<p>Would you rather go to one of the top 50 school's with an average program in your major or go to a school not considered competitive with an outstanding program in your major?</p>
<p>For example, I want to major in interior design. The number 1 school for interior design since 2000-2004 is University of Cincinnati. With a 88% admittance rate and 77% retention rate in a somewhat dangerous area, I don't think that it's that great of a school. However, Virginia Tech is not even in the top 10, maybe not even top 15, for interior design 2004. But it's a better school overall (90% retention rate, competitive school) than University of Cincinnati. Which one would you choose?</p>
<p>Basically if you want to do anything professional at the undergrad level (such as film, interior design, some types of music, etc.) go to the highest ranked program. IF you are pre-professional (pre-med, business (MBA) one day, pre-law) go to the best overall school. If you want to go to grad school, it completely depends. The better the school the less important the "program rank" is (i.e. Ivies and other top 25). I.e. Yale might not have the strongest sciences, yet science majors at yale do tremendously well in getting into top grad programs.</p>
<p>Heh, I asked my dad a similar question. It went along the lines of "What helps you more when you apply for jobs...a well-known school with a crummy education in your major, or a not-so-well-known school with a really top notch education in the major you're in." My dad said without hesitation, "The well-known school."</p>
<p>I think it's unfair how companies do that, they should go after the grads of the colleges with the top-notch education of their major, it may bring the company more success. Once again, another way that life screws those who try hard and work for every inch they get in school, and promotes those who fart around.</p>
<p>An exaggerated scenario would be: two people, both with the same degree, yet the company hires the one who knows 20% of the information he should know instead of the person who knows 100% of it. Obviously, this is an exaggerated scenario, but it's basically what it comes down to when you think about it.</p>
<p>Upon more pondering, the only logical explanation I could come up with is that I think it mostly has to do with the fact that the employers don't know every college, and so if they see some random school in the middle of rice paddies in vietnam, they'd be more likely to dismiss it. I have a feeling that if employers knew which schools had top-notch majors, they would go for the one with the top-notch major versus the well-known school. I guess you could put yourself in their shoes...so many applications, sifting through them, and seeing two side-by-side: "University of Cincinatti" and "Virginia Tech". Being the tired, lazy, bastard of a manager you are [not you personally, but the manager] you say, "ah, Virginia tech, that's a good school, this guy probably knows what he's talking about, I'll hire him; and this cincinatti guy, bah, i'll put that in my personal filing cabinet [the shredder]"</p>
<p>In some fields the dad would be right. But for interior design, go to the best program. No one cares where their interior designer went to college and employers will know the best programs.</p>
<p>If it is a job oriented major, the school should be able to demonstrate great placement. I'd ask for a placement report from prior classes and if it looks good go for it.</p>
<p>It depends on the subject. For instance, in Physics and many other sciences you have probably 10-15 very well known departments, and after that it sort of drops off, so I would choose the best overall school (unless they have a quite bad/small department in your major). In the case of something like engineering, you have schools like Purdue and GaTech which are strong in engineering but nothing else, so if you plan on pursuing engineering they are worth it.</p>
<p>One thing-are you positive you want to be an interior designer? If you haven't spent time with some seeing what the job is, etc., then the better college makes sense.</p>
<p>Looks like I'm all set. Rochester Inst. of Tech. is a career oriented school and has a very strong engineering program. Well, everything at the school is very strong except for liberal arts/non-technical majors, but who cares about that stuff anyway?!</p>
<p>It totally depends. Would I go to an unranked (no grad school) LAC like Williams for physics, or a place like Wisconsin. Williams everytime, especially if I wanted to go to grad school.</p>
<p>one thing to remember, if you'd want to change your major (which is very possible) during next four year, and you are in a college where your major is only forte, then you are kinda stuck.</p>
<p>just keep looking around, there would be good overall schools with a great-good interior program</p>