<p>On CC we often talk about fit and finance when picking a college, but we don't often talk about if a college is good for life after, and it could be getting into graduate schools or jobs. I know there are many parents who think college should be all about learning, but most of our kids do not have the luxury of not having a career after college, and it is something they should consider before selecting a college. </p>
<p>We had dinner last night with a long time friend. They have a son who is at CMU business school. The son wants to work in IB, so I asked him when the banks would be doing interviews on campus. His answer was that most of them didn't. He said a lot of top tech companies recruited there. On the other hand, many of those recruit at schools like Mich and Indiana. </p>
<p>JHU and U.Chicago are all top ranking schools, but most of their students go on to graduate schools, therefore not as many firms would recruit there. </p>
<p>Many LACs have non-existent career center, but do great jobs in helping their students get into top graduate schools - medical, music, economics... Colgate and Oberlin have very different focus when it comes to after life for their students. </p>
<p>One place where people may want to visit while touring the campus is the college career center. I would have a meeting with a counselor to see what kind of assistance they give in helping students in securing internships and permanent jobs, ask them what firms recruit on campus, what percentage of students get jobs through school. </p>
<p>If your kid wants to go to medical school, law school, or other graduate schools, get stats from schools he/she is considering. One small LAC we visited claim they had 100% medical school placement rate. It was their claim to fame, but not D1's focus. </p>
<p>We all want our kids to be happy where they go to school, but to have a good after (college) life should be a consideration too.</p>
<p>Some kids mature early and some are late boomers. Some will never grow up. Depending on what they want to do, school selection can be very different. For my son, who has interests in bio, pharmacy and business, I lead him towards larger state schools, like UNC, UW Madison, Illinois, UCLA, U Minnesota, U Texas. These schools seems to have good track record in these fields.</p>
<p>When I was in HS, the GC didn’t give a lot of college planning advise. (Sadly GC these days also seem to busy, except to help apply to colleges once you’ve picked them.) His best advise was, “When you are on a campus visit, drop by the career placement center. If it is a closet with a bare bulb, move on…”.</p>
<p>A large part of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science accepted students day talk was about where graduates go and how much they earned. They didn’t let us down. :)</p>
<p>My younger son is in a field (IR) where most kids go on to grad school after a few years out in the work force. I don’t know about his college’s career office, but I’ve been impressed that already as a freshman he’s been talking to upper class students about where they are going and why. (Really I can’t believe how much he’s matured in 3 months - something I have to give his college a lot of credit for.) I have the sense that he’s making contacts from the Global Institute involvement more than from the Career Office, but we will see.</p>
<p>Yes, I have seen a lot of very bright students in my son’s high school went to schools that do not promise bright futures for the student they deserve. Parents do not know better either. The GC (trying to be helpful) does not know much beyond our state and local colleges. It is sad for these students.</p>
<p>This is interesting. We are a science based family. I am very good friends with a business based family. My friend is really emphasizing how involved alumni are in finding current grads jobs. She is looking for schools with a very well developed alumni network. Colgate is looking very good to her and her DD. We look more at the science departments and grad school rates. We assume our kids will go on to grad school of some kind or another. Her DD (a very bright girl) will likely not go into a professional program. It is very interesting to here about the different approaches. I also appreciate having her perspective b/c I feel that I need to tell my kids about it in case they may find that important to them.</p>
<p>I made it a point, when visiting schools with DD, to go to the “Career Planning and Placement” (titles vary by school) office, while she went solo to see the dorms, dining halls, classrooms, etc on the campus tours. Like the OP, I found this to be very enlightening. I was quite surprised by varying levels between schools in the quantity and quality of recruiters, internships, business/corporate relationships, etc available for the students. This certainly became another aspect to consider in DD’s college selection. YMMV.</p>
<p>@geogirl1,
Depending on the field of interest, the answer can be very different. For computer MIT, CM , UIUC are the best. For chemistry, go for Harvard, Cal Tech, Berkeley. For petro engineering, go Texas…</p>
<p>Happykid is at our local CC, and her field of study (Theater Tech.) is all about networks of contacts because hiring can be very local. Job placement will be a critical factor when she makes her “transfer to” list this time next year.</p>
<p>This thread is really amusing to me right now. The reason is because I just had a conversation today with a women while waiting around. This woman told me that her son is a graduate of Emporia State Univesity in Kansas. This school could be wonderful, it certainly was for her son, but it is not a school that I have ever seen mentioned once on cc. Her son is now VP of major company (excellent job). I won’t go through all of the twists and turns his life has taken, but it just goes to show that it can be the person you are, your luck in life, being in the right place at the right time, as well as connections that make a career. Something similar happened to my BIL.</p>
<p>Good point. This is something my H expressed interest in when S was compiling his list. He wanted to know who recruits on campus and how many graduates get jobs there, who hires interns and how many of those interns end up working there after graduation, etc. It will be a topic of discussion when S has to make the final decision.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s not a bad idea to visit the placement office in colleges your kid is considering. Couldn’t hurt. But college is/should be a time of growth. Many students enter college with one goal in mind and emerge wanting to do something quite different. I read somewhere that about 75% of freshmen end up changing their majors. I know that was true for my daughter. So I think it’s good for us to encourage our kids to grow and develop in college and to maybe change gears if necessary.</p>
<p>My D is a pragmatic, bottom-line kind of person. When she was looking for colleges she would only look at urban universities with good business schools that have close ties to the local business community, because her plan was 4 years in college -> job with a local firm. Her father and I are science people, not business people, and our focus was more on state schools or liberal arts schools with an eye towards grad school.</p>
