<p>Not everyone who attends a so called “elite college” chose the college because it is “elite.” I can’t tell you how many times my D, who went to Brown for undergrad, when asked about where she goes to school when meeting people in our area, would simply say “in Providence” and now that she is in grad school at MIT, I have overheard in conversations when people ask where she is going to grad school, she’ll simply say “in Boston” and seems to go out of her way to not even name the schools!</p>
<p>I wonder how The Wall Street Journal chooses its interns… Do they give preference to elite schools, when considering prospective interns who are not already well-connected, or who do not fill a desirable demographic?</p>
<p>The old so great I can’t even name it ploy–believe me it’s even more annoying when I hear it. It’s really not that big a deal.</p>
<p>re: hiring</p>
<p>In his previous job, my dad hired engineers (most of them straight out of college)… He doesn’t know or care about college rankings and only has two colleges he would be warry about based on the engineers he’s worked with who attended those schools.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be surprising at all that the WSJ only or mostly looked at certain elite schools for its interns. Why are you singling out the WSJ, though? Isn’t this thread about employers in general, not just financially-related firms in NYC?</p>
<p>barrons…you would have to know my daughter. It is not “it’s so great I can’t even name it” but more that she is not someone caught up in prestige and would not want the reactions of awe that one can get in some locales such as ours and is someone who is NOT into bragging and is extremely modest in this way.</p>
<p>ya gotta love engineering psych. A place where many of the best are not the same as the rest of the elite rankings. </p>
<p>You know
Cal Poly
Missouri Rolla
Colorado School of MInes</p>
<p>A place where what you bring to the table is more important then where you went to school</p>
<p>This thread is taking a familiar turn, probably taken many times on this board.</p>
<h1>44 -
</h1>
<p>This is true with most small or mid-size companies. They do care about the quality of the colleges to some extent but they don’t want to pay air ticket, hotel, car rental for out of town interview, and they really don’t want to pay the relocation cost if the student get hired. But for national or international size companies, the story is different. Hiring students from far away colleges is a chance for marketing. They even pay for the newly hired students to go to graduate schools (at least in the old time).</p>
<p>barrons posted:
“The old so great I can’t even name it ploy–believe me it’s even more annoying when I hear it. It’s really not that big a deal.”</p>
<p>LOL. Totally agree.</p>
<p>soozievt posted:</p>
<p>“barrons…you would have to know my daughter. It is not “it’s so great I can’t even name it” but more that she is not someone caught up in prestige and would not want the reactions of awe that one can get in some locales such as ours and is someone who is NOT into bragging and is extremely modest in this way.”</p>
<p>reactions of awe? reactions of awe? LOL Your daughters don’t have to mention where they go to school. You do it enough for them. Interesting that the best “fit” for both of your daughters was an elite school, and yet, there was no thought as to the “payoff” that would come from attending those schools. GMAB. I don’t think that too many will buy that line.</p>
<p>I think those kids in the article are really spoiled. their parents are PAYING for college. Be grateful. I feel that’s really wrong for them to complain</p>
<p>My parents won’t give me a darn dime towards my education</p>
<p>purpleflurp…we live in a very very small town. On CC I can mention the names of the schools because it is a NO big whoop as it is not unusual on CC. But in our neck of the woods, going to these schools is quite unusual and if someone asks me where the kids go to school and I say the name, they make a big deal over it. I know my D and she would not want anyone ever to do that. No, she does not care about prestige whether you believe me or not. I truly do not care. She chose Brown because it fit her selection criteria. Unlike some kids on CC who “want Ivy”, that was not the case with her. She got into Penn but decided to eliminate Penn when narrowing her acceptances because she liked Tufts and Smith more than Penn. I have seen some kids on CC who would think that was nuts. She cared about the school fitting her more than anything else. She has never seen college rankings and could never tell you what ranking any of her schools had. My other kid also never has seen college rankings. Nobody where we live EVER EVER discusses such things. </p>
<p>If I mention where the kids go to school on CC…it is because this is a college forum and I have mentioned it in context of particular thread discussions. If they went to UVM, you betcha that I would mention it as well. Should it matter? Not to me. YOU have a problem with it. If they went to Johnson State College or Norwich University, you would have NO problem if I mentioned in context of a thread where my kids went to school I bet. But should I mention Brown, MIT, or NYU…tsk tsk. It makes my exact point. That’s why my kid tends to not answer directly where she attends school because of reactions of people like you. </p>
<p>You also assume that attending well known colleges was done in terms of hoping for some “payoff”. Hate to break it to ya…nope. I could list many reasons why they chose their schools over other schools. Never have they ever mentioned name recognition, ranking, or prestige, or some payoff in terms of how much money one would earn. Their reasons were very specific. I could bore you with them if you would like. But these reasons were to do with many factors about each college that fit what they wanted in a school. For example, their schools had certain things that UVM did not offer that they were seeking to do in college. D1 in fact, who had no intentions of applying to UVM as it did not fit the things she listed as wanting in a college, was offered a free ride there. Tempting? Not really. Great school but did not meet any of the things she was looking for. And I don’t mean prestige. Believe what you wish. You seem to like to follow me around and enter threads after I post. You could ignore my posts if you have such an aversion to me as you have demonstrated many times on the forum.</p>
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<p>This was a national company, very high-ranking in the field, and I know they did pay for some interview expenses, though most applicants came from schools in the surrounding area, which makes sense given the (sub)field. But thank you for implying that anyone who doesn’t live by rankings could only possibly work for Podunk Company… sheesh.</p>
<p>… and the constant one upmenship on CC continues…</p>
