<p>Look, here's the thing. Employers want employees who are very smart, very skilled, and very hard working. It's extremely difficult to determine these things in a job interview. In fact, it's pretty impossible. Employers are guessing. They look for clues. If you have a record of rapid advancement at a respected company, that's a clue. It probably means you have something on the ball. If they can get a recommendation from someone they respect, that's a better clue. If a headhunter tells them that this person is well-known and highly respected, that's useful information.</p>
<p>The problem is that, right out of college, employers don't have many of those clues to go on. If you attend a school that generally admits only very smart and very hard-working students, it's a fair bet that students are likely to be smart and hard-working as an employees. It's no guarantee, but it's a useful clue. Later, if you're an employer and you see a lot of resumes that look very similar, but one of the resumes is from someone who went to MIT, you might just interview that person because you know there's a fair chance that the person is smart and hard-working.</p>
<p>It is correct that, the farther you get away from college, the less the reputation of your school counts. Why use college as a clue if a person has a 15-year track record? That would be foolish. There are exceptions. I once had an executive at a financial services firm in New York ask if I knew any people who had 20+ years of solid HR experience and graduated from an Ivy. I was very surprised, but this many attended Cambridge, and the British sometimes have a different way of looking at things.</p>
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I do not think an employer really cares where you go. I would hope they care more about that I am a CPA and not what the US News Rankings say
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<p>I can't tell you how completely insane and arrogant the arguments for the top 25 schools sound. When it all boils down, it depends on what you studied at a particular college. The top 25 don't offer all majors, or have all the most highly qualified staff in a particular area. Why on earth would someone attend UCB, for example, if they plan on studying journalism? That undergrad degree in communications from UCB is going to mean next to nothing to someone hiring for a journalism position, when they also have candidates from Northwestern, UNC - Chapel Hill, UMissouri-Columbia, Syracuse, or others in that league. </p>
<p>Now if a student enters college knowing their major, and sticks with it all four years, and one of the top 25 schools they're interested stands heads above other schools for that subject, then by all means, go for it. It will probably pay off. But I can think of many non-top 25 schools that offer better programs in a particular area than the top 25. </p>
<p>It all depends on what a student wants to get out of their college education. So don't let the 'prestige' of a top 25 school fool you. Find out what programs in particular stand out at the school they attend(ed), and if the program they studied is in the top 10 in the country, then it doesn't matter whether it was a top 25 school or not. My husband does a lot of recruiting for a top pharma company, and he knows which schools produce the best graduates in his particular area. So if you're at a top 25 school, but my husband's area of expertise department is not as well respected as say, State U, he's going to choose to interview the candidate from State U over the top 25 school.</p>
<p>Most of us know that going to HPY...gives one instant recognition that you are dealing with an intelligent person who received an outstanding education. The real advantage of those schools is the recognition. </p>
<p>Do you ask your surgeon where he or she went to undergraduate? Many doctors attended lesser known colleges and were still well prepared for medical school. Same goes for lawyers and lots of other professionals. </p>
<p>It may surprise many high schoolers or college students that many years down the road the questions of where you did your undergraduate work doesn't come up often. You are judged for your performance on the job not on where you attended school.</p>
<p>i agree with teriwtt that it depends on what program/field you pursued. That's also why USNews ranks according to different categories (such as med, business, law, etc)
haha I knew there was going to be a whole lot of bashing each other on this thread</p>
<p>JohnC - thank you. I forgot about the categories ranking, but whether or not anyone agrees with them (this could turn into a whole dispute about which place has the better recognition for international relations, for example), the fact that these separate rankings exists, supports my opinion. </p>
<p>I'm really trying not to bash people; I just get so enormously frustrated when I see kids who are incredibly gifted in a particular area think they have to attend a top 25 school, when really another school would provide them with much better education/training, but the kid feels pressured by parents to attend a prestige school for the sake of prestige. They want to name drop. Frankly, my kids both chose schools based on the areas they wanted to study, and both have respectable reputations in their areas, but because the schools are out East, most people around here either haven't heard of them, or know nothing about their reputation in given areas. Heck, most people out here haven't even heard of D2's school at all! But I know that they're both being prepared well for their intended careers, and those who are looking to hire them will recognize the schools for their departments, not necessarily the reputation of the whole school.</p>
<p>I think we have to be careful about the USNews ranks, though. I think they do a relatively good job of identifying possibilities, but even within majors, some specializations can be stronger at stronger at some schools over others. And their ranks, while listing the major areas of academic studies, omit many other areas.</p>
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I just get so enormously frustrated when I see kids who are incredibly gifted in a particular area think they have to attend a top 25 school, when really another school would provide them with much better education/training, but the kid feels pressured by parents to attend a prestige school for the sake of prestige. They want to name drop. Frankly, my kids both chose schools based on the areas they wanted to study, and both have respectable reputations in their areas, but because the schools are out East, most people around here either haven't heard of them, or know nothing about their reputation in given areas. Heck, most people out here haven't even heard of D2's school at all! But I know that they're both being prepared well for their intended careers, and those who are looking to hire them will recognize the schools for their departments, not necessarily the reputation of the whole school.
