Do you think that where you go to school is important for job placement, other than geographically? A friend keeps telling me that if D goes to [insert prestigious ivy school here which she won’t get into anyway] that she will never have trouble finding a job - but I just didn’t think it mattered as much for teaching. (Although, I have heard that the Columbia Master’s program is very well thought of.)
It may matter most if she either decides she doesn’t want to teach and changes her major or if she goes into private school teaching. Prep school parents tend to be education snobs and top school have faculty heavy on degrees from top name schools. On the flip side, if she plans to be a teacher it won’t make sense for her to take on a lot of debt so that’s something you and she will want to consider. If she qualifies for a lot of need based aid she’d do well to look at top schools because they often have the most generous FA, much of it in the form of grants that don’t need to be repaid. If she won’t get much FA she may want to look at less expensive public schools or privates where she’ll be able to get merit money.
A few schools have undergraduate education minors that still lead to certification. For instance,
http://www.bates.edu/education/files/2010/01/Prospective-Student-Brochure-W-14.pb_.pdf
There are lots of careers in education besides teaching. Some colleges do a better job than others getting students exposed to these careers- strategy roles in education reform, finance, marketing and general management roles for ed publishing companies, all kinds of jobs in tech for companies developing new applications for school systems, both learning technology and back office. And roles in educational administration- from school principal on up to governor appointee level jobs in education policy and management in each state.
I wouldn’t tell a 17 year old to set his or her sights so low as to assume that if the current goal is teaching 4th grade language arts, that this is the ONLY career aspiration this kid will have going forward. Some graduate programs exist to churn out students who meet that state’s requirements for K-12 teaching. Others have a more robust curriculum in educational policy, disruptive reform and technology, etc.
I don’t think teaching is a one size fits all career.