<p>I'm planning to transfer to a US university and find a job after I graduate. I'm doing Finance and I hope to get a job in financial centers like NYC or Chicago. Is attending a university that is located in NY considered as an advantage in finding a job in New York? Is it much more difficult to find a job in New York if I attend a university that is far from it....like in the South?</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>In a word, yes. Local employers “know” the local schools best. Some national schools have the advantage of being known across the country (or globe), but also some of them have other disadvantages that some employers don’t like either. (not all employers like Ivy Leaguers…some would call it parochialism…but sometimes its just an “attitude” issue, or they fear the employees will work 2 years then bolt for higher pay or bigger dreams.) Then again, some employers don’t care where you went to college, they interview the person and hire the best fit for the job that is available. </p>
<p>But the short answer is yes, it matters.</p>
<p>Yes, location matters. Although there are a small group of universities that have national reputations, most employers prefer to hire graduates from regional schools.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>My niece was considering law school. She had three offers. Local Uni with a full ride, nearby state with some scholarship, and Columbia but no aid. She opted for Columbia. Part of her decision was WHERE she wanted to practice. She was counseled to stay in-state if that’s where she wanted to practice. Coming back home with an Ivy League degree COULD make a few people think “hmmmph”. Whereas her local degree wouldn’t hold much water in NYC. It worked. She got a job in NYC immediately upon graduation and has been there for the past 10 years. Local firms recruit locally.</p>
<p>Location certainly matters in many circumstances, but if you’re talking about like choosing Columbia over Stanford in order to get a job in NYC with a large firm, it won’t matter much at all. Smaller firms might not have the budget to recruit extensively in locations far way, but they’ll certainly know of schools like Stanford, for example. So you won’t be at any disadvantage. Now, if you’re talking about a more regional school like a SUNY vs. another regional school like UGeorgia, then definitely location matters. For universities with a national reputation, though, it won’t matter much where it is. Even going to a school like Michigan should set you up well for jobs in finance in NYC. Depending on the reputation of the school is what factors if location is important or not as much. NYC is actually the #1 destination of graduating seniors at Duke…So even though it’s in the south, people don’t stay in the South. DC is #2.</p>
<p>Yes, particulary nowadays when internships are ever more the path to getting hired. A school in LA or Washington or New York is going to give its grads a leg up over one in the hinterlands.</p>
<p>Location matters a lot. Its importance increases as you go down the selectivity scale. Top students will desirable even if they’re in the backwoods (Dartmouth), but if you’re in NYC at a less selective school, you may have difficulty landing a position with the most desirable employers. </p>
<p>An important thing to also keep in mind is how the regional economies affect the wealth of a school and also its post-graduate placement opportunities. If you attend college in a depressed state or regional economy, then you’re virtually required to relocate to a distant spot where you may or may not be in a competitive position vs the local, more entrenched colleges.</p>
<p>I think it depends on what kind of school it is. If it is a national known school, then it really doesn’t matter where it is. As an example, Cornell is located in the middle of no where in NY, but it is heavily recruited by many finance firms. A school like U. of Connecticut, not a top tier school, but I have heard graduates do get jobs at UBS in Stamford or other smaller financial firms in CT. </p>
<p>The best thing for you to do would be to check out each school’s career website to see what firms recruit there. You may want to call up each school’s career center to find out which firms they work with, what kind of assitance they give to students, and their placement rate.</p>
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Hawkette, I don’t think that’s what they mean by the “Michigan difference”. :)</p>
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<p>Well, by that logic I guess you’d be well advised to avoid schools in the high-unemployment states like:</p>
<p>Rhode Island: 12.7% unemployment (Brown University)
California: 12.3% unemployment (Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, Claremont Colleges, USC)
District of Columbia: 11.8% unemployment (Georgetown, GWU)
Florida: 11.5% unemployment (UF, U Miami)
Illinois: 10.9% unemplyoment (U Chicago, Northwestern, UIUC)
North Carolina: 10.8% unemployment (Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest)
Tennessee: 10.3% unemployment (Vanderbilt)
Georgia: 10.2% unemployment (Emory, U Georgia)
New Jersey: 9.7% unemployment (Princeton)
Indiana: 9.6% unemployment (Notre Dame)
Missouri: 9.5% unemployment (WUSTL)
Massachusetts: 8.8% unemployment (Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Amherst, Williams, Wellesley, etc)
New York: 8.6% unemployment (Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Barnard, Colgate, RPI, U Rochester, etc)
Pennsylvania: 8.5% unemployment (Penn, Carnegie-Mellon, Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, etc) </p>
<p>All these states are among bottom half of states in unemployment rates. Most are “Rust Belt” states, except for a few Southeastern states which we might dub “the New Rustbelt.”</p>
<p>Instead, you might want to hitch your star to the lowest-unemployment states like:</p>
<p>North Dakota: 4.1% unemployment (U North Dakota, ND State)
Nebraska: 4.5% unemployment (U Nebraska-Lincoln, Creighton)
South Dakota: 5.0% unemployment (U South Dakota)
Kansas: 6.3% unemployment (U Kansas, K State)
Utah: 6.3% unemployment (U Utah, BYU)
Montana: 6.4% unemployment (U Montana)</p>
<p>Hmmm . . . something’s wrong here. Why do most of the best schools in the country end up in the “regions to avoid” category? Oh, I get it! In most fields it’s a NATIONAL labor market! We have free mobility of labor, including the highly educated white collar kind, across state boundaries! And the employment prospects of graduates of top colleges are much more strongly tied to the reputations of their schools and/or particular programs within those schools than to the locations of those schools!</p>
<p>Gee, hawkette, you really had me going there for a moment! Ha-ha. Good one!</p>