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<p>This is true to a certain extent. But I would caution against overemphasizing the strength of a school's particular program relative to the overall institution name. For example, Pepperdine School of Law's Dispute Resolution specialty was ranked #1 years ago. Does that mean that an aspiring law school student interested in that field should choose it over YLS, HLS, Stanford, or even Boalt or UCLA???
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find <em>any</em> student that would make that choice unless there were personal/financial reasons for doing so -- the same applies to law firms looking to hire new grads as well.
The strength of individual programs is important at the same time, it is a mistake to overlook the importance and selectivity of the overall institution. Oftentimes, students at "less prestigious" institutions like to claim that they enjoy the XYZ department there because it is one of the best in the country. What they neglect to mention is that many of them also didn't get into the "more prestigious" school anyway.<br>
As an aside, the majority of college grads do NOT go into a job directly related to their undergrad degree, rendering the department quality argument somewhat irrelevant... but that's a whole other post. :)</p>
<p>More often than not, I think people do something completely outside of their major's scope. I'm one of the few poli sci BAs I know looking for work in politics or policy at all. This is even WITH an MA in IR/int'l business.</p>
<p>Tarhunt- "There are exceptions. I once had an executive at a financial services firm in New York ask if I knew any people who had 20+ years of solid HR experience and graduated from an Ivy. I was very surprised, but this many attended Cambridge, and the British sometimes have a different way of looking at things."
In general I agree with this statement regarding the British. The only two people I can recall directly asking me about my undergraduate school after about year 1 of being in the working world were both British (and widely regarded as jerks as well). These guys made it known that they would hire largely on the basis of one's college degree. But again I must emphasize, these two have been the exceptions to the rule.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt anyone looking for CPA is gonna care all that much if they are from top schools. You know why? Because almost all top-schools don't have accounting programs, let alone producing CPAs. The two seem to be mutually exclusive. Anyone looking for CPAs graduated from Ivies, Chicago, Duke, Hopkins, Tufts, Northwestern...etc is gonna have a tough time finding them, let alone hiring them. ;)</p>
<p>Where did they graduate from? If you look at the educational requirements for CPAs now, you HAVE to take large number of courses not typically offered in schools with no accounting program. I don't believe the schools I just mentioned offered classes like Intermediate Accounting 1, 2, 3, Managerial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Auditing...etc.</p>
<p>Well, if you reread my post, you will see I said <em>most</em> top-schools. UCLA has a business accounting major and that's why you know 2 CPAs that went there. I bet the one from Cornell took classes (and a lot of them probably) somewhere else to fulfill the eligibility requirements. Some of the best accounting programs are at schools like U of Illinois, Indiana, Georgia and they have relatively large number of grads (on the other hand, only 3% of Wharton grads are accounting majors). I'd think the Big4 would have better luck in finding the accountants they need in those schools than Ivies and most other top privates.</p>
<p>I think it all depends on what u really want to do. If ur into medicine,then ur undergrad really doesn't matter because I have seen many people from community colleges end up with people from Harvard in their residencies. But if ur doing something like business or engineering, being in a prestigious school can really help ur career. If it didn't, then why do so many people want to be there. However, it is also not the sole factor in determining how successful u ll be in ur career. Thats just my opinion...</p>
<p>Here is something to think about the largest number of CEO's of fortune 500 companies received their MBA from UM-Madison. I read this in Bloomberg Magazine even though they have a good program I was a little bit shocked the largest number of CEOs of the largest companies in the US came that school.</p>
<p>No, fellow CCViewer. That is not the right view. The correct view is </p>
<p>Hardwork=success=better chance at life and opportunities. Go to the school where you will thrive and succeed. That may or may not be a prestigious school. </p>
<p>And success in life is not just measured by a salary and big house and car. Its measured by your character and integrity. Everything else is secondary.</p>