<p>Soozie, I’m not questioning your D’s motives for concealing the school. I’m more reticent to bring up my school (now former school - eek!) than I would be if it were a state U, just because I think some people do have certain perceptions of Ivy League kids that I’d rather not deal with, positive and negative. But I don’t go with the “in New Jersey” card, because if the next question is “where in New Jersey,” and my answer is “in Princeton,” I feel like I’m going to come off like a snob who thinks I’m so impressive that I can’t risk offending the mere plebians at lesser schools. So, I see where the tactic comes from, I just think it winds up being counterproductive.</p>
<p>ICargirl…I never asked her but it was just an observation. Knowing her as I do, she is very modest. And by naming a well known school around here, it would get a reaction. I have answered such queries directly and I have seen it myself…“wow”, etc. etc. And she would not want to come off that way and maybe she thinks it is easier to just say the city or state and not have to bother with reactions. You talk about offending those who go to “lesser schools” but usually it is not peers who ask. Adults ask to be friendly. She’ll just say, “I’m in grad school in Boston.” She is not worried about offending anyone but would not want attention or for it to sound as a brag. I’m assuming that as she is modest in nature and not caught up in prestige. Never cared about labels. It is the OTHERS who make a big deal of it and she doesn’t want anyone to. That’s what I sense. You have to understand that where we live, folks are not driven by prestige. Nobody talks about where you are applying to college or any of that. Nobody follows rankings. Nobody races to be the val to compete with someone else. It is very very very different from what I read on CC. Lots of kids here do not even go to college.</p>
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<p>Yes, but they still want to do so efficiently. And if they can find excellent students efficiently at colleges in their areas, it may or may not be worth it to them to recruit at schools that are even better academically – because it’s not all about academics, it’s about finding good people with other characteristics beyond (or in addition to) smarts – team player, easy to get along with, motivated, self-starter, etc. And if they can find a handful of schools that do seem to produce good students, then it’s just not <em>necessary</em> to optimize that list to chase after a school where the selectivity was lower or the mean SAT scores were higher or whatever. </p>
<p>Which is not to say that there aren’t great opportunities at top schools. It’s just that there’s a CC assumption that employers are always explicitly chasing after top schools in recognition of the academic brilliance of the students therein, that they easily perceive as so far superior as what they could get anywhere else, and that’s what I disagree with.</p>
<p>If you have the money and can swing it, then fine, but I know so many people who have achieved so much with degrees from state schools. If you think about it much it makes sense–you are kind of on your own at a big state school. It is up to you to plan your curriculum and show up and do the work to get decent grades. People who graduate in less than 6 years, with a decent GPA, from a big, impersonal state school, have demonstrated a certain competence that will serve them well going forward.</p>
<p>soozievt posted:
“You seem to like to follow me around and enter threads after I post. You could ignore my posts if you have such an aversion to me as you have demonstrated many times on the forum.” </p>
<p>I do not have an “aversion” to you, but I do disagree with some of your statements, and I also do think you “protest too much” about the prestige of elite schools meaning nothing to you or to your daughters. If the prestige meant nothing and your children were unaware of the “awe power” of their institutions, they would not go to any lengths to hide the identities of the schools from those who ask. They would just answer the simple question if asked by a friendly person.</p>
<p>Just because someone is in disagreement with you does not mean that they have an aversion to you. Is there some particular reason why you should be immune from commentary when no one else, including me, is on this forum? I do not ask anyone to ignore my posts if they’re going to disagree. I realize that if I post in a public forum, I might get all sorts of different reactions to my thoughts.</p>
<p>Purpleflurp, I do not mind people disagreeing with me on CC! I have been here for over seven years and have had numerous people have views that differ from mine. No problemo! That is not what I was referring to. You have come onto the forum in the past following my posts and have ridiculed me in the past. I don’t wish to get into this further but it has been a pattern. </p>
<p>I did not say that my D went to lengths to hide the identities of the schools they attend. I just said that they don’t care about prestige in selecting schools but more about specific criteria to match what they wanted in a school. I said that ONE daughter, on a few occasions, I have noticed has just said the area she went to school in and not the name. I don’t think she would hide the identity if someone probed further! But she did not want to make any deal of it. We live in a community that is not competitive like many on here reside in. If you say you go to such a school, it would stand out very much here. And so knowing her as I do, she would not want to make a big deal of it. She doesn’t want to hide it as much as would not want attention or the type of “awe” response that can happen around here. She is modest. </p>
<p>The fact that one attends a very well known school doesn’t mean they CARE about prestige. I never said they were “unaware” of the prestige of the school. One would have to be from another planet to not know that an Ivy league school is well known or MIT is well known or very selective. But that was not why she chose these schools. They did not select based on prestige. That doesn’t mean they were not aware that these schools are hard to get into or well known, etc. </p>
<p>I also have read on many threads where people talk about going to an elite school to earn more money in a career. Such a notion never occurred to my kids or myself. Opportunities may happen at their schools but I do not believe they will earn more by having attended them. My kids have never discussed earning potential and did not even enter well paying fields!</p>
<p>If you think nobody will “buy that”, that may be because many here come from competitive communities but we do not. The thinking on CC about colleges is quite foreign from the experiences we have had locally. By a LOT.</p>
<p>Soozievt - I completely understand what you are saying because my daughter is in the exact same position as yours. However, I do think it is hard for most people to fathom that a school is chosen largely for fit with no regard to the name. We don’t even bother defending ourselves anymore. And just like your D mine would say I go to college in ----(name of collegetown) but that was perceived to be pompous, so she now just says, “I go to — Unuiversity and I just LOVE it there.” That seems to stop all further awkward comments and she can continue having a normal conversation.</p>
<p>I think I go to (or will be going to ) X U. and am thrilled is a great answer no matter if school is elite or not.</p>