I think we had already determined it seems like the Banks and Consulting firms are more interested in what we are calling the “elite”. Both of my daughters have gone through this recruiting and the kids at these superdays in NYC are MOSTLY from Ivy-Esq colleges. My daughter was at one just a few weeks ago and Harvard, Yale, Penn, and MIT all had students there. There are usually one or two “outliers”, as well…but the bulk has undeniably been from what many would refer to as the “elite”.
But is it possible as it relates to the tech industry and the SV jobs, (of which I know very little about because my girls are studying finance) the employers have their own version of elite? I realize rankings don’t always mean much but some of the top 25 Engineering schools from US News include:
Georgia Tech
U of Illinois Urbana Champaign
U of Michigan
Purdue
U of Texas
Texas A&M
U of Wisconsin
Virginia Tech
UCLA
Penn State
UC San Diego
U of Washington
U of Maryland (who is tied with Harvard and U Penn for 25th)
These are all great schools for lots of different majors but most of them would not be considered “elite” unless you are looking for a specific major (like BME from GTech). Michigan and Texas and probably Wisconsin are probably also on the “target” list for some banks/consulting firms, as well. And UCLA, even though they don’t have an undergrad business school.
So as many of you have been saying…the answer is it depends on who is hiring and for what position.
I do believe ultimately the reputation of the college has a lot to do with getting that first interview and that there is some correlation to lifetime earnings (if we use that as a measure of success). But there are many ways to skin a cat and I’m sure there are many, many successful people in all industries that went to schools not considered “elite” for their field of work. But many that did.