<p>Fast forward to now - D is a junior accounting major with an internship lined up for next summer that should (God willing) lead to a permanent job at graduation in the city she now loves. She chose her school (Tier 2? Tier 3? not sure any more - it’s changed) primarily for the strength of her intended major, the local business ties, and the alumni network. So far, her original plan is playing out just like she schemed (although we all know how often life works out JUST like you planned!)</p>
<p>In many ways she is not the typical CC kid so I don’t really post here that often. However, in this particular circumstance, her ideas about her life AFTER college played as large a role in her decision-making as her life DURING college.</p>
<p>I relate to the science/business families report. For us post bachelor’s degree education is assumed. For others it is business and money making jobs. Like meets like and gets together- for generations. </p>
<p>The student’s fields of interest matter. Percentages can be misleading- total numbers matter more. A good fit would include a number of peers with the same interests and aspirations to surround oneself with. Twenty percent of a hundred math majors going on to grad school gives a larger peer group than 100% of less than twenty in the major. At a large school with many in a major students may sort themselves out into different tiers- those that are heading for a post bachelors degree job, those planning on professional school and those planning on grad school immediately. Being a biology major at a school where most of those in the major plan on medical/vet school is different than being at a school where one finds biology majors planning to continue in their under grad major field., and often general biology not a major- that being too general for the school (zoology, botany, etc being recognized majors).</p>
<p>It is not only the academic stats that determine a good fit, but directions planned after the BA/BS degree. It would be frustrating to be intensly interested in a subject but to find most of those in the subject are using it for other goals. An example is chemistry. UW has three different general chemistry sequences while some equally elite schools only one option- the majors are with the premed students. That student wanting an A isn’t necessarily doing it for love of subject, but to get that gpa for medical school.</p>
<p>Parents may also want to include specific schools/colleges advising services on their university tour. A business or engineering hopeful may have radically different setups available than the general advising services indicate.</p>
<p>DH is in human resources & one of his concerns during D’s college search was about her access to recruiters. Companies that he has worked for have only recruited at “big schools” so LACs weren’t on his radar. I didn’t think it mattered all that much since I figured D would be going directly to grad school. Guess we’ll see how that all works out in 3 years ;)</p>
<p>One other piece about “life after college” is location. Most people I know ended up staying somewhat close to their alma mater for at least a little while, due to job prospects/ networking. So weather conditions & where your inlaws might end up being from can also come into play.</p>
<p>When we were looking for colleges for our DD, we did look at the career or placement offices of each of our short listed colleges.
DD actually had two sets of criteria:
College major
College career or placement
College access to internship
Option to go for combined BS/MS
And a totally different
College setting (Urban, Semi - urban, Rural)
College life (Access to good food, entertainment etc.)
College diversity.</p>
<p>DD college decision was influenced greatly by all the above criteria. DD college happened to score well on most of the above so she didn’t have to make a choice between having the first over the second set but when asked she said she would have gone with the first over the second set.</p>
<p>When we talk about these things we have an average student in mind and not the Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerbergs of the world who can drop out of college and still be a billionaire. 80% of the students will get benefited by a strong placement/career office at their college.</p>
<p>I think it should be high on parents/students list.</p>
<p>When I started reading this thread I thought I would find what my son expressed and I support. He wants to go to a school in a place that feels like it is a place where he might want to live even if it was a lesser program. </p>
<p>With 50% of students changing their major after they start, aiming for the school with the best program in a starting major may not be the best place if they change. And in the end, it is hard to know if being at a “better” school will guarantee success. My nephew graduated from Univ of Penn and is not doing anything productive with his degree. </p>
<p>I think checking into the career placement dept is an excellent idea that I wouldn’t have thought of so that is a very good point to consider.</p>
<p>Great thread. When our kids were looking at colleges, they did ask questions about the college job services, etc. For one of our kids, these questions didn’t really apply (musician) but for the other (engineering) it did. She chose a school in an area that has very high visability in the engineering field. Her college has many recruiters from some very high profile firms recruiting there. This was important to her because it showed the strength of her program and also gave her some idea that perhaps she would have the prospects of a job after graduation.</p>
<p>I think if she had decided to pursue a degree in engineering, this would have been true. She got her degree in engineering but is now in the Peace Corps…it is highly unlikely that engineering will be her field in the end.</p>
<p>One thing that we heard for advice and it sounded odd but it made sense in the end…Someone told us that we should look at the school and the surrounding area and people. If our child thought she wanted to be similar to those people in that place, then the school probably would suit her well. If not, then she should reconsider. On some level, I believe that is true.</p>
<p>It is something to consider. There are many things to consider when selecting a school. I was trying to say that the career office is ONE way that a student might find his/her first job and/or internship, but there are other ways as well. As an example, many years ago my DH landed his second job through job listings from a school that his friend attended (DH did not attend that school). The friend gave her password to job postings to him. My DH has stayed with that job for many years.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that for the average student the priority should be on graduating first. Keeping this in mind, fit might be a priority over career placement to some families. Just take a look at some of the dismal graduation rates!</p>