<p>People have a lot of personal stories; they aren’t just accumulations of where they went to school. Perhaps the UC Davis kid was just as bright as the elite-school kid, but his mother was dying of cancer and he needed to stay closer to home. Or he went to where he had an athletic scholarship because he had a sibling with a disability and his parents needed all the money they could get. Maybe he just didn’t grow up in the social milieu that said that going to an elite school should be every high schooler’s first priority. Point being, yes, going to the elite school does provide the “smart stamp,” but not going to an elite school doesn’t mean that you might not have been equally smart.</p>
<p>If such is the case then it does come out during the interview process and grads do get consideration for these things.</p>
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<p>True, but for an employer it won’t be easy to figure that out in 8 hrs., so unless a non elite school graduate have already proven by working in the same field for another company it might not be easy to get in.</p>
<p>Google prior to going public only hired from top colleges unless non elite college grad was from Yahoo.</p>
<p>FB is in the same stage now.</p>
<p>Again I think it’s just probability and nothing else. There is better probability for a Stanford grad to get a job than a UC Davis grad.
Now there might be more of high caliber students at Stanford than at UC Davis and if you compare the true Caliber high UC Davis students than they might have the same probability of getting the job.</p>
<p>A correction, FB has expanded its university program to more colleges. They started with
Caltech, Cal, CMU, Harvard, MIT, Stanford and then expanded to Brown, Columbia.
Now they have UCLA, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and Waterloo too.</p>
<p>No, because you’re assuming the kid is, 4 years later, still thinking about “I should have applied to elite-u, but I didn’t, because my mother was dying / my family was poor / no one in my family talked about this kind of thing.” I think you are way, way overestimating the extent to which it is the norm for a bright student to focus solely on the elite universities of this land and way, way underestimating that for most people in this country, even those with bright kids, the college decision is largely based on cost and proximity to home.</p>
<p>These super elite jobs employ a teeny fraction of the US population. Not every bright student (from elite or non-elite colleges) even wants one of these jobs.</p>
<p>Funny you say that about a parent dying and staying close to home. My dad was admitted to one of the schools mentioned but had to go to a local tier 4 school because his dad was dying. Maybe things have changed, but that’s more common than most people think.</p>
<p>I still don’t understand why we associate good structured private schools with vast resources as places that curtail curiosity/creativity/intellectualism while poorly staffed, resourceless, most of the time unstructured public schools are considered mecca for curiosity/creativity/intellectualism?</p>
<p>In my view the creativity/intellectualism/curiosity is encouraged at a good private schools because they have ample resources, small groups where individual attention can be provided. The schools provide freedom to choose subjects, accelerate/decelerate classes, ample extracurricular activity that allow building of passion as students are not limited by other students choices.</p>
<p>A good private education is not regimented upbringing but a vast pool of resources that provide ample opportunity for the young mind without the fear of competing to acquire resources.</p>
<p>This environment build self confidence, passion and ability to feel good about oneself. It imparts a whole education not just academics by exposing the young mind to arts/craft/music/theater and sports.</p>
<p>I skimmed the thread and saw the discussion change from Wall St. to Apple & FB, which is what I expected when I saw the title. I assumed “elite companies” meant the likes of Google, Proctor & Gamble, & GE!</p>
<p>Which, of course, hire people from all over, not just Ivies. University of Illinois, Purdue, University of Cincinnati…</p>
<p>OTOH, it does help to get an interview if you “know” someone. But you have to get the job yourself.</p>
<p>“I still don’t understand why we associate good structured private schools with vast resources as places that curtail curiosity/creativity/intellectualism while poorly staffed, resourceless, most of the time unstructured public schools are considered mecca for curiosity/creativity/intellectualism?”</p>
<p>Is that really what people think?</p>
<p>There are many students at these private schools that are not creative thinkers. Creative thinking comes from within a student, regardless where that person goes to school. Maybe creative thinking can be developed by a person’s surroundings, but those surroundings do not have to be private schools.</p>
<p>Good grades are not always an indicator of creative thinking either. I
can’t prove it, so maybe I am wrong, but my guess is that there are more students with good grades than there are creative thinkers and the numbers are not close. Some people know how to get good grades…they know how to play the educational system, but that doesn’t mean they are the employees that are going to come up with the best
