Is it better to graduate from a state school or a prestigious university?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Which would grant better job opportunities?</p>

<p>A: Graduating in the bottom tier of your class at a top school like Vanderbilt, USC, University of Virginia, etc.</p>

<p>B: Graduating in the middle of your class at a top 50 school such as University of Miami or Boston</p>

<p>C: Graduating at the top of your class at a state school such as Arizona State, UNLV, or UNM</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Keep in mind the major of this student would be something prospective such as engineering, business, or medical.</p></li>
<li><p>The debt from these schools would be relatively similar but increasing as the prestige of the school increased, eg. Option A: ~$40,000 debt Option B: ~$20,000 debt Option C: ~$10,000 debt</p></li>
</ul>

2

<p>Without question: Graduating at the top of your class at a state school such as Arizona State, UNLV, or UNM</p>

<p>That said don’t underestimate how difficult that may be. Those state schools have a mix of average and way-above average students. The way-above average students have multiple personal and financial reasons for attending “local” publics. The competition for “top” of class or even top 5% of class is intense.</p>

3

<p>every single school has alumni that are very successful, and alumni that are struggling to get by. Doesn’t matter if you’re talking about Minnesota State or Princeton. It’s all about what you do while you’re there.</p>

4

<p>They’re not mutually exclusive. There are plenty of state schools that are prestigious universities. More generally, publically funded universities are amongst the best in the world (Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.) So again, the criteria is not mutually exclusive.</p>

<p>As a rule of thumb, it’s generally a good idea to minimize debt when possible. But you should go to the university where you’d perform the best. Top graduate programs do take students who come from non-prestigious universities. So if you are a top student, you should be able to get into top programs no matter what university you attend.</p>

5

<p>Beyphy, those state schools you mentioned are prestigious for professors to get faculty positions at but not neccessarily for students to hold an undergraduate degree from on a national scale.</p>

<p>The Ivies and the Ivy “clones” trump all state schools in this regard.</p>

6

<p>Thats debatable Golden…The public universities in the top 50 USNWR are UC-Berkely, UCLA, UVA, U Mich, UNC-CH, William & Mary, Georgia Tech, UCD, UCSD, UCSB, U Wisconsin, UCI, Penn State, UIUC, UT-Austin, and U Washington, in order. </p>

<p>I don’t know about you, but just about all of those schools carry a good amount of national prestige.</p>

7

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<p>These are not all the same.</p>

<p>Medical school admissions are heavily GPA and MCAT score focused. So getting the highest GPA is very important.</p>

<p>Engineering is less school-prestige-focused than many areas, but that is because of the relatively high minimum standards set by ABET accreditation.</p>

<p>Business may be more school-prestige-focused, particularly in the areas of investment banking and consulting.</p>

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<p>Debt levels tend not to fall into neat categories like this.</p>

8

<p>Let’s put it this way. Is it better to get an undergrad degree from a state university and then a grad degree from a top university (however defined) or is it better to get the undergrad from a top university and then a grad degree from a state university? That said, some “state” universities are very well regarded in academia - UVa, UC-Berkeley, Michigan, UNC-CH (in the top 3 in my field), UW-Madison.</p>

<p>Barely graduating from a top “prestigious” university translates to “barely graduating”. No one will look at the school name and think “oh! but that was XXX school - how impressive!”</p>

<p>Go to the school that best fits you, ignore the prestige game.</p>

9

<p>Don’t underestimate the importance of GPA, not so much for getting hired even though it’s still important, but a lot of firms won’t give you an interview without a minimum GPA. Once you get the interview then it will be more about about salesmanship than GPA. A 3.2GPA who barely made the cutoff for the interview and who can communicate, relate and fit in will be likely be much better off than the 3.9 who has no interpersonal skills. Yes-this goes for science and engineering also, so turn off the computer, close the calculus book and go outside and talk/relate with someone!</p>

10

<p>I would also look at what the school specializes in and maybe possible job opportunities within their city/state. I’m sure graduating top at a school that has a rigorous engineering program vs. a more prestigious school but their engineer program is like the least-funded or something might mean something. But that’s just IMHO.</p>

11

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<p>Goldenboy, an examination of the universities which constitute the undergraduate universities of 1Ls at HLS show a number of non-traditionally prestigious universities represented :</p>

<p>[Undergraduate</a> Colleges](<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html)</p>

<p>And even Tim Cook, who you praise as a Duke alumnus, did his undergraduate work at Auburn university, which I doubt you’d call prestigious.</p>

<p>Look, there are many fine universities in the U.S. where students can attain an excellent education. If you work hard when you’re in school, and after you graduate, you have a good chance of having a very successful career, regardless of what university you went to.</p>

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<p>This topic has been beat to death XD</p>

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<p>If you’re going to need the GPA and/or letters of recommendations for grad/med school or for a job, then you want to be at the top of your class!</p>

