<p>Engineers</a>, Accountants Say School Matters - WSJ.com</p>
<p>Based on this recent WSJ article. Nothing new to me, but maybe new to those in denial for the past couple years. I've been preaching this, school + GPA matters tons.</p>
<p>-Dawg</p>
<p>Mind you I go to school for MIS so I have no vested interest, but this doesn’t disprove what people say on these boards, especially when it comes to Big 4.</p>
<p>At that the larger, more reputable schools they recruit more, but they still recruit at the other accredited schools. </p>
<p>Besides there are so many flaws in this article. The only career services person they talked to was from Chapel Hill which brings in hundreds of OOS students on the idea that they are one of (if not THE) best public universities in the country. What is she going to say? “Nah it doesn’t matter, go to your state college?”</p>
<p>They don’t even say what they define “success” as. What if they went to schools around that 100-125 US B. School rankings and asked alumni there opinion (as they are employed and “succesful” as defined by the article)? Are they going to say “No my school sucked.” Of course not. They are employed and have met whatever success means to this researcher. They believe that there school helped them along the way.</p>
<p>That is the biggest flaw. They do not define what “success” is and they do not divulge what schools they asked. If they asked the big, reputable schools of course the elitists will say it matters, just as you are doing (no offence). But just stop to think for a second. If the asked students from less reputable schools who were succeeding if they thought there school helped them, wouldn’t they say yes?</p>
<p>Not ONCE does the article mention Big 4. Of course that is the underlying assumption I guess but as someone who has gone through Big 4 recruiting, Dawgie, you know how many people get turned down. At that point (when they begin looking at private sector employment) the reputation factor jumps up. However, even at a school close to mine which lags far behind my university the students are still recruited heavily by the 3 Fortune 25 companies in the area IF they don’t get into Big 4. Big 4 DOES recruit there but just hires less grads than surrounding schools. Could they move across country and find a good job? No, but they are having no trouble finding it in the large metro the school is in.</p>
<p>For you to take ONE article and say it disproves anything is ludicrous. The fact is Big 4 recruits at every single AASCB accredited business school.</p>
<p>I agree with the result of the survey regarding accounting but not the methodology or the bottom half of the list.</p>
<p>I certainly think that the difference in job outcomes for history majors at top schools and mediocre schools is far greater than the difference in outcomes between accounting majors at top schools and those at mediocre ones. And yet the survey would lead you to think otherwise…</p>
<p>For you to take ONE article and say it disproves anything is ludicrous. The fact is Big 4 recruits at every single AASCB accredited business school. </p>
<p>Cool: “Recruits at every single school”</p>
<p>Here’s an example in a given area:</p>
<p>2 people from no name school
10 from top ranked school</p>
<p>Good point you bring up. :)</p>
<p>I think this does obscure the point though, for most on this board. If you are already going to a school that’s not too highly ranked, accounting is your best bet. The thing is that school quality matters for most everything. If you are at #40 on the list for accounting and #40 on the list for Finance, better major in accounting. God forbid you major in most other things. MIS, SCM are other good choices in that case. I don’t think there are that many who really have the option to go to a top 5 program who are like “Eh, I think I’ll just go to the University of Rust Valley instead, taxguy said it doesn’t matter”.</p>
<p>I guess you never took a logic/reasoning course? Ever heard of a straw-man? It’s the worst kind of fallacy and it’s what you just did. I broke down the ridiculous methodology of the entire survey and you focused on one thing (big 4 recruiting) rather than my whole point. </p>
<p>I guess you don’t need to be logical as a bean counter, huh?</p>
<p>Since I didn’t read your entire post or reply to your entire post. I have no logic? Sorry your assertion HAS NO LOGIC. </p>
<p>Back to the point, I chose to focus on one part of your post (I didn’t bother reading the rest because I could careless to tell you the truth). I guess you must be really logical to be on this board for 1 year+ and still think accounting involves bean counting. I don’t know if I “counted” anything for the past year. Fail son, try again before stepping up to the likes of Dawgie. Don’t feel bad because I just ripped on your “BIG 4 recruits from everywhere” line.</p>
<p>■■■■■■■ with the bean counter comment. </p>
<p>Epic dawgie fail.</p>
<p>Funny, because even if that was true. What happened to 85% of your post? It’s illogical to not read or reply back to your entire response? Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Take those logic courses buddy.</p>
<p>The reputation of a school can’t matter for accounting since most top schools do not have undergraduate accounting degrees. For the most part, only second and third tier schools have them.</p>
<p>You still arguing all day long with people on forums Dawgie? No wonder you keep getting banned from CPA Net.</p>
<p>"You still arguing all day long with people on forums Dawgie? No wonder you keep getting banned from CPA Net. " My post history really supports that. I almost forgot that it’s possible to post all day long while passing the CPA/CFA levels along with a heavy full time and life… Keep up the good work kiddo!!!</p>
<p>“The reputation of a school can’t matter for accounting since most top schools do not have undergraduate accounting degrees. For the most part, only second and third tier schools have them.”
- Pretty wrong.</p>
<p>Homer28:</p>
<h1>Total Posts: 455</h1>
<h1>Posts Per Day: 10.15</h1>
<p>Haven’t you kids learned by now? Amateurs.</p>
<p>Sorry kids, but Dawgie is absolutely right here. </p>
<p>This thread has my approval.</p>
<p>God I wish the WSJ would stop with these rankings :(</p>
<p>I’m with Dawgie. Its just like for Wall Street there are targets, semi-targets, etc. Fine, Goldman Sachs might recruit at both Wharton and Cornell but that doesn’t necessarily mean the probability of success is equal at both schools. GS will take more students from Wharton, so, Ceterus Paribus, your chances of success is higher at Wharton or Harvard vs Cornell or other semi-target. That’s what he is saying. Now, if you can go to Cornell and still land a job and have more fun, more power to you, but for the average folk, its best to go to a better ranked school. The caveat is that accounting, even at the Big 4, is a second-tier job, so your chances of going to a solid target (my school is ranked outside the T100 but still pulls in 6+ students from each firm just for the Big 4) are much higher to begin with. You don’t necessarily need to go to even Cornell to get a job at the Big 4, but don’t be so foolish to believe that you can go to any compass point U and get a job at the Big 4 just because they have recruited there in the past.</p>
<p>As for people poo-pooing majoring in anything outside of accounting, don’t be ridiculous. Yes, your probability of getting a brand name job is lower from a non-ivy caliber school, and your probability is even lower from finance, but if you network well, you can do whatever you want and kick ass. Most of the jobs in the finance world are just based on networking from what I’ve seen, so just build contacts, get good grades, and do what you love if you want to be successful is what I say. If you’re not willing to make contacts and will rely exclusively on OCR, good luck is all I can say.</p>
<p>This article states that even for accounting, the name of a school matters.</p>
<p>[for-accountants-and-engineers-school-name-plays-bigger-role:</a> Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/110841/for-accountants-and-engineers-school-name-plays-bigger-role?mod=edu-collegeprep]for-accountants-and-engineers-school-name-plays-bigger-role:”>http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/110841/for-accountants-and-engineers-school-name-plays-bigger-role?mod=edu-collegeprep)</p>
<p>That’s the exact same article Tosh.</p>
<p>I would say that if we compare fresh college graduates without any working experience, then the name of a school matters. However, in any other case, the working experience plays the biggest role. I have read many posts by employers who state that a working experience is the most important part. What they say about the school’s name is that the school’s name does not guarantee that a person is the best candidate for a job, and they do not make their decisions based only on the name of a school.</p>