From what I’ve read, and I could be mistaken with my memory, Texas puts many more grads into top investment banks and consulting (MBB) than those others schools. Significantly more.
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OK Texas Homer - and by the way, the only college cult I know in Texas is A&M. I was at a grand opening in College Station…it was more like an alumni function - they are hard core - and it’s super cool - I wish my school had that. Every intro and it was an automotive event - so and so, Aggie class of 98 or 2004 or 78.
This is why I said a lot depends on the major. Did the person say they were looking for I banking ? I didn’t see that.
I work for a fortune 100. On our team we have a UF. West Georgia. Tuskegee. College of Charleston. Athens State Citadel…our leader coincidentally is an FSU guy (or maybe UCF) - I think he was at both, not sure where he finished.
This is how most organizations look - no different than my previous employer which had UTK, UTC, tons of MTSU, Purdue and Texas and Myriad others. And when my employer was out west we had the USC, UCLA, UCSD as well as Long Beach State, Chico State, SDSU, Redlands and my boss - U of Phoenix - and you can’t look at that list I just gave and know who was bosses and who wasn’t…it would surprise you. In the 90s, I had an admin who graduated Stanford with English…society is not reflected in the way people think on the CC website.
I think we are off track - somehow this went from OPs question to someone saying I’d like to send my kid to Florida because of warm weather but I don’t like the on line classes - to swatting away other regional (warm) suggestions in lieu of Wisconsin and Binghamton. Again, I don’t believe we know what major the person was suggesting.
UT Austin, like Wisconsin, is also a fine school. To show my thinking - I did my MBA at Arizona State but was accepted at Austin - which was my #3 behind ASU and IU - and yes, I went for the $$ (ASU paid me to go)…but interestingly, if you looked at the average salaries - ASU was $2K behind IU and I think less behind UT Austin - but ASU was placing people in lower cost areas - so ranking (ASU was 40, IU was 6 or 7 and UT Austin was 16 or 18) - this is the Business Week rankings which were the main ones back in the 90s).
Anyway, time to move on - it’s my opinion:
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For 90-95% of jobs, as long as you go to a solid, accredited school (that’s a known name), where you go - short of the elite - doesn’t matter.
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We’ve now learned that FSU has half the admit rate of Wisconsin
Really it’s a silly argument - lots of great kids, even Ivy level kids, go to all of these schools for their own personal reasons.
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I am not sure I could find many people who think Florida State is on par with University of Wisconsin Green Bay. I get everybody tends to route for their home state schools but….
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Agreed. Our daughter would not even dream of attending University Wisconsin Green Bay. We’re OOS for both.
Seriously considering FSU for their Honors program, ‘degree in three’ for accelerated students, reputation for high quality of life for students / student experience. The fact that they graduate 72% of all undergrads within 4 years (one of the highest rates nationwide for a public school), speaks volumes to the investment in student support structures. (FYI, Green Bay is only 53% after 6 YEARS, so a lousy ROI in that regard)
Wow, your son sounds alot like mine - right down to the major and minors. And weather could be tipping point for him amo
ng similar schools. Two questions for you. Was it hard to join greek life as an OOS since 90 percent of school is instate and has lots of high school friends? And second, did he mind the the online classes at UF business? That is my sons biggest concern as he does not enjoy online learning. Thanks.
yes, the Green Bay comment was not really serious - I don’t know anything about the school. But I maintain that Wisconsin is considered a top public school both nationally and internationally and that has been true for almost 100 years. While FSU has improved in the rankings, I don’t think the perception is there yet that it is a top public. Doesn’t mean you can’t be successful from either school. And admission rates only tell a small piece of it. Tulane manages to show admission rates similar to Ivy leagues, but I don’t think anyone would say all its a top school.
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Interesting about Honors at FSU - my daughter got into #1 ranked U of SC honors, harder to get into UGA Honors…but shot down at FSU Honors.
Good luck - it sounds like a wonderful program and the essays she had to write - I wish it had happened.
She wouldn’t have gone anyway though - she ended up at her #1 - albeit a lot lower ranked but best for her - College of Charleston in their Honors and as a Charleston Fellow.
FSU is a popular choice these days and I wish your daughter well.
