Where you go to college doesn’t matter. What you do when you get there does!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sorry, but I've personally witnessed job candidates have doors open at the sight of the Ivy name on their resume. In multiple different fields.

The brand value is real, and wishing it weren't so doesn't change reality.

+1, places where comparative lit majors land on their feet. Generic state school is where these majors are worthlesss.

Median Social Studies major at Harvard makes $52k/year. Not exactly “landing on their feet”

That's a totally fine salary for an entry-level social science major. Also, humanities and social science majors have lower entry salaries overall but often longer lasting and growth potential. People have to do the work they are well-suited to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivy League lit major works the the PE firm which owns our company. She is 23 and probably makes $200k+ a year. LOTS of companies just hire smart people. Would they hire a Literature major from Maryland or William & Mary, no, but get your degree from Princeton and be ambitious and nothing is unattainable.

Wrong English majors are in high demand.

They can write.

My DD VT English major out of college six figures .

Correction noted. The PE firms are pretty snobby about the schools they hire from in general regardless of major but your point taken.

+1 PE firms are not taking 23 year olds out of VT, no way. It totally matters to them what school. At least the hires at the analyst levels that make 6 figures to start.

Absolutely agree.

But for many candidates not at top10 schools, they get in via parents/ connections.

I know I’m helping my kids with internships bc I can through my own finance network. Everyone does this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely agree.

But for many candidates not at top10 schools, they get in via parents/ connections.

I know I’m helping my kids with internships bc I can through my own finance network. Everyone does this

The school you attend does not matter if you do NOT have "connections". The connections matter a whole lot more. I interviewed ten HYPS candidates for finance internship positions but they didn't get offers. Five offers go to D1 Lacrosse and Soccer athletes from UNC, UVA, Rutgers, San Diego State, and Iowa. One offer goes to a regular student from JMU and her parents are friends with the company COO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely agree.

But for many candidates not at top10 schools, they get in via parents/ connections.

I know I’m helping my kids with internships bc I can through my own finance network. Everyone does this

The school you attend does not matter if you do NOT have "connections". The connections matter a whole lot more. I interviewed ten HYPS candidates for finance internship positions but they didn't get offers. Five offers go to D1 Lacrosse and Soccer athletes from UNC, UVA, Rutgers, San Diego State, and Iowa. One offer goes to a regular student from JMU and her parents are friends with the company COO.

Depends on firm. GS/BofA/JEFF all came to my top 10 undergrad to interview on campus….and many many many of us unconnected folks got jobs.

Obviously, the connected folks go through an entirely different pipeline, and for them it matters less where they went to school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on firm. GS/BofA/JEFF all came to my top 10 undergrad to interview on campus….and many many many of us unconnected folks got jobs.

Obviously, the connected folks go through an entirely different pipeline, and for them it matters less where they went to school

There were 4193 Yale grads in 2023. How many of them are working in these jobs? Less than 2%? It is like winning a lifetime lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivy League lit major works the the PE firm which owns our company. She is 23 and probably makes $200k+ a year. LOTS of companies just hire smart people. Would they hire a Literature major from Maryland or William & Mary, no, but get your degree from Princeton and be ambitious and nothing is unattainable.

Wrong English majors are in high demand.

They can write.

My DD VT English major out of college six figures .

Correction noted. The PE firms are pretty snobby about the schools they hire from in general regardless of major but your point taken.

+1 PE firms are not taking 23 year olds out of VT, no way. It totally matters to them what school. At least the hires at the analyst levels that make 6 figures to start.

PE is definately one of the very few areas that "where you go matters", but for most PE it's where you get your MBA/graduate degree that matters. They are not hiring many BA/BS kids. And yes most PE firms, you can look at their management and see which school(s) you need to attend to work there.

However, let's face it, most kids are not going into PE and you shouldn't base where you attend undergrad on the desire to go into PE. Pick a good fit school for you, get an education, get some work experience and then strive for a top MBA program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely agree.

But for many candidates not at top10 schools, they get in via parents/ connections.

I know I’m helping my kids with internships bc I can through my own finance network. Everyone does this

The school you attend does not matter if you do NOT have "connections". The connections matter a whole lot more. I interviewed ten HYPS candidates for finance internship positions but they didn't get offers. Five offers go to D1 Lacrosse and Soccer athletes from UNC, UVA, Rutgers, San Diego State, and Iowa. One offer goes to a regular student from JMU and her parents are friends with the company COO.

I hope you're just making sh*t up because this is way too much disclosure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivy League lit major works the the PE firm which owns our company. She is 23 and probably makes $200k+ a year. LOTS of companies just hire smart people. Would they hire a Literature major from Maryland or William & Mary, no, but get your degree from Princeton and be ambitious and nothing is unattainable.

Wrong English majors are in high demand.

They can write.

My DD VT English major out of college six figures .

Correction noted. The PE firms are pretty snobby about the schools they hire from in general regardless of major but your point taken.

+1 PE firms are not taking 23 year olds out of VT, no way. It totally matters to them what school. At least the hires at the analyst levels that make 6 figures to start.

