<p>There are so many schools at there that seem appealing to me , but I only feel accomplished if I attend a brand name school. I'm thinking of applying to Duke ,UCLA, Claremont Mckenna , Occidental , John Hopkins , ASU (I'm from AZ) ,Occidental and other top tier schools. Theoretically if I got accepted to Duke and CMC, Should I base my decision between them off the name ? Will the name get me further in life? I only care about education ,but our society tends to focus on ivies.</p>
<p>3.95 Gpa
my rank slipped from 10 to 16 out of 570 Juniors (might slip more) top 3 %
Full AP schedule
Senior class president
President of science Research Club
VP of Neuroscience Club
VP of Hosa
Secretary of Science Honor Society
A Member of: Doctors without Borders, LEO, Interact club, Robotics and Engineering, NHS
Played football as a freshman
I made it in AP Competition Government (required try outs)
Top 10% in state math competition
I won third place in the state Neuroscience competition
1st place in HOSA state competition (Health Occupation Students of America) creative problem solving
My Biomedical debate team got 4th place in the HOSA Nationals competition in Anaheim , California against 48 states
730 on SAT chem ( Im going to take SAT Math II)
I haven't taken the SAT yet but I'm aiming for 2100+
and on top of it all I'm not Asian or Indian haha</p>
<p>I'm Lebanese currently living in Arizona and my life story is interesting. I was part of a revolution ,evacuated on an aircraft carrier and I've experienced many other unique scenarios .I having an internship with a heart surgeon in Lebanon this summer.</p>
<p>Name means nothing except to those whose opinions aren’t worth considering. If you go to any good college (and there are hundreds), study hard, and do well, you will be successful. Five years after you graduate, no one will know or care where you went to college. </p>
<p>Name, unfortunately, does mean something, especially if this is your last degree. People, such as the above poster, don’t want to admit it but certain firms might recruit only from a very small subset of top schools. </p>
<p>-Many F500 companies have special programs that shoot top MBAs up through an accelerated track.
-White shoe firms, as they are called, tend to recruit not just from the top schools, but those that have earned there place in the stratosphere of elite education (read: HYP… Sford, Columbia, maybe a few others)</p>
<p>However, most of the above are cases for graduate/professional school. For an undergraduate degree name does not have the same importance provided you plan on pursuing a graduate degree. </p>
<p>So although in an idealistic world the above poster would be correct, that’s not how this works. Alums tend to hire alums. The rich become richer. And yada yada yada. Don’t argue the rare case of some brilliant guy doing something. Rare as in there are hundreds of such cases, but thousands against that.</p>
<p>I think that the name/prestige of your undergrad doesn’t matter if you’re going to grad school/law school/med school, but if you are not planning on doing that then I think it <em>does</em> matter somewhat. Business school and law school names definitely matter.</p>
<p>The OP is clearly interested in medicine, and is probably headed toward an M.D., not an M.B.A. One doesn’t have to go to a big elite research university to get into a good med school; in fact med schools love LAC grads who have grown and spent time with non-science subjects alongside pre-med fare. </p>
<p>Beyond that, I agree with Annasdad - Elite schools may turn some wheels in some circles but U.S. business is created and run by people who went to places like the University of Nebraska as well as Yale.</p>
<p>I’ll repeat - the name or prestige of an undergraduate college plays very little role in employment decisions, outside perhaps of a very limited number of fields for which a graduate degree is usually required anyway. </p>
<p>I spent 35 years in the business world, 25+ of them as a self-employed consultant. In several hundred pre-engagement interviews, where I went to college came up at most 5 times. I had a very successful career, in spite of the fact that my BS was from a very unprestigious university (going nights at an extension campus, yet).