Today Tulane is a top school. I know someone on merit at Vandy which most consider to be an ivy light - rejected at Tulane.
Tulane “manages” their admissions - as many today are with high ED. Even Penn, for example, expects their most recent class to 51% come from ED. Tulane is the masters of the process.
Again - you’re entitled to your opinion. I have zero issue. As I said, UWM is a fine school but so is FSU. Your son likes warm weather that’s not online. So I threw out Bama (because it’s dirt cheap for smart kids), FSU, U of SC and UGA - all fine schools - and there’s more. Frankly, if he’s a senior, you’re already too late for FSU, U of SC and UGA…still can do Bama. Arizona is another fine, “cheap” public in warmth.
I laugh at your comment about Binghamton - which is a FANTASTIC school but pretty much unknown outside the tri-state area. Doesn’t make it lesser - the SUNYs just have never had great name recognition - f that’s what you’re after.
FSU must be doing something right if only admitting 32% vs. Wisc 60%.
On a serious note, what is your son interested in studying?
Well I hope he gets into UF - not an easy admit these days - and yes, I personally would not want to send my kid there. On the other hand, if COVID is still around, half these kids are online anyway - most classes at my kids schools have Zoom links - so you can go in person or not.
Then there’s cost - I’m full pay but it’s important to me so I eliminated any schools $50K plus - and let my daughter choose from the rest (which included both UF and FSU). She chose Charleston which at the time was high 30s but now is high teens bcuz after acceptance she got like 4 scholarships - and my other chose Bama over Purdue for engineering - as nutty as it sounds and it is.
Don’t forget about fit.
So UF is very reasonable - Wisconsin a lot more expensive.
If you could go to Bama or AZ at $17K over Wisconsin at $55K - that’s another thing to think about.
If the perceived rep is what matters to you and not money and we are all different, that’s fine.
But I look at it as an investment - and with two kids in at their top choices for - less than $150K total, I’m lucky - but more importantly, I’m not going to bankrupt myself.
Everyone has different values though and yours are based on your perceptions - and there’s no issue.
Hope your son finds the right program for him, wherever it may be.
I think we are agreeing more than disagreeing. I’m sure there are kids at Harvard that were rejected at Tulane. My point was that that has more to do with them working the rankings than real change in the education or the schools reputation. And I agree that Binghamton is excellent and my son is strongly considering it but it does have more of a regional reputation. I guess I feel that some of the southern schools that you are mentioning as great schools, may also only be know as great regionally as well. (aside from the sports aspect). I do feel the UNC, UF, and UNC have more of a national reputation though then a more regional one. I think we can all agree that most of a persons success has to do with who they are not the school they went to but still want to choose the right one.
Agreed - and your last sentence is most important - and all that we are talking about - reputation / rank - should be the least consideration in my opinion.
My D got into 17 schools - from Washington & Lee to Florida, Miami, UGA, U of SC Honors (#1 Honors) and she’s at College of Charleston - which was 16th highest rated of the 17 because it was the right fit for her. I knew it the day we visited.
My son got a merit in engineering at Purdue - and that’s near impossible and yet goes to Bama - honestly, in this regard, I’m like you - Purdue was a no brainer - but he fell in love with Bama on a visit. One of his friends goes to UTK over Northwestern - it was the right fit for them.
So all the rank and reputation stuff aside - please make sure where your son ends up is the right “fit” - make sure he goes, walks, talks, eats and does all that stuff - so you have your best odds of him having a happy four years!!!
Good luck.
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So the top public colleges on the list are UCLA, UCB, UM, UVA, and then a tie between UF and UCSB and those are ahead of UNC and UT. The Pell grant category definitely helped public colleges, especially the ones here in CA
Definitely not true in high tech in the bay area, Wisconsin would have an advantage, maybe significant over the colleges mentioned. Before covid, UW was a place where companies went to recruit which cannot be said for the other colleges in your response.
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You are taking a small subset. Most big companies have targets. It may be a VPs alma mater or past experience. OP was mentioning NY, not Bay Area and I’m talking about jobs in general, not specific niches.
Wisconsin is going to outperform the other schools even more in the NY area. Wisconsin has a long history that really was a byproduct of the Ivy’s discrimination of the Jewish population. Not sure about now, but NY had historically the 3rd largest OOS population at UW after IL and MN.
