<p>Does going to an Ivy really give you an edge on jobs after graduation?
I've heard that it does, and I've also heard that it doesn't.
Could anyone clear this up for me?</p>
<p>I'm 80% sure it does, I mean, they are way more prestigious. You will have more opportunities and chances, it will be easier to find a high-paying job that you enjoy and are good at.</p>
<p>Any ivy league school will give you good prospects, but not because it is an ivy league, because it is a highly regarded school. The ivy league is just a sports league, not the 8 best colleges in America and there's no reason why a degree from Chicago or Duke wouldn't go as far as one from an ivy league school outside of Harvard/Yale/Princeton.</p>
<p>It'll only give you an edge if jobs if you're truly suited for the atmosphere of the school. You'll be much more prepared (and a much more competitive applicant) if you pick a school you personally feel comfortable in, and then do the best you can there.
If you go to Princeton, but you can't stand preppy eating clubs and popped collars and wind up hating everyone (but please forgive the uneducated stereotype), you're going to be too miserable to succeed. But if you go somewhere where you fit in, and you feel comfortable, you'll have the confidence to seek out internships, personal help from professors, etc.
That being said, I'd imagine that positive reactions would be elicited from employers if they saw an Ivy League name on your resume. While it certainly won't hurt (at all), I don't know exactly HOW much it'll help.</p>
<p>The only real advantage to an Ivy over any other top notch school (excluding things like, there is one professor in particular who does this or that) is the connections that can be made there. And even this only applies to certain fields and professions. I have a teacher who's friend ended up running a division of some company just because another guy at Harvard knew he was ridiculously intelligent, and he was actually a physics major, so he wasn't skilled in the field or anything.</p>
<p>Then again, the only reason these schools can offer such good connections is because of their prestige and the desire of so many people to go there. So I guess the answer is sort of a middle ground. It certainly can't hurt, but it's not necessarily going to give someone a job over you if you don't go/</p>
<p>No more than any other school of the same caliber.</p>
<p>hmom5's statement carries a good deal of weight, I believe she's actually done recruiting for a top-tier bank.</p>
<p>The real question is, what school then counts as "of the same caliber"
Stanford and MIT? Without question (probably better than half the Ivies too)
UChicago and Duke? Probably</p>
<p>What going to an Ivy or Ivy-equivalent will do is to put you in a peer group of highly-motivated and ambitious people, whose rising tide will help float your boat as well as their own. There are good teachers at every campus, but the classroom (and out-of-class) experiences at an Ivy will be more inspiring, even with the same teaching - just as a game between the Lakers and the Celtics will be more compelling than if their same coaches were coaching the game using typical college basketball players.</p>
<p>I will be the first to say it as I know many are biting their tongues. Hasn't this been discussed oh say a million times already? Why not do a search rather than starting a thread? Here is an interesting idea? Why doesn't someone call the top 5 companies they would like to work for and ask their HR department if a degree from Ivy would give them an edge if they submitted a CV? This might be interesting and report back what the companies you spoke to said and maybe even specify what schools they favored. How is that?</p>
<p>If you graduated at the bottom of your class, participated in no social activities, and made no friends, then an Ivy League degree will not help you.</p>
<p>God..
Listen. If you go to a "good" school, land internships and get experience, get solid grades, and present yourself just as any top student would, you can get land any gig after college.</p>
<p>This is as much a "regional issue" as anything else. Brown wont carry as much weight in GA as Emory. Penn wont be as prestigious in TX as Rice. Cornell wont outweigh William & Mary in VA. Ditto Duke in NC, Vandy in TN, or Stanford in CA. Same goes for the big publics like Virginia, Michigan, UNC, UCLA. On their home turf, are as prestigious as almost any Ivy beside HYP.</p>
<p>All in the eye of the employer.</p>
<p>To be honest most employers are happy if you went to any college. The Ivy Leauge will set you up with good connections, but it isn't going to make or break you.</p>
<p>It depends, really. It depends on what field you are entering and how you did in college.</p>
<p>The edge comes with recruiting sometimes. Big-name employers are more likely to recruit at Ivy League and similar caliber schools than local public universities and small privates. McKinsey & Company and JPMorganChase show up fairly often at the Ivies -- but they also showed up at my private, second-tier LAC in the Southeast.</p>
<p>Are there certain employers who will take two comparable students and hire the one from Harvard over the one from Penn State? Certainly. But there are also employers who will hire the Penn State alum over the Harvard alum -- perhaps they're from PA, are a Nittany Lions fan, are a Penn State alum themselves, had a child/sister/aunt/friend go to Penn State, etc. Or maybe they had a bad experience with a Harvard alum or thinks that Penn State actually prepares students better for some jobs than others.</p>
<p>In certain jobs...it really doesn't matter WHERE you went. What matters is your record. Sally Smith at an Ivy who got a decent GPA but didn't take advantage of any opportunities while she was there is not going to get the job over Sally Johnson, who went to her local public university but sought out research experiences, study abroad, alternative spring break, volunteering, internships, etc.</p>
<p>SO the short answer is...not really. Go to a school at which you're really comfortable (regardless of whether it's an Ivy or not), relax, have fun, do well, participate in any internships or opportunities that look interesting or exciting that come your way.</p>
<p>The regional thing is swish mentioned is really important, too. I mean, most people have heard of Harvard and Yale, but honestly the charge nurse at my mom's job (an Emory hospital, btw) doesn't know where the heck Brown is, much less that it's an Ivy League school. She's gonna see Brown and say..."Wha?" but she'll see Emory and go "Oh, I know they have a good nursing program." A regional engineering firm will take a good ol' GA Tech grad (possibly) before they take a Mudd or Caltech grad, all other factors being equal.</p>