Early in my career, I spent two years working in a small personnel department. Although employment was not my specialty, when things got busy, I would help out, screening resumes from new college grads. We considered majors, grades, recommendarions - but where the applicant went to school played almost no role at all. </p>
<p>Name is by far the most important factor in employment outcomes, and it is a major factor in graduate school placement. Duke, Johns Hopkins, and UCLA are all names that will open doors. The other schools on your list are probably all about equal, except for CMC which may confer a slight advantage. </p>
<p>If you’re a strong enough applicant to get into JHU/Duke, you’ll most likely get a full ride at Arizona State. If you know you want to go to graduate school, it may be worth it to save the money. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This seems to be a common opinion, but if you look at placement statistics you’ll see that top graduate schools fill a large percentage of their incoming class with students from their own undergrad.</p>
<p>For your first job out of school, or for internships and the like while still in school, a school that is well known in a given field may attract out of area employers to its career center. However, employers local to a school will often come and visit, even if the school does not have a high profile (local recruiting is inexpensive and convenient).</p>
<p>Later jobs tend to be much less picky about what school your highest degree is from (previous work experience typically being much more important), with a few exceptions of “brand conscious” employers (investment banking and good lawyer jobs are often claimed to be examples of such).</p>
<p>But how were those new graduate resumes collected? At many companies, they are collected from university career centers. Often the pattern is like (a) go to all of the local university career centers, and (b) fly to the universities which are the “top schools in the field being hired for”.</p>
<p>Studies suggest that if you are the student that can get in to a top 20 school, you’ll do as well as the average grad from those schools no matter where you go. But to many people, it’s worth it to go to a higher ranked school to be among a population of high achievers, rather than a big fish in a small pond, in addition to other factors such as opportunities available and amenities. There are definite advantages to going to a high ranked school, though not always enough to justify the expenses some people will pay to attend.</p>
Given this statement, the most pertinent question is…what is your citizenship status? </p>
<p>If you are a citizen or permanent resident, then Duke will be need-blind in admissions, and ASU should be affordable. If you’re not, Duke will be much more of a long shot, and ASU will be more expensive. </p>
<p>As for whether school name is important - well, it depends on how you look at it. The more important question is obviously the quality of education and opportunities provided by each college. Colleges with respected names typically excel in providing quality educations and virtually limitless resources and opportunities. They have built their reputations by having extremely intelligent students who grow from living with each other, great faculty, excellent placement into the best graduate and professional programs, etc. From that perspective, yes, it is not a bad thing to want to attend a school with a good reputation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are many colleges that provide absolutely fantastic educations but are not terribly well-known even by people in their own states. Many liberal arts colleges fall into this category. One can therefore assume that colleges with good names usually provide good educations – but one can NOT assume that a college with less recognition necessarily provides an inferior education.</p>
<p>I’m actually an American citizen and my family has a low income concerning the financial aid. You guys are making really valid points. At the moment I feel like the name is an investment worth making. It frustrates me that society revolves around the name of an institution when the same education can be received from a less selective schools . Going to ASU will save me some money, but at the same time lower my chances to an upper tier Grad school. I’ve worked really hard to get where I am today and I hope consistency with my work will take me to an institute that represents my potential.</p>
<p>This topic has been discussed frequently on CC, OP. The bottom line answer is “it depends”. It depends on what field you plan to pursue. Having a name school may open some doors, the alumni/ae organization may be helpful with jobs, and the name recognition may get you some credibility in some aspects of your work. I went to a top 20 LAC of undergrad and a flagship U (a rival of the one in my state of residence) and now, many decades later, when I have to go over my vitae (eg if I have to give a deposition or something) my undergrad name school still seems to provide some creditility with the name reognition. That said, pick the school that is best for YOU, not the one that will look good on a car window decal.</p>
<p>In some Asian countries, where you go to college is the most important thing. In this country, however, your grades and major are more important. If you are willing to do the work, earn top grades, you will go far in life no matter where you graduate from.</p>
<p>from what i have observed and researched the name of the school in undergrad doesn’t matter, but make sure you do well in undergrad regardless, however make sure you go to a really good graduate university cause that what really matters cause thats where top companies try to recruit people, my uncle recently graduated from Dartmouth MBA, and he got good job at amazon right out of school 140k salary.</p>