<p>I think if two resumes were exactly the same, except that one said “Harvard” and the other “Oxford,” the difference would be (to an American employer who thinks like me) that the Oxford grad was slightly more interesting or unusual. It would certainly not be the dividing line between who got an interview or who got hired, though.</p>
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That seems to be quite closed-minded. Britain has the second highest number of international students in the world; methinks I smell some cultrual chauvinism. Hopefully this is not how most recruiters would react…</p>
<p>I think that comment just reflects the fact that very few American students decide to study overseas (apart from a year or term abroad). It is extremely unusual for an American student to even seek to go to Oxford or Cambridge.</p>
<p>If we are talking about students from countries other than the U.S., it’s a different matter.</p>
<p>The entire premise of judging universities based on prestige is faulty. If anything, as one poster alluded to, you need to learn about the educational differences between British universities and American universities. It can make for quite a different experience. Having experienced both systems to some extent, I believe the American system is superior for producing a well-rounded individual able to analyze an issue with the tools offered by multiple disciplines, rather than only understanding a single method, albeit, well.</p>
<p>It might be unusual, but obviously there are people who would prefer the British system of education and who would relish the opportunity to stay in Europe for several years. To say, “You only went there because you’re parents were born there” appears tasteless and infers connotations that the student was not qualified for a US university and therefore had to resort back to his parent’s somehow inferior motherland for schooling.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s that unusual for American students to seek to go to Oxford or Cambridge. Years ago, I looked into it (and decided it was too much trouble for the benefit, if any). Recently, friends of both kids actually applied, and one was accepted (but chose Harvard instead).</p>
<p>The ex-pat kids all come to college in the U.S.</p>
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<p>What are you talking about?? We have thousands of employees that are ex-pats and not all of their kids come back to the US to go to college? By the same token we have thousands of employees that come here (to the US) for an assignment so that their kids can attend college here… I don’t underestand your comment at all.</p>
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All I meant is that, ostensibly, your recruiters view the only compelling reason for a student to study outside the US would be because their parents are from that country – as if no normal student would actually “decide” to turn down a US college and study abroad. Considering the UK (obviously the nation in which Oxford is located) has the second highest number of international students in the world studying there, I don’t find this mode of thought accurate. It just seemed to me like these recruiters have a very American-centric way of thinking when it comes to higher education. I’m sorry if this is not what you meant to imply and if I took it the wrong way. :)</p>
<p>JHS: May I ask why you didn’t consider applying to Oxbridge beneficial? For the same reasons regarding US MA degrees, funding, and those things, I assume?</p>
<p>"Contrary to the opinions of many college students on CC, employers are NOT parsing out the differences between schools nor do they care about USNWR rankings. In the case of larger companies who do college recruiting on campus, they may select X number of schools but then within the resumes that emerge from those schools, they are all treated as equal. "</p>
<p>I dunno. I once worked as an Associate at a fairly big name management consulting firm (THAT was not a good match, and I left after a couple of years) One day someone gave me a big stack of resumes to cull through. I think it was for interns, I don’t remember. I am pretty sure all were resumes that came over the transom, not schools that were visited. Once anyone got close to hiring, they surely looked closely at the person, not at prestige rankings. But at that point, it was like taking a stack of a thousand resumes and reducing it to a few hundred. Needless to say, I had limited time for each one. And so, yes, sadly, stereotypical rankings of colleges (I hadnt heard of USNWR rankings) had a significant role (though I was supposed to look at other things). </p>
<p>The hardest ones were from overseas “hey Joe, you’re from Fredonia, is the Mbunga Inst of Technology like the best tech school in Fredonia, or not so much?”</p>
<p>^ well this just proves it, then, doesn’t it? Stop the debate people! Here is someone who on one occasion had to hire and in so doing, personally took the schools prestige into account based on stereotypes, and disregarded foreign schools. I’m sure this must be what all employers do! :)</p>
<p>I did not disregard foreign schools. What I said was that schools in countries like India, where I did not know much about the schools presented a particular challenge. I used what I knew, cause I had little time. I had a regular job to do, and they gave me these resumes to look at. I looked at prestige cause I was told to do that - this was a management consulting firm, they LIKE prestige, they LIKE Ivies, etc. When they make a proposal the resumes they send out matter to clients. </p>
<p>Does the whole management consulting business model make sense? Maybe not. But when someone is paying top dollar to have someone in their twenties come and tell them how to run their business, they like to see credentials. In the form of, yes, prestige schools. </p>
<p>I of course did not say the debate should end - I freely admitted this happened once - and I would suggest management consulting firms are not typical employers.</p>
<p>But pardon me for giving a real world example that doesn’t exactly match what others say. </p>
<p>I would appreciate though if you not mischarecterize what I have written.</p>
<p>Literally perhaps not but taking your two statements, I don’t think it was particularly a stretch for me to make that inference. </p>
<p>But apologies for miscapturing it and being sarcastic with your post. I know you were just trying to be helpful.</p>
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<p>LOL - and the part that keeps being forgotten is that the “someones” who run and / or own the businesses who seek out management consultants in the first place aren’t necessarily top-tier school grads themselves. YK, someone’s got to run an actual business and make an actual product.</p>
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<p>Right - because you needed some mechanism to wade through X number of resumes. But it could have just as easily been “Rochester - oh, my friend goes there, I hear it’s a really good school” or “Ohio State - I’ve followed that team forever” as much as “Harvard - they’re tops.” You used some kind of sorting criteria, but it’s not as though when you used that criteria, you were saying “these piles of schools are unequivocally the best and any that don’t make my cut are bad.”</p>
<p>I understood your comment, Brooklynborndad. It didn’t appear that you were equating the Mbunga Institute of Technology to Oxford, or grouping all graduates of foreign universities together. </p>
<p>I have run into similar questions in an academic context–for example, I don’t know whether the various IIT’s are essentially identical except geographically, or whether they are rather different in quality. I’ve heard it claimed that the “real geniuses” in Japan go to Kyoto, not Tokyo, though Tokyo has higher exam-related admissions standards. Etc. And if Joe from Fredonia claims that the College of the Free Peoples of Fredonia outranks the Mbunga Institute of Technology, but Joe went to CFPF, well . . .</p>
<p>Purely as a matter of academics, I would pick Oxbridge over HYP in a heartbeat if I was a budding genius, but not for inane reasons of “prestige”. It is because of my impression that expertise is spread out in the US, but more concentrated in the UK into that small geographical area.</p>
<p>Certain fields of study might lead to different conclusions, and the Harvard-MIT axis can be a super-brain.</p>