Well Known Univ. degree more valuable?

<p>Ok, all you more experienced ones out there....</p>

<p>There is a difference of opinion in our house about an LAC degree vs. a degree from a major U. DS plans to complete his undergrad and go on to law school...BUT we all know about the best laid plans... If he ends up in the workforce with just a bachelor's degree, will he lose most ties for jobs he applies for if he has a degree from a well thought of regional LAC and the other candidate has a degree from a nationally know Big 10 state school? Not a top tier school, but a good state U? Do employers take the trouble to check out your school if they are not familiar with it? </p>

<p>Also...is there a benefit to the Big University "experience" when it comes to employability? Would an employer look more favorably on someone who has had that experience rather than the more sheltered (read: less diverse) LAC experience?</p>

<p>A Wall Street Journal study set out to find out which schools sent the most of their students to top law, buisness and medical schools. Here are the results:</p>

<p>Top 50 Feeder Schools
1) Harvard
2) Yale
3) Princeton
4) Stanford
5) Williams
6) Duke
7) Dartmouth
8) MIT
9) Amherst
10) Swarthmore
11) Columbia
12) Brown
13) Pomona
14) University of Chicago
15) Wellesley
16) University of Pennsylvania
17) Georgetown
18) Haverford
19) Bowdoin
20) Rice
21) Northwestern
22) Claremont McKenna
23) Middlebury
24) Johns Hopkins
25) Cornell
26) Bryn Mawr
27) Wesleyan
28) Cal Tech
29) Morehouse
30) University of Michigan
31) New College of Florida
32) Vassar
33 University of Virginia
34) United States Military Academy
35) University of Notre Dame
36) Emory University
37) United States Naval Academy
38) Macalester
39) Brandeis
40) Bates
41) University of California, Berkeley
42) Barnard
43) Trinity
44) Grinnell
45) Tufts
46) Colby
47) Washington University
48) Washington and Lee
49) Case Western Reserve
50) Reed</p>

<p>Top 30 State Feeder Schools
1) University of Michigan
2) New College of Florida
3) University of Virginia
4) University of Calif., Berkeley
5) Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles
6) Georgia Institute of Technology
7) College of William & Mary
8) Stony Brook (SUNY)
9) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
10) University of Texas, Austin
11) Florida A&M University
12) University of Illinois, (Urbana)
13 Concord College
14) Indiana University
15) University of Wisconsin
16) University of Calif., San Diego
17) University of Calif., Irvine
18) University of Vermont
19) University of Calif., Davis
20) Rutgers University
21) University of Washington
22) Miami University
23) University of Maryland
24) University of Oklahoma
25) University of Utah
26) University of Florida
27) University Of Md., Eastern Shore
28) Purdue University
29) Pennsylvania State University
30) University of Louisville</p>

<p>As you can see, the LAC's do very well.</p>

<p>Newbiemom, can you give us the names of the schools? It would help us out. Right of the bat, my advice is to let your son follow his heart...but if you can give us the specifics, perhaps we can at least give you some statistics.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help! He's looking at schools in Michigan where we live. Albion (Gerald Ford Institute for Public Policy), Michigan State (James Madison program), Grand Valley State honors college, and Kalamazoo College. He's accepted at all.</p>

<p>Kalamazoo is an awesome school which I know sends a lot of people off to top graduate schools.</p>

<p>Yes, it has a good rep, and so does Albion. Their alumni info of both is impressive when it comes to grad school admittance. Our concern is employability WITHOUT grad school, just in case thats the scenario. Its not the plan, but you never know.</p>

<p>I would defnitely pick between Kalamazoo College and MSU. Forget about the others. Kalamazoo College is a sounder undergraduate institution, but MSU has a more spirited campus. Overall, they would give him equal opportunities.</p>

<p>The career services offices at small LACs, because there are so few people, can spend a lot of time helping individual students find jobs while at larger universities this is not always the case.</p>

<p>Alexandre, can you tell me why you would choose Kalamazoo over Albion, both of which seem to have excellent reputations?</p>

<p>Kalamazoo College is slightly better overall. And given its location, I think you will find more recruitment activity.</p>

<p>mom - I'd say that you should send your son to the most well-known school you can. I'm in cali, and honestly Kalamazoo is virtually unknown. To 99% of the people, it could be a community college, or a biology grad school....nobody will bother to look up if it's good or not. However, MSU is pretty well known. It might not be prestigious in the academic sense, but are least it's well known.</p>

<p>They rank 17th in the nation for students eventually earning PhD's among all colleges and universities and they have an unusually strong Study Abroad program--the K plan--where 85% of their students study abroad. They also have a VERY strong internship program.</p>

<p>Honestly, your son would do much better to go to UMichigan if he is in state and get in. He should transfer if he didnt get in the first time. It is at a level above the rest of that group.</p>

<p>Slipper, I know UM has an excellent rep. DS was adamant from the beginning that he was NOT interested in going there. He doesn't like Ann Arbor for some reason, (we live close by, maybe its too close to home) and he wouldn't even apply there. He had some other reasons, too, but the main thing is now he can't decide on the pros/cons of his various choices!</p>