<p>bdl108:
As I have said several times throughout this thread, I USED THAT PARTICULAR SECTOR AS AN EXAMPLE. Is it so difficult for you to understand that I was making a counterpoint to your assertion that “it doesn’t matter where you go, as long as you get good grades”? You did not make any qualifying statements, so the assumption would be that you were referring to ALL sectors. I was disproving that statement.</p>
<p>I get the sense from reading her posts over the past few years that Mini did not particularly enjoy her time at Williams or feel that her degree was any better than she could have gotten anywhere else (correct me if I am wrong). It seems like she is there on every thread discussing prestige arguing about how insignificant it is. Mini, of course you were able to spend an hour finding some CEOs of banks that did not attend top-tier schools. In fact, they are the outliers in that industry.</p>
<p>Attending a non-elite school certainly does not prevent you from going places, but in response to the OPs question: Yes, the internship and job opportunities are different among schools.</p>
<p>Let’s dig a little deeper into the examples mini cities as proof that it doesn’t matter where you go to school.</p>
<p>Vikram Pandit moved here from India, attended Gannon at the age of 16, and has 4 degrees from Columbia. He was a professor at the University of Indiana before joining Morgan Stanley and, eventually, Citigroup.</p>
<p>Kenneth Lewis joined Bank of America as a credit analyst and has an executive degree from Stanford.</p>
<p>Ellyn McColgan has an MBA from Harvard Business School.</p>
<p>Jamie Dimon has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergrad degree from Tufts.</p>
<p>Just a few examples I could find information on briefly.</p>
<p>Actually–Buffett first enrolled at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 1950, he transferred to the University of Nebraska where he received a B.S. in Economics.</p>
<p>Buffett then enrolled at Columbia Business School where he then received a M.S. in Economics.</p>
<p>Buffet is a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College.</p>
<p>The school does matter for opportunities.
As for actual success, it doesn’t matter.
Actual success dependson the caliber of the actual student/person. Most of these high-caliber students, as-we-have-it, attend elite institutions and thus, correlate to elite schools mattering :)</p>
<p>Thus, even if you got into Harvard, but are a dumb-jerk, you might have companies bowing down to your harvard degree, but you’re not getting promoted anytime soon.</p>
<p>Likewise, if you were a student who got screwed over for whatever reason, but is qualified to attend a school like Harvard/Princeton, but is only going to a low-quality State U., chances are, you won’t get immediate respect, but you will build a solid future for yourself.</p>
<p>It’s not really the schools that make the success, it’s the person coming from the school with a combination of luck.
Thus, this is not meant to be some sort of let-down for people at elite schools, nor is it supposed to be good news for all the students at insert-random-name-here University.</p>
<p>long story short:</p>
<p>a) if you are an unqualified individual with little natural talent and/or work ethic, no MATTER where you go, your life will likely be unremarkable.
b) if you are a qualified and talented individual who works hard, your life will likely be successful.
c) if you are a qualified and talended individual who works hard AND has good luck on his/her side, you will likely have a very remarkable and successful life.</p>
<p>bigp: I understand that. No need to get aggressive here. I’m just saying, your “example” is in fact one of the only sectors if not THE ONLY sector where alma mater plays a significant role in employment opportunity. </p>
<p>So maybe I had no qualifying statements in my prior post, but I think for the 90+% (correct me if I’m wrong) of jobs in the U.S. labor market that aren’t in finance, the answer to this thread’s question is NO. Alma mater will not affect internship/job opportunities. It’s all what you do with your degree. And I think the validity of your statement may change in the near future, as the Ivy League is no longer the “old boy’s club” that it has been in the past. Society is starting to realize that people from the Ivies can screw up too.</p>
<p>Garsh, I always just reckoned that sure if you wanna start off in investment bankin’ or some other fancy-pants prestige job then degree makes the difference, but ya know, when it comes right down to it, if ya got the talent and the guts and the gumption in the long run it’d be those qualities that earns ya a fancy desk and a nice window.</p>
<p>I reckon it’s got somethin’ to do with degrees as a signallin’ device or some-such, and, welp, the more experience ya get the less folks’ll rely on what’s (and let’s be honest here) a pretty darned noisy signal.</p>
<p>But maybe I’m just a naive country rube who can’t make head nor tails of yer swanky city ways.</p>
<p>Sorry for getting heated, bdl08, you are right, there was no need for it.</p>
<p>I would, however, suggest that the importance of the degree stretches beyond just the financial industry. How about journalism–several schools with excellent J-schools are far more well-recruited than others. Or maybe your standard pre-med chemistry or biology degree–internship and summer research opportunities will be better from Hopkins than from Southeastern Nowhere State University. Names open doors, like it or not. Not all doors, of course not, but oftentimes those first few.</p>
<p>skateboarder, Tufts is a great school, even though it has a weird name. You will have excellent opportunities coming from it, particularly in the Northeast corridor where it is very well known. Try not to have negative opinions from the start, as difficult as it may be.</p>
<p>Skateboarder, don’t be so hard on yourself! Tufts is really amazing and I truly loved it when I was visiting schools!
It was one of my top choices at one point! :)</p>
<p>“Let’s dig a little deeper into the examples mini cities as proof that it doesn’t matter where you go to school.”</p>
<p>It matters very, very much where you go to get your MBA. These days, most MBA programs won’t even accept you right out of undergrad. Without relevant work experience, it doesn’t matter where you did your undergrad.</p>
<p>I got a great education at LAC #1. The fact that I’ve never had an employer who had ever heard of it doesn’t take away from that in the least. Where I live, no one will have ever heard of Tufts. But BYU will get you far!</p>
<p>skateboarder, although I’m clearly biased (<em>cough</em> look under my SN <em>cough</em>), I happen to think you absolutely made the wrong choice Just sayin’.</p>
<p>This is perhaps the easiest question with the most longwinded answers ever. It’s really this simple:</p>
<p>Sure, you can be successful no matter WHERE you go . . . IF you work really hard and are really talented.<br>
Fact: talented, smart, hardworking kids generally choose to go to top schools (if they can).<br>
Fact: if you go to a top 10 school, you WILL have better “opportunities” (more interviews, better career services, higher recruitment).<br>
Fact: you would have to work much harder to find a job on Wall Street coming out of a Tier 2 than coming out of Harvard.</p>
<p>Done.</p>
<p>Generic State U = Handicap
Top tier = A leg up</p>
<p>Skateboarder: Don’t feel bad, especially if the people you’re referring to are your parents. Both my parents went to Brown and my grandfather attended Princeton. Getting into Tufts/NYU (my school) today is about as competitive as getting into an Ivy was for their generation. And if it’s your siblings, you shouldn’t really be judging yourself against them in the first place. Getting into top schools is ridiculously competitive.</p>
