Location of College vs Where You Want to Live

If I want to live in say, New York, does it matter if I DON’T go to college there? If I were to go to college in California but I want to live in New York, will it be hard to get a job after college in New York. I heard it’s easier to get a job in the same area of your college because of the connections you’ll have.

It depends, among things, on the industry you are planning to enter and the national prestige of the college.

I went to undergrad in Ohio and grad in Illinois. I never lived in either state after graduation.

One of my kids went to undergrad in the northeast, and grad in the southeast. Kid lives out west.

Other kid went to undergrad in CA, and never worked or lived there after graduation.

There are kids who choose to stay where attend college, kids who move back home, and kids who move to a different location altogether.

I honestly don’t know how many people actually get jobs out of networking that they do in college. I suppose it depends on your field. It is GENERALLY true that it’s harder to get a job in NYC if you don’t have a NYC address on your resume. But I wouldn’t let that really determine your decision; you never know what you’ll want in the future and it’s especially not worth it if it means lots of debt or loans as opposed to a state school. There are ways around it; you could always sublet for a little bit before finding a job, or even just put down a friend’s address.

It doesn’t really matter that much, although it does depend a little on what kind of school you go to. It’s far easier to do a national job search if you go to a college with a national reputation. For example, a kid who goes to Stanford might have an easier time looking for jobs in New York than a kid who goes to Humboldt State. That doesn’t mean the Humboldt State kid can’t get a job in New York - but they will have to do a little more legwork in school to make themselves appealing to NYC employers and make it clear that they desire to move.

I think college students who do the kind of networking to land them a local job are in the minority. A lot of students end up staying put because they like the metro area they went to school in, or at least grow used to it.

I went to college in Atlanta and graduate school in New York; I did a one-year research fellowship in Pennsylvania and then moved to Seattle for a job.

The networking mine have done in college makes all the difference. Some schools have better networking that is for sure and it can set you up for life, seriously. That is why a lot of people are willing to pay a lot for some schools, it’s not necessarily the academic difference, it is the connections. And it can be way easier to get a job in the area where you go to school, but perhaps on a broad scale - like CA or east coast/west coast kind of thing. Not mandatory, but sure, it can help, particularly in certain industries.

If you attend a school tha’s no nationally known, it’s easier to start out in the region where you graduated from, but after a year or two you can Go anywhere. In addition, nothing prevents you frombmiving after college - choose a dynamic city or an area that’s good forbthrkibd of jobs you want, and apply - or move there and apply from there . The biggest impediments to launching in the geographical area of your choice are 1) narrow minded focus on one place and 2) college debt.