So you disagree and agree with him and that’s fine.
I think it’s overrated and the main crux was denigrating other schools or saying they are not up to par and including admission wise (fsu was the culprit) and I simply said I disagree and why. We can all agree to disagree.
And his son liked Florida for weather but was concerned with on line classes in the b school. I simply threw out warmer weather alternatives and then away we went. A rather interesting chain of you read from where the subject was first broached.
If you agree with @davidkay and disagree with me…we’ll that’s what makes this a fun board.
Yes, I agree @Eeyore123 . In my opinion, Wisconsin is nationally and internationally known to be a prestigious public university, with a long history as such and it was one of the schools listed by OP. I believe some of the other schools mentioned, such as FSU, are known to be up and coming in a more regional way - like Binghamton is in NY. But they are not generally schools mentioned as a top public school by people elsewhere. That being said, if warm weather is important and UF is not right - I can see why it would make sense to look at other southern schools since what makes a person successful is who they are and not where they went to school.
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FSU’s lower admit rate has alot more to do with the population of the state then the quality or reputation of the school. My guess is most Florida students apply to FSU Uf and other state schools as Wisconsin residents all apply to Wisconsin. Yet Floridas population is probably 10x higher.
I would bet that when you took out in state applicants - these numbers would reverse - which is saying alot when you consider the weather of each.
FWIW, our local public school in Silicon Valley sends about 3-4 students each year to Wisconsin. And at least in the past 4 years, zero to UF or FSU. It’s obviously a regional thing. Wisconsin has a very good reputation out here.
In fact, our family friend since childhood, sent one of their kids to Wisconsin. And we know a couple of former Wisconsin professors, who now teach out here at Stanford. FL is just not on the radar out here from my limited sample.
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UW-Madison is top-20 in a great many majors – an academic powerhouse with the #3 research budget in the US behind Hopkins and Michigan. Some state schools with a lower academic rep are ranked above UW in USNews, but it isn’t because of academic quality.
I like doing tiers… here I go again. hehe. For state schools:
- Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, UCLA
- Wisconsin, UNC, Texas, Illinois, Washington, W&M, Georgia Tech, maybe UCSD
Academic rep/overall program strength is the #1 variable in my ranking.
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I’d add W&M to your list. btw - we were also discussing admission selectivity and that’s where Wisconsin (60%) vs. Florida State (32%) and this entire thing blew up
Well we keep talking about out West - the OP is in the NE and again, it was more a denigration of others I was countering and we were discussing business.
I never denigrated Wisconsin nor Florida nor any school (not even SUNY) B - I simply said there’s others out there that would work just fine in warmer weather. I know UWM is solid. I know a lot from the Northeast go - my ex GF from college best friend went from Long Island. But it’s also 2020 and perceptions are changing.
And to me - but not everyone and perhaps not to @davidkay - cost matters.
We all know Wisconsin is a fine school. So let’s stop thinking someone said it’s not - because no one did.
Rankings are - well - they’re all over the place and different pubs, etc. If you go by Niche, just because they rate everything and i’m not saying they are the be all and end all - but you have:
Wisconsin - top 20 in Ag Sciences and Communication
Florida - top 20 in Ag Science, Sports Management, Criminal Justice, Communications, Phys Therapy, Education, Accounting/Finance, and Business.
FSU - top 20 in Criminal Justice, Sports Management, Accounting/Finance (above UF), Physical Therapy, Info Technology, and Education.
I would contend there’s a lot more highly respected, highly recruited schools out there then one thinks. At the same time, I can tell you, even pre-covid that companies were recruiting less and relying on third parties - handshake at the schools, linked in and otherwise and many are finding jobs on their own - moreso than ever before.
Yes, much is regional - and yes, Wisconsin is historically and still a fine name - but the world has changed and many hold onto old perceptions - and there’s lots of fine schools out there…
That’s the point - and as @davidkay rightfully recognized, his kid, not the school, will matter most - anyone can be successful with hard work, dedication, and yes, a hint of luck - whether they go to SUNY Cortland or UF.
Fun discussion…of course, I have the contrarian view - I typically do
PS - lists and rank aren’t real life and I get that - but for comparative view, that’s all we have.
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