ideas.</p>
<p>Since Apple has been discussed…i have to think that Apple hires a lot of tech people from the stronger computer science programs…which
eliminates many ivies. And Apple probably hires from Santa Clara and San Jose State too, but I am guessing on that.</p>
<p>One thing I am not guessing about…just hiring from elite schools…is not creative thinking. Might be cost effective…but creative…No.</p>
<p>" [edit]San Jose State University
Although Stanford University provides the historical basis for high-technology growth in the South Bay, and remains at the center of high-technology academic research in Silicon Valley, San Jose State University has emerged as the largest supplier of working engineers to high-technology companies in the region.[16][17][18]
In this light, SJSU engineering, business and computer science graduates often are viewed as the workhorses that power Silicon Valley from day to day.[16][17] Former SJSU students and SJSU alumni also have founded or co-founded a number of important high-technology firms, many of which were integral to the commercial growth and development of the region.[19] Included among those companies founded or co-founded by former SJSU students and SJSU alumni are Intel Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Quantum Corporation, Seagate Technology, and Atmel Corporation.[19][20][21]
SJSU alumni also have risen to the level of CEO and/or senior vice president at numerous high-technology firms in the region including ROLM Corporation, Cisco Systems, IBM, Google and Solectron Corporation.[19][20][20][22][23] Additionally, Ray Dolby and Charles Ginsburg are two Silicon Valley luminaries with close ties to San Jose State."</p>
<p>POIH - Of course my husband is objective - he just doesn’t automatically think that a HYPS, etc. grad or MBA is innately more qualified than a state school grad. His firm (which everyone would know if I named it or even described it) is known for not doing what every other firm thinks is the right way to do things and this attitude has allowed the firm to grow from 4 to almost 100,000 worldwide. To do this they have hired creative, dynamic college grads from any college. Clearly the “show me what you’ve got” vs “show me who you are connected to” has worked incredibly well for him!</p>
<p>I do not know what an “elite employer” is. The whole concept sounds a bit silly and, if I may be afforded the liberty of inventing an adjective, a bit “College Confidential.” However, based on some of the previously cited examples it appears that I work for an “elite employer.” </p>
<p>I shall go tell everyone I know. Those working at crummy employers will bow down to me because their company is not elite. [/sarcasm]</p>
<p>If there is no importance of a good schools, then we should not waste our valuable time on CC discussing all these. Maybe I associate critical thinking with creativity and you don’t.</p>
<p>But here is one article that explain to some extent how creative/critical thinking can be taught.</p>
<p>I’ve attended many parent sessions @ DD college and when I talk to her about the problem set (PSET) she get for her courses, she maintain that the problems are so original that even students who took the subject last semester takes similar amount of time to solve it. It promotes thinking critically on the part of the students and the motto of the college is to elevate students mind to the level where they can critically think about all the problems in life and look for solutions.</p>
<p>I don’t think most colleges attempt to do that so I do strongly feel that there is much higher probability that students coming out of such colleges will have more critical view of the professional problems and will provide a better solution.</p>
<p>Once again I reiterate that all this boils down to probability and which strictly say that an average Stanford grad will be much more productive than a Santa Clara/SJSU grad.</p>
<p>If you don’t believe in that then I think all bets are off and I think your being on CC is futile.</p>
<p>I’ve high regards for people who work at FaceBook now (prior to IPO), had great regards for people who worked at GOOGLE (prior to it went IPO).
It’s an achievement and you need to be proud of it but anyway you will be rewarded handsomely too.</p>
<p>It’s not same as working for GOOGLE now or APPLE etc. An elite employer status is till the employer is choosy and at that time only you can find what colleges these employer will go to get their employees.</p>
<p>Like for example GOOGLE hire at my alma mater (both UG/PG) back home.</p>
<p>But irony is when they founded GOOGLE they didn’t go back to Michigan and Maryland to find the employees.</p>
<p>Again the probability dictates that there are qualified applicants from all colleges so getting into Stanford PG is very possible from Michigan and Maryland.</p>
<p>But when the same people found a company they now knew the importance of Stanford (that was the reason to come to Stanford for PG otherwise both Michigan and Maryland have PG/Phd) that they stick to top colleges during the pre-IPO hiring.</p>