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For finance, prestige is more important than location (as much as it pains me to give credence to prestige). </p>
<p>Some of the very best schools for getting into NYC finance – Stanford, Duke, Dartmouth – are not located in or near NYC.</p>
<p>As a transfer applicant, you should certainly look into NYU.</p>
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<p>In fairness to hawkette, she never said that location was the only factor that mattered, and indeed she stated that its importance varies inversely with the reputation of your school. For example, she mentioned that it was better to graduate from Dartmouth than some average school in NYC (or also presumably some average school in North Dakota). </p>
<p>However, only a tiny fraction of students will ever attend a high-prestige school; the vast majority attend average schools. I strongly suspect that it is indeed easier to find jobs right now if you’re graduating from an average college in North Dakota than one in Rhode Island. {But that doesn’t necessarily mean that today’s high school seniors should prefer the University of North Dakota over the University of Rhode Island, for who knows how the various regional economies will be 4 years into the future.}</p>
<p>bc,
Such a silly response. I’m surprised at you. Do you really disbelieve the following statement from my post about the importance of location?</p>
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<p>That really was the key point. Graduates of the most highly selective colleges have the greatest flexibility and greatest mobility. For the colleges you mention, the vast majority have student bodies that are in the Top 20-30 in the USA. I think that their students are pretty sought after and have good to excellent degrees of employment mobility. </p>
<p>For the ones you mention that aren’t as selective (GW, U Florida, U Miami, U Illinois (non-Engineering), U Georgia) the job prospects for the kids coming out of those colleges would be more influenced by the condition of their local economies. And this would be even more so once they leave their home region.</p>
<p>And if you go farther down the selectivity curve, the difficulty increases further still. </p>
<p>One other very key aspect that you are neglecting is where the students came from in the first place and where many of them have decided to live post-graduation over the past few decades. That can be a huge advantage and is a major reason why state school networks within the home state can be so powerful, eg, Texas A&M. Leave the state, however, and the power of the network declines. Look at your employer, U Minnesota, or your alma mater, U Michigan, or any other moderately selective or less college as examples of that.</p>
<p>FWIW, if you read up on RI’s biotech industry, they’re dying for qualified people and have a hard time hiring them. The RI unemployment is an issue because there are a lack of unskilled and low-skilled labor, but the higher skilled labor market is very strong in some fields. Additionally, we draw on Boston and NYC, but of course, most of our population is mobile.</p>
<p>What I will say is this-- Providence has led me to opportunities I wouldn’t find elsewhere because it’s the largest city in the state and also the capital and it has all of the problems of any major city (including highly concentrated poverty and a large immigrant community) and Brown is THE major player around. It’s very easy to become a HUGE fish in a very small pond in Providence and Brown students can float around in some very high-level offices and be a big part of decision-making. That kind of access doesn’t really exist in NYC or even Boston, and it was a huge part of me choosing to stick around for a fifth-year to study urban education policy here. It has led me to a ton of connections and probably a few potential jobs.</p>
<p>So I do think location matters, but how much depends on lots of other things.</p>
<p>On the other hand, living in North Dakota, despite the bitter cold, has its advantages. It consistently has the highest SAT scores in the nation.</p>
<p>LOL.</p>
<p>The flip side of the Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard and NYU dominence for WallStreet Jobs, is that in other markets like Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Richmond, Nashville etc. going to the state flagship may have its advantages. </p>
<p>It all depends on where you want to live and what you want to do. I will just say this much: UCLA and Stanford and USC and Berkeley students tend to stay out west and the East Coast elites tend to stay in the East. There is always an exception here and there, but the majority do as I suggest.</p>
<p>Then there is the “contrarian” point of view. Going to a well known school in a major city and then returning to your roots…as a different resume, than the bazillions of state flagship grads, and being interviewed and hired on that basis. </p>
<p>I think going to school in New York, regardless of whether its Barnard, Fordham, Hunter College, NYU, Yeshiva, Manhattan College, Stony Brook, Hofstra, Columbia has its advantages for kids returning “home”. “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere!”</p>
<p>Ditto in Boston.</p>
<p>Melody: While Brown is the Ivy of choice in Rhode Island, its not the “only game in town.” Providence College does very well, thank you very much. And even URI has a following. I know Ivy Leaguers think “nobody goes to Heaven but them”, but the fact is, employers hire from most of the schools in Rhode Island.</p>
<p>Brown >>>>>>>>>> Providence College >>> URI</p>
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<p>LOL. Michigan has 460,000 living alumni spread across all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, with active alumni organizations in 30 foreign and 70 U.S. cities, including all the largest U.S. job markets—as well as the only alumni association chapter ever established on the moon, founded in 1971 when the all-Michigan crew of Apollo 15 placed a commemorative plaque on the lunar surface. Its alumni groups in major job centers like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are among the largest and most active, regularly sponsoring job fairs, job postings, job boards, mentoring services, and other career networking opportunities for both graduating students and mid-career job seekers. Its living alumni include the co-founder of Google and at least 16 other billionaires, the Dean of Harvard Law School, neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, soprano Jessye Norman, conservative pundit Ann Coulter, the inventor of the iPod, and the voice of Darth Vader . . . among many others. The idea that people who go to a school like Michigan will be shut out of other job markets and career opportunities is about the most ridiculous thing you could possibly suggest.</p>