Does it matter where you attend college anymore?

[Anonymous]

Most of the successful people in my community do not necessarily have elite academic credentials. An investment banker I know went to University of Richmond. This lawyer friend of ours went to UVA law and another went to Case Western. One sales executive went to college in a random university in Canada. The friends who work in local financial firms such as Navy Federal or Capital one graduated from local colleges. Yes we have friends who went to Ivys but they’re working at places like Deliotte or McKinsey or KPMG.

All of these are successful professionals who make a good living.

What is the benefit of attending an elite university?

[Anonymous]

What a misleading title. Those are all T60 schools.

Btw Deloitte/KPMG/PWC/EY consulting won’t even look at your app beyond ~T100 schools.

[Anonymous]

It’s much easier to get to that level if you go to an elite school. Investment banks are not on campus recruiting at U of Richmond, that person would have had to network really hard and get v lucky if he got that job out of school. If he went to an elite school and got good grades he could sign up for informational interviews on campus with 5 banks and not need to do the networking or get lucky.

[Anonymous]

I think there are some niche fields that care about pedigree - think tanks, private equity, etc. Otherwise, major matters more.

[Anonymous]

Lol that you think McKinsey is less prestigious than Navy Federal.

[Anonymous]

You listed a bunch of selective colleges and didn’t name the one in Canada. Is Georgetown the “local college” by chance?

[Anonymous]

Uh, UVA law is super hard to get into, too

[Anonymous]

OP I would define those as “elite academic credentials.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a misleading title. Those are all T60 schools.

Btw Deloitte/KPMG/PWC/EY consulting won’t even look at your app beyond ~T100 schools.

Literally the first profile I looked at proves you wrong about your second statement. You really shouldn't make ridiculous claims and expect no one to check up on you.

https://www.ey.com/en_us/people/julie-boland

[Anonymous]

I don't think it matters that much where you go to school. Each institution has pros and cons.
But, wait a minute, UVA law is very well-regarded. And it's also ranked highly. I just looked it up and it's ranked #8 in the country in US News.
The other colleges also are fine universities.

[Anonymous]

It has never mattered where you went to college, unless the person doing the hiring isn't very good at their job. What's always mattered is the individual. There are more extremely capable people at elite colleges, which makes it seem like it matters where you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it matters that much where you go to school. Each institution has pros and cons.
But, wait a minute, UVA law is very well-regarded. And it's also ranked highly. I just looked it up and it's ranked #8 in the country in US News.
The other colleges also are fine universities.

Op here. I meant to say someone graduating from GMU working at Capital One and an Ivy grad working at McKinsey aren’t living very different lives or doing drastically differing professional jobs.

The UVA law grad we know has a great job so does the one who went to Case Western.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the successful people in my community do not necessarily have elite academic credentials. An investment banker I know went to University of Richmond. This lawyer friend of ours went to UVA law and another went to Case Western. One sales executive went to college in a random university in Canada. The friends who work in local financial firms such as Navy Federal or Capital one graduated from local colleges. Yes we have friends who went to Ivys but they’re working at places like Deliotte or McKinsey or KPMG.

All of these are successful professionals who make a good living.

What is the benefit of attending an elite university?

These are very poor examples of "non-elite" institutions.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the major/career but for the most part no. Law, business, medicine yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the successful people in my community do not necessarily have elite academic credentials. An investment banker I know went to University of Richmond. This lawyer friend of ours went to UVA law and another went to Case Western. One sales executive went to college in a random university in Canada. The friends who work in local financial firms such as Navy Federal or Capital one graduated from local colleges. Yes we have friends who went to Ivys but they’re working at places like Deliotte or McKinsey or KPMG.

All of these are successful professionals who make a good living.

What is the benefit of attending an elite university?

These are very poor examples of "non-elite" institutions.

Are GMU or UR elite schools?