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<p>This will depend heavily on the program that you are applying to. This may be the case for law school or medical school (and even medical school likes to see clinical and maybe research experience), but it is certainly not the case for PhD or masters programs (even more professional masters programs), where research experience is heavily weighted.</p>

<p>Forget about “prestige.” Go to a school that’s a good fit and is respected in your particular field of interest. Do well academically, and get as much quality experience (work, research, internship, etc) as you possibly can. A student with tons of relevant experience from a lesser ranked school will generally beat out a student with no experience at a higher ranked school.</p>

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<p>So do colleges have class rank like in high school? Does it go by major or the entire school? Do they show it on your transcript or is it unofficial.</p>

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<p>They didn’t have class ranking at the college that my daughter attended, but awarded the students with high GPAs with Phi Beta Kappa.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society in the United States, and has 280 chapters. It aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and to induct the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at American colleges and universities.[</p>

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<p>It can be harder to get good grades at a large state school where things are pretty anonymous. It can also be harder to make the relationships needed for recommendations to grad school. On the other hand, if you have a lot of debt when you graduate, or any unsubsidized loans, you won’t be able to go to grad school anyway.</p>

18

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<p>It really depends on the field. If you want to go to a top med school or law school, you’ll need a top GPA and top test scores (MCAT, LSAT). Period. The nameplate on the undergrad degree will matter almost not at all.</p>

<p>If you want to go into engineering, you should look at the top engineering programs. These are not necessarily at the most well-known elite private schools. US News’ top 10 engineering schools includes a mix of privates (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Princeton) and publics (UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Michigan, Purdue, Texas). Otherwise “prestigious” private schools like Yale, Brown, and Vanderbilt are much further down the list. But so are some “prestigious” publics like UVA. Of the public universities specifically mentioned by the OP, Arizona State is ranked a respectable #44 in engineering. If I could get that for in-state rates, I wouldn’t pay a premium to study engineering at a private school like #34 Vanderbilt, #39 Brown, #44 Dartmouth, #44 Notre Dame, #53 Boston U, #58 Tufts, or certainly not #96 U Miami. I would, however, take a close look at #23 USC. Truth is, you can have a fine engineering career coming out of just about any ABET-accredited engineering program, but you’ll have more entry-level job opportunities if you’re coming out of a highly respected engineering program. </p>

<p>For a business degree, there are two ways to go. You could go for a top undergrad business program, or you can do a liberal arts major in college, work for a few years, then try for admission into a top MBA program. The latter is somewhat riskier; you need a top undergrad GPA, top test scores, and probably some interesting business experience to get into a top MBA program. Many “prestigious” schools don’t offer undergrad business, and as with engineering, the top undergrad business programs are at a mix of privates (Penn Wharton, MIT, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, NYU, USC) and publics (Michigan, UC Berkeley, UVA, UNC Chapel Hill, Texas, Indiana). Again, Arizona State is a very respectable #24 for undergrad business. An undergrad business degree from there probably won’t land you a hotshot job on Wall Street, but it could open up a lot of doors in a region of the country that is still on a pretty strong growth trajectory. And again, if I could get into ASU for in-state rates, I wouldn’t pay a premium to study business at a lower-ranked program like #40 Boston U or #72 U Miami. And if I wanted an undergrad business degree, I’d definitely go to a school that offered the program, which would rule out Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>As can clearly be seen, it’s a mistake to lump together all “prestigious” private schools, and it’s a mistake to lump together all publics. For engineering or business, ASU is clearly a cut above UNM (#96 engineering, #117 business) or UNLV (#162 Engineering, #199 business), and the most “prestigious” schools in these fields are not necessarily the usual well-known private suspects; a great many are public. For law or medicine, it probably doesn’t matter as much where you go, certainly not as much as a high GPA and strong test scores.</p>

<p>Problem: the student may not know which of these fields he wants, or he may choose one, then later change his mind. For that reason, I’d have ASU and USC very high on the list because they’d be highly respectable choices whichever way that decision ultimately went. All the other schools mentioned would be much more limiting for one or more of the fields identified by the OP.</p>

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<p>I agree. I also take issue with the idea that all state schools are inferior to all private schools.</p>

<p>I’ll begin to respect Ivy admission the day they discontinue discriminating along ethnic lines, accepting all children of celebrities, accepting legacies without much question and inflating grades.</p>

<p>I’ll include the former “Seven Sisters” in this group and the “Almost Ivies”. Amherst et al. </p>

<p>My favorite colleges are probably those in the “Colleges that Change Lives”, and “The Oberlin Group” (minus any Ivies or Sisters)</p>

<p>I think that a degree from UC Berkley, Miami University (Ohio) or Stony Brook University is every bit as meaningful as a person with a gentleman’s C from Yale.</p>

<p>I agree with baktrax - find a good fit and do well. Boycott racist colleges. Just say “no” to elitist nonsense.</p>

20

<p>Someone interested in a future in politics might be better off attending own public state flagship university over attending an out-of-state prestigious university…can build a stronger statewide support network for the future going to the flagship and maybe its law school too.</p>