^ Interesting. I think that the current generation of kids want to be in great cities and Boston is arguably the best US college town.
“^Yes, but without rankings, how many people outside the NE would even know Williams or Middlebury exists?”
Hardly anybody outside the NE knows that they exist now. Most people WITHIN the NE don’t know them.
^ I disagree. Most people across the USA who work in banking, asset management and other financial and corporate fields will have heard on Williams, Amherst, Swartmore, Midd and Wesleyan plus a few others (Davidson/Pomona/CMC) as they will have come into contact with their alumni.
“Most people across the USA who work in banking, asset management and other financial and corporate fields”
Right. Those aren’t most people. That’s a narrow sliver of people.
Fields that require PHD’s also know where their applicants went to undergraduate school at as it cascades up. That said, a lot is still regional as more high tech workers come out of the California state universities than anywhere else - Biotech fields and east coast schools probably have a similar correlation.
@TomSrOfBoston: Well, BC, BU, and NEU are all roughly within the top 10% of colleges in the US (BC is a near-elite if not an elite), so of course they aren’t struggling.
And as @londondad noted, the big city unis have done well (and will continue to do well unless urban crime returns to the levels of the '70’s/'80’s).
But smaller rural (or small city) LACs/privates that aren’t at least decently high up in the rankings have been struggling.
I have worked and hired in banking, asset management and other financial and corporate fields and barely knew those schools before I started the college process. And I live in New England. Are the HR managers familiar? Probably so.
I’ve worked with investment professionals at the most senior levels and what college they’ve attended rarely comes into conversation. As much as East coast people are said to always talk about where they went to college, I have not had that experience at all.
@hanna However, there is a big
overlap between potential LAC customers and parents who are financial and corporate professionals! I don’t think Middlebury really cares if its name recognition is low in Nebraska.
@suzyQ7, agree that outside of hiring summer interns and first year analysts it rarely comes up - and I can say that those beat their chests about their Ivy credentials usually had it work against them…Hopefully, students are pursing some of these better East Coast and Midwest LAC’s because of the unique learning experience and community they create and not how much money they think they will make in life.