<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I'm a junior in high school right now. I've just heard that your undergrad school does not really matter but your Grad school is the only thing that matters. Due to the declining value of a undergrad degree, Grad school is almost a must. Also jobs don't care about your undergrad school. So basically your high school grades and SAT scores don't really matter either along with your undergrad school as long as you get into a good grad school?</p>
<p>But you can't assume you'll be going to grad school 6 years ahead of time. Many things can change. You may find that you don't have the desire to go to grad school or you might not have the grades and recommendations to get accepted.</p>
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Due to the declining value of a undergrad degree, Grad school is almost a must.
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:eek: :eek: :eek:</p>
<p>Graduate school is a significant commitment that can take up to 8-10 years (from college graduation) in some fields. It is certainly not a "must," nor is it for everyone.</p>
<p>^exactly
It's true that if you do go to grad school nobody gives two sh.ts where you did undergrad, but you can't plan on going to grad school if you're only a senior in HS. Getting a PH.D is a massive time commitment, and the types of masters degrees that are fairly "easy" and only take a year or two generally won't get you much farther than an undergrad degree</p>
<p>"I'm a junior in high school right now. I've just heard that your undergrad school does not really matter but your Grad school is the only thing that matters. Due to the declining value of a undergrad degree, Grad school is almost a must. Also jobs don't care about your undergrad school."</p>
<p>This is a very simplistic view on the subject. Many academic fields and professions do not require a graduate degree. And many fields that encourage or require graduate school studies will first require work experience between undergraduate and graduate degree, and that work experience depends partially on the quality of one's undergraduate education. Finally, graduate programs care about an applicant's undergraduate education. One does not have to attend a top ranked university to receive a good education, but one should attempt to attend a well regarded university.</p>
<p>I also marvel that so many think that they will go to top grad schools. Everyone can't.</p>
<p>I would do the best you can to get into the best college you can afford. Don't slack off thinking only graduate school will count.</p>
<p>I agree with you in the fact that if you do go to graduate school, employers don't care much about which undergrad college you've attended. However, remember that everything builds up to grad school. Getting into a good undergrad college and excelling is important for getting into a good grad school, and getting into a good undergrad in the first place can only happen if you've worked hard in high school. So all in all, if you mess up in high school or something won't kill you because you can always go to a mediocre undergrad school and get an excellent GPA there, but it definitely can only help you if you've done well starting from high school.</p>
<p>Undergraduate school only matters if:
1) you go into the job market with only your undergraduate degree
2) you go into academia and want to become a professor at some prestigious university...they want their professors to come from top schools.</p>
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2) you go into academia and want to become a professor at some prestigious university...they want their professors to come from top schools.
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</p>
<p>Where you get your PhD is significantly more important in this case.</p>
<p>Your graduate school is very important if you stay within that profession -- be it law, business, academia, etc. For some professions, it helps you get your first job and may or may not help much after that. For others, graduate and undergraduate education and honors are used on promotional materials, etc. and remain important. As an older adult, I've seen far too many people switch careers into something completely out of the profession they studied in graduate school. In this case, your undergraduate degree becomes important again. </p>
<p>Another thing you want to look at, but is given little consideration in decision making, is the alumni network available to you post graduation. Some colleges and universities do a better job than others. High alumni giving in places like US News and World Report is an indication that the network is strong. </p>
<p>Because you are a junior in high school, my suggestion to you is take this one step at a time. Focus on your undergraduate degree first. It is best not the assume that your graduate degree which may or may not happen, is more important. Also, while I think it's true that graduate degrees have increased in importance over the last few decades, I don't know if that trend will continue under a long-term recession and a new generation.</p>
<p>OP: The value of your undergraduate degree with employers and grad school shouldn't matter this much. You'll be much better off if you pick a school that'll be a good fit for you than to pick a school whose name you think will help you.
That being said, don't completely disregard undergrad just because you don't think employers care about it. Over time, yes, it'll become less important, but it still serves as a gateway to grad school or early employment.</p>
<p>I have to be totally honest because this comes up so often. Last week I was in a board room with 4 other execs, interviewing finalists for a job. All had top 5 MBAs. Of the 6 candidates, 4 went to the usual suspects (ivies, MIT, Stanford) for our job undergrad and one went to Ohio State, another to Rutgers. Two of the 4 execs had no issue with the undergrad schools but two did, and I expected this because historically they reject non ivy types. The world is full of people with prejudices and biases. There was no way they were going to be convinced. Needless to ask, guess who didn't get the job?</p>
<p>hmom5/ what kind of company was it? financial? since i wouldn't expect it to be an engineering company.</p>
<p>Yes, but I have a son in grad school at MIT who went to a SUNY school for undergrad. He is amazed at the difference in job offerings/recruitment between the two.</p>
<p>hmom5, if you are located in the Northeast, there will generally be biases toward the Ivy schools. This is not reflective in other regions of the country (Midwest, West Coast, etc.)</p>
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"The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government," he said. </p>
<p>"All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America."</p>
<p>Lahde became one of the biggest names in the investment industry when one of his funds produced a return of 866% last year, largely by forecasting the US home loans industry would collapse.
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<p>I'm a CA native tenisghs.</p>
<p>I've seen ivy (type) graduates are placed different management career track than non ivy graduates within a company. I've seen positions for only ivy graduates.</p>
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So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks 'idiot' traders and retires at 37 | Business | The Guardian
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What a joke. So a guy who runs an $80M hedge fund (tiny by any standard) basically makes one lucky bet and decides to take his money and run. Good for him. But what Lahde did was basically the equivalent of winning the lottery or hitting a slot machine jackpot -- hardly in any position to call his competitors (many of whom could be smarter -- just not as lucky) idiots.
Sounds like sour grapes to me.</p>