<p>The reason I post this is because I am unsure of how heavily reputation of a particular institution influences chances of employment. I was hoping that someone hear would share with me their opinions and insight regarding these two schools. </p>
<p>I am a senior at Fresno State majoring in Business Administration, Computer Information Systems. I am looking for an online graduate degree after I graduate that will allow me to work and complete the degree simultaneously. So far, the two most reputable colleges offering a relevant degree (most similar to CIS - Computer Science is too technical) are University of Denver and Boston University. Both have heavily technical majors dealing with database design, management, implementation, etc. </p>
<p>I noticed that both of these schools are (obviously) nationally ranked - BU being # 54 and UD being #84, according to the newsweek polls. There is, however, a significant price difference between the two. BU's program costs $35k while UD's program cost a mere $22k. </p>
<p>With this being said, which would you recommend and why?</p>
<p>For graduate school, the reputation of your graduate department is pretty important for your first job, although it varies by industry. In academia most of the reputation that doesn’t ride on where you are published rides on where you went to graduate school and who you worked with. In industry it’s a little less so, but still important.</p>
<p>Think about it this way: You have to hire someone to do an important job for your business. If they do it well, you make lots of money; if they suck you lose money. You have a bunch of strangers in front of you who want to do the job, and the only thing you know about them is what they’ve put down on a couple pieces of paper. None of them have very much full-time work experience in the field, maybe 2-3 years at best. The only independently verifiable thing you know about them is where they learned how to do what you want them to do for your company. What do you do?</p>
<p>Of course, all other things being at least mostly equal, you go for the person that you think has the best training to do what you want them to do. If one person comes from Best University, that has a really great program in CIS, and another person comes from OK University, that has an average program in CIS but nothing special, you’re going to assume that a person with a good record from Best University is probably more equipped to do that job than the person from OKU. The comparison is even more heightened if you already had employees from Best U working at your job and they’re great, or if you’ve encountered other Best U graduates in similar industries and they’re great (or, conversely, if you’ve encountered OKU grads and they’re just OK, nothing special.)</p>
<p>It stands to reason that schools with better rankings will cost more money - people will perceive a difference between them and the premium on having that particular degree becomes higher. That said, I think you need to consider the relative difference of these programs. Investigate. Where do BU students get hired after they’re done? (The ones from the online program, of course.) How much do they get paid starting out? What’s their average debtload? Ask the same questions of UD. What part of the country do you live in and do you want to work? IF you want to work on the East Coast obviously Boston will have a better reputation, but if you want to work on the West Coast or in the midwest Denver probably has a pretty solid reputation there. Your choice will be largely dependent on these factors, rather than the simple fact of their rankings.</p>
<p>I appreciate your input. I will research the average debt, salary, and company that most graduates work at. </p>
<p>And for reference, I plan to work on the west coast (California). I would like to live in the Silicon Valley area. On this coast, Boston has an incredibly solid reputation simply because they have numerous prestigious universities in that city/vicinity; Denver, not so much, but the school has a decent reputation. </p>