<p>“From a value standpoint, I can’t justify spending $80,000 on tuition at a fancy private university compared to $20000 on an inexpensive state university. The extra $60,000 won’t buy a higher salary or better opportunities for most graduates.”</p>
<p>I agree with this totally. I think what folks fail to realize is that there are so many loopholes that I have witnesses in the 20 years I have worked in the industry.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Years of experience and certifications can greatly help grads from 2nd/3rd tier schools</p></li>
<li><p>The “backdoor method” of grad school admissions…starting off as non-degree graduate status, nailing those courses and then applying gets around needed super-high undergrad GPA and 1,000 extra-curricular activities ALONG with a “promise to pay” from the employer.</p></li>
<li><p>Consortium of schools where the main school makes a “system” of other local schools. The Univ of Maryland now flagships the other local schools like U-Maryland Baltimore County, U-Maryland Univ College, U-Maryland Eastern Shore, Towson and others and they all pretty much have access to all of the federal agencies and contracting companies for those agencies.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Yes the traditional path of good school + high GPA + Good Grad School + path to management exists but there are as my Pops would say “many ways to skin a cat”.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a girl but from CMU I hear “the odds are good but the goods are odd”. Then again, that’s with most engineering schools. UT is the exception in that it’s so large you’re bound to find someone you like.</p>
<p>The common yelling match at unofficial office happy hours after all of us have had a few usually culminates with someone slurring, “Yeah, you may have gone to Rice and gotten your masters degree at Illinois, but I went to University of Houston, paid half as much as you did, and we have the SAME JOB!!”</p>
<p>It’s usually not a really good retort for what I’ve just said to them, which is usually something along the lines of, “YOU’RE SPILLING YOUR BEER ALL OVER ME,” but it’s a valid point nonetheless.</p>
<p>@ bigtrees,
Though I don’t totally disagree with your points, not all great engineering schools are that much more expensive than their no name counterparts. In Atlanta we have GTech which is definately top ten material, and is only about 1k more per year than the no name wanna be school up the street. In this case I would definately go for the prestige. Keep in mind that mine is an instate student perspective.</p>
<p>A slavish loyalty to giving hiring preference to grads of so called brand name schools is a lazy mans approach to safeguarding his job. There used to be a saying in the IT world: “You will never get fired for buying IBM”. Then the world changed and the flaw in that thinking was exposed. Observed performance during internships/co-ops trumps academic resume, GPA and name recognition every time. And a first year work record trumps all.</p>
<p>Are you implying that someone will not advance in his career because of the school on his resume? Thats quite absurd. From what I have noticed from students who are about to graduate, bonuses and base pay vary with the gpa more than the school that they are coming from.</p>
<p>Apart from that, someone who starts from Google will definitely have more job options compared to those who are working in a regular/small software company. So the school name will most likely help you jump start a career assuming it is easier to get the great company from an ivy or top 25.</p>
<p>It’s by no means the sole determining factor, but it does play a factor. Many companies have a form of elitism surrounding some schools. Sometimes it’s very overt: there are companies in Texas that openly advertise that only Texas A&M graduates are hired or are promoted to management. Sometimes it’s more guarded: many companies give preferential treatment to graduates from top schools assuming that they are inherently high achievers (it’s only the top achievers that get into Harvard, so it is reasonable to assume that Harvard graduates are top achievers later in life - the same can’t be said for UMass). Either way, your college, alumni associations, and the perceived prestige of your pedigree can play a role in your upward mobility.</p>
<p>That’s flat out wrong. I’d like to see a link to a single job posting that says only Texas A&M graduates will be hired or promoted into management. </p>
<p>And it’s not right either because after you have worked for a few years, you will get promoted based on your abilities and not because of your alama mater. A company that promotes solely based on your alma mater is one destined to fail.</p>
<p>Born in San Antonio. Grew up in Dallas. Went to college in Houston. Currently live in Houston. I’m a Texan, Texan, TEXAN, through-and-through.</p>
<p>…and I have NEVER have heard of even a single specific instance of this. It’s always rumored, never ever corroborated.</p>
<p>THIS part definitely happens: someone sees your UT ring, your A&M ring, your Rice ring, your U of H ring… And they’ve gone to UT/A&M/Rice/U of H! Immediate chatting about one’s experience’s at the college, lots of “Oh, back when I was at ______,” and instant halo effect. Lots of good-natured ribbing from people who didn’t go to your school.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are companies that only promote A&M grads, but they’re run by idiots, and they’re not hugely competitive companies. The good companies promote their <em>good</em> engineers, which can really come from any school. The notion that large, successful companies that employ that practice is a massive urban legend.</p>
<p>I was not born in Texas, did not grow up in Texas, did not go to school in Texas, do not currently live in Texas, and I’ve run into at least 10 of these companies. Some were actually very successful.</p>
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<p>They obviously won’t put it in a job posting, but when the company is 90+% A&M grads, including all of management, you get an idea of what’s going on. I’ve personally had experience managing college recruiting where the A&M grads automatically rejected non-A&M applicants because they’re “inferior”. In fact, I had to restrict A&M grads to hiring only A&M grads because of it. Even that didn’t work out: I had a case where an A&M grad automatically reject another A&M grad because he wasn’t wearing his class ring during the interview.</p>
<p>Not all A&M grads were like that, but the ones that weren’t were called “2%ers” and ostracized.</p>
<p>G.P. Burdell tells fictional tales of imaginary companies. Until he starts to name names and cite links or actual articles, you can simply ignore him.</p>
<p>Well that was certainly a useful post, Aggie10.</p>
<p>Again, I have no doubt in my mind that no matter where you go to school, you an get promoted into as high of a position as you work to acheive. However, there is a definite advantage at top schools solely based on the fact that more top companies recruit directly from them so it is easier to get that great resume building job on your first try. Whether that is a deserved benefit or not is another argument, but the top schools do offer you a “head start” of sorts.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s helpful if companies recruit at your school, even with a few years experience.</p>
<p>The thing is that top companies recruit at far more than just top college. My employer, which hires probably more engineers than any other company in the US, recruits at tons of schools including many state universities.</p>
<p>Smaller companies probably only recruit at select universities and big universities probably have more people who come to recruit. But they also have more graduates so there is more competition.</p>
<p>I’d like one person to tell me that getting a Masters degree at Stanford would improve job because I can say I went to Stanford. I know that’s not true though because I already have the best job in my company and padding my resume with a fancy school name won’t help it. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the degree though.</p>
<p>It depends on your definition of “top companies”. If you’re looking for a job with Exxon, you can find them at virtually every large school. If you’re looking for a job with Goldman Sachs, there are some top 10 schools they don’t even visit.</p>
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