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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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The vast majority of my 'influential'* co-workers were from Stanford, MIT or Cornell, the ONLY U's the company sent workers for academic fellowships. (*upward mobile / interview teams, performance ranking roles). I was pretty rare to get a voice if you were not alumni.
My adult kids experience far more college bias today in their jobs. (Finance, operations, executive staff).
I attribute that to the fact much fewer people know ANYTHING, so they cover their lack of knowledge by socially keeping a small circle. No sense getting a bunch of ideas that you would need to determine if any would actually work!
is it really true where you go to college does not affect your employment ?
I thought going to good colleges increases your changes of connections networking etc
ofcourse exceptionally intelligent wealthy or lucky people will be successful regardless
But is it really true for the vast majority of us ?
Kind of interesting the author, Jennifer Breheny Wallace, opines that there's 'no good college' and advocates it doesn't matter whether or not you go to a good college to be successful in life yet she, herself, just so happened to graduate from Harvard.
is it really true where you go to college does not affect your employment ?
For most, it’s true; in fact, for many, they are doing well (and are content) to get through college and earn a solid income. That said, relative to highly-competitive fields and/or a desire to succeed beyond ‘average’ i.e. law, business and medicine - it can (and will) affect opportunity/wages. Relative to law, for example, one may find they are unemployable in the field if they attend an unaccredited law school; at the very least, they are more likely to earn significantly less, as a whole (and are in a different ballpark entirely by comparison to those who graduate from the top-twenty law schools).
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Originally Posted by Dad01
I thought going to good colleges increases your changes of connections networking etc
Obviously, the better the college, the ‘better’/more successful the connections.
For most, it’s true; in fact, for many, they are doing well (and are content) to get through college and earn a solid income. That said, relative to highly-competitive fields and/or a desire to succeed beyond ‘average’ i.e. law, business and medicine - it can (and will) affect opportunity/wages. Relative to law, for example, one may find they are unemployable in the field if they attend an unaccredited law school; at the very least, they are more likely to earn significantly less, as a whole (and are in a different ballpark entirely by comparison to those who graduate from the top-twenty law schools).
Obviously, the better the college, the ‘better’/more successful the connections.
The thesis of this conversation is, well was anyway, about undergraduate work.
I think that for certain skillsets the actual degree matters. Law graduates from Harvard are more valued than law graduates from community colleges - as an example, whereas a degree in computer science may be seen the same everywhere.
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law graduates from community colleges
Do you know anything about law school?
.I.T
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whereas a degree in computer science may be seen the same everywhere
I guess you don't know much about the reputation of schools like MIT, Cal Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, or Stanford.
There are obviously situations where the college you graduated from doesn't matter. It depends on the hiring manager and how much reliance they put on different colleges. For example, I don't think it matters if you're interviewing for a teaching job.
OTOH, I worked for a large consulting firm. Each consultant's resume was part of each proposal. Top schools like MIT, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, UPenn carried a lot more weight than schools than state schools or small private colleges. I found that it doesn't help when you get a hundred miles away from the college and people have never heard of it. People give more credibility to a well know school like Penn State, Ohio State, University of Alabama, Notre Dame, etc. even if the academic reputation is not that high. Try explaining to someone in California that you graduated from California University of PA, which is now known as PennWest California.
In that case, it can make a difference (for some) relative to one’s acceptance into an academically-prestigious graduate program.
I get that's conventional wisdom. However, the only two studies I've read about this indicate all these factors mean nothing or at best very little per very talented students.
Say Harvard, with well understood exceptions......Harvard admits more or less only very talented students. Ergo its graduates should win lots of excellent grad and professional school slots because they are exceptional students going in.
We find that the return to college selectivity is sizeable for both cohorts in regression models that control for variables commonly observed by researchers, such as student high school GPA and SAT scores. However, when we adjust for unobserved student ability by controlling for the average SAT score of the colleges that students applied to, our estimates of the return to college selectivity fall substantially and are generally indistinguishable from zero.
I get that's conventional wisdom. However, the only two studies I've read about this indicate all these factors mean nothing or at best very little per very talented students.
Again, it depends re: those who are looking to excel beyond ‘average’ and seek to earn significantly more than their counterparts, often out-of-the-gate, relative to highly-competitive fields.
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Originally Posted by EDS_
Say Harvard, with well understood exceptions......Harvard admits more or less only very talented students. Ergo its graduates should win lots of excellent grad and professional school slots because they are exceptional students going in.
The reason said students seek such is to have a leg-up relative to employment, per the thread. The competition is fierce at top law firms as well as Google, McKinsey & Co, BCG, Bain and so on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dad01
is it really true where you go to college does not affect your employment ?
As such, it depends on your field and career goals (and where you’d like to be employed).
Again, it depends re: those who are looking to excel beyond ‘average’ and seek to earn significantly more than their counterparts, often out-of-the-gate, relative to highly-competitive fields.
The reason said students seek such is to have a leg-up relative to employment, per the thread. The competition is fierce at top law firms as well as Google, McKinsey & Co, BCG, Bain and so on.
As such, it depends on your field and career goals (and where you’d like to be employed).
1. The study I quoted/linked is only about excellent students.
2. Your picture of all of this is a little off because you are in law. Law, MBA studies and to a lesser degree finance remain areas in which graduation colors really matter nominally.
2.1. To re-seed my point (Krueger and Dale's too).....a niece, who was an outstanding high schooler unadjusted 4.00, NMF, went to second rate Catholic school per scholarship and probably the fourth or fifth best law school in NY. She's now partner track at a boutique law firm making right at whatever that lawyer pay level bit is called.
Graduate and professional schools are a separate matter.
Disagree. Recruiting out of undergrad at Wharton is different than it is at Humboldt state.
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