so that are well regarded, but it starts to fall off pretty fast after that. And it depends a lot on the field of study. My kids have a friend who is going to Mary Baldwin University in VA and is in a 5 yr undergrad/masters program in Shakespeare studies which is one of the top fields for them since they are home to the American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse, but their other offerings are not very strong. They do offer a nursing program, etc, that will get you where you want to go as far as certifications there, but in most fields Mary Baldwin would not be as strong as say a Hollins University.
2 Likes
The OP seems in the hunt for less expensive alternatives to his state flagship which appears to be UNC-Chapel Hill. Fortunately, @Sweetgum has appeared on the scene with some needed insights. 
1 Like
I still think the best thing for most students is to see what recent grads in their major from X college did - where they went post graduation. If they like what they see, the college is fine. If not, use caution and/or look elsewhere.
I see high school students go to many “lesser” colleges as far as CC is concerned. Oddly enough, most end up happily employed afterward. The main group that has college regrets are those who have high debt (high 5 figures or more). It probably correlates with why lowest cost (public or private) tends to be the best predictor of where kids from my school go to college. Note that schools applied to are those the student wants to attend. Those are sifted out first based upon major or location or whatever (do you like what graduates do afterward?). It’s not just “lowest cost” generically.
3 Likes
Nothing is going to be less expensive than a NC public in NC, unless the student gets a big scholarship, but I think the OP was worried about fit possibilities and wanted to know about some LACs. NC has some decent LACs and some excellent larger privates like Duke, but $$$$$ for Duke. The cheap way to go to college in NC is the same as much of the rest of the country, first two years at Community College and then transfer into a NC public. If they want a smaller NC public UNC-Asheville is not as big as most. Some of the public HBCUs like NC A&T, NC Central, Winston-Salem State are good, too, and more medium-large to smaller.
2 Likes
If this is indeed the case, they wouldn’t have to limit their search to NC.
2 Likes
This is one that might deserve some scrutiny. Though all are excellent schools on the merits, the Ivy League is also the beneficiary of a fantastic fan following that’s hard to match. I would guess it to be the exception to the rule that a kid graduating from any Ivy League school with any kind of degree is underemployed. Lots of Ivy League kids with history and other A&S degrees running around Silicon Valley doing all sorts of things on both the money and company side of that economy. Maybe you meant in particular industries or something else. But general employment? Right or wrong, I think those kids get jobs rather easily.
One of my son’s HS classmates has been chronically underemployed since graduating from an Ivy. It was his degree, not his school. He’s now going to law school, and a good one at that. He’s a very sharp kid.
The Ivy is underrepresented in SV BTW. Depending on where you look, there are only 1 or 2 Ivy schools represented in the top 20 SV employers, always out of the top 10, and they are tech majors, mainly CS. They don’t throw jobs at Art History, Drama, and Fine Arts majors just because they went to Harvard or Yale.
1 Like
At least 4 Ivies seem to get paid well in the CS space per the ROI data previously posted (and all well reputed names in the top 10)…
University ROI for CS
Yes, one methodology for one major…CS, not specific to SV, and certainly not equivalent to this statement, the one I replied to.
Certainly gross numbers in SV are influenced by school size.
In prior threads these numbers for Ivy leaguers were attributed to students working in high cost of living areas such as Silicon Valley.
Was responding to that specific aspect of your comment.
1 Like
The list they gave is not NC specific. It has a few NC schools on it, but several from Louisiana, VA, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina. Not sure if I saw one in Tennessee or not, but it is all over the Southeast.
1 Like
People seem to have diametrically opposite views and experiences with the importance of college name in one’s career. As in everything else, the reality is often somewhere in-between. No college is going to be able to guarantee the success of any of its students. There’re plenty of mediocre students at elite colleges. However, the names of these colleges do give their students some advantages, often not just in their first jobs. Why do you think in the bio sections of any company pitchbooks, prospectuses, etc., where the principals were educated are prominently featured? Even supposedly sophisticated investors must have thought such information was relevant, even though these principals were likely to already have their long track records.
Is that a statement or a question? Not sure what you mean.
ETA: Are you referring to the cost of your state flagship?
We would likely tell our child that we would pay for 4-years COA at our in-state flagship. If our child earns scholarships that decrease the cost of the in-state flagship, then our educational fund would have extra money that could be used for a 5th year (at the flagship) or for grad school (elsewhere). The same would be true if our child attended a school whose COA is lower than our state flagship (lowered, in all likelihood, due to scholarships). So our kid would have a fixed pot of money in the educational fund, and the less that’s used for college, the more would be available for other educational endeavors. Is that clear now?