PE is definately one of the very few areas that "where you go matters", but for most PE it's where you get your MBA/graduate degree that matters. They are not hiring many BA/BS kids. And yes most PE firms, you can look at their management and see which school(s) you need to attend to work there.

However, let's face it, most kids are not going into PE and you shouldn't base where you attend undergrad on the desire to go into PE. Pick a good fit school for you, get an education, get some work experience and then strive for a top MBA program.

Would people who don't understand various industries please stop posting.

PEs hire many graduates of GS and other investment banking analyst programs. They also hire many of the McKinsey, Bain kids that complete the equivalent of their 2-year program.

So, correct they are not hiring directly from undergrad, but they are definitely hiring kids that do not get MBAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot a few more:

Neighbor’s kid went to Harvard and majored in Philosophy. Yikes! He graduated a few years ago and moved to the PNW to be an “environmental educator” (whatever the hell that is) because he couldn’t get a real job post-grad.

But sometimes state school kids drop the ball. A friend’s DD is super smart. Turned down 3 Ivies for UMD on Banneker (donut family). She is majoring in Classics and English, and my friend told me that she wants to be an academic in the humanities. I told her that her DD should be prepared to not be able to find a job — the market for professors in the humanities is awful. And the kid wouldn’t even take my suggestion to at least minor in CS or Data Analytics (or anything useful!).

This child needs a Ph.D. before she knows whether she can make it. If she doesn't, she could teach in the public schools. It's a respectable job that has job security and great benefits, and there is opportunity to supplement teaching income with tutoring.

It would be sad to see such a bright girl end up as a public school teacher.

Not for her students.

In my experience with outcomes, (a third of my high school graduating class went to ivies), your computer science/med school pipeline is a crock. A lot of kids who go to demanding schools take a pause year after to spend some time in the real world before getting serious about their careers. Everyone I know who went to an ivy for graduate school (about 15 people) did it after spending time teaching English in a foreign country, working as a waitress, with a puppets, whatever. Everyone I know who didn't go to an ivy for grad school (even more people), also took a pause before finding their feet.

While it's true there's a certain set of people who get recruited and go to work in IB or tech or consulting or whatever straight after undergrad, most don't. By your own admission, I think your kids haven't finished school yet?

Try not to be mean if they want to spend a few months in their old room working at Starbucks just to decompress.

[Anonymous]

If your goal is to get a job in IB or PE or VC: temp in NYC. Extremely easy to get your foot in the door if you show up and look UMC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I genuinely don’t understand the obsession on this board over the Ivies and prestige. Where you go to college doesn’t matter. It’s what you do when you get there that matters most!

I live in a suburb of the DMV that is “DCUM MC” (most families around me have a HHI ~$300-400k — enough for the upper middle class basics, but not enough for our kids to take rely on us when they’re adults). I’ve seen SO many kids go to elite schools and then flail after graduation because they made the wrong moves in college.

Example 1: A neighbor’s son graduated from MIT recently as a Bio major. He had a low GPA due to MIT’s intense, tough courses. Got shut out of every med school he applied to and now is working a minimum wage lab tech job.

Example 2: A

The only truly wrong move you can make in undergrad is to drop out.

- Steve Jobs

or was it…

- Bill Gates

Oh I remember now…

- Mark Zuckerberg

Don’t forget Elizabeth Holmes. Oh, wait ….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot a few more:

Neighbor’s kid went to Harvard and majored in Philosophy. Yikes! He graduated a few years ago and moved to the PNW to be an “environmental educator” (whatever the hell that is) because he couldn’t get a real job post-grad.

But sometimes state school kids drop the ball. A friend’s DD is super smart. Turned down 3 Ivies for UMD on Banneker (donut family). She is majoring in Classics and English, and my friend told me that she wants to be an academic in the humanities. I told her that her DD should be prepared to not be able to find a job — the market for professors in the humanities is awful. And the kid wouldn’t even take my suggestion to at least minor in CS or Data Analytics (or anything useful!).

It's great that some people follow paths that are not for you, OP. You should respect that. The world needs all sorts of professions in it. Why is everything about money for you? Are you THAT materialistic? Is it the only scale by which you measure people's worth? Did you marry for money, perchance? Are you only steering your kids towards professions that earn the most money?

And yet you're on here telling us that the type of college doesn't matter. But you think half the majors out there are crap.

Stop pretending you're open-minded. You're just a gold-digger.

OP here. I don’t have generational wealth. Money is important!

And yes, I told my kid that I would only pay for college if they were pre-med or pre-law or majored in STEM or accounting/finance.

Oh boy! I got some of what your were saying but then I read this... Yikes. I am glad I am my kid's mother and not you. For what it is worth, my DC is studying music - voice performance (shudder) ......and wait! double majoring in Speech and Hearing Sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on firm. GS/BofA/JEFF all came to my top 10 undergrad to interview on campus….and many many many of us unconnected folks got jobs.

Obviously, the connected folks go through an entirely different pipeline, and for them it matters less where they went to school

There were 4193 Yale grads in 2023. How many of them are working in these jobs? Less than 2%? It is like winning a lifetime lottery.

Good stats here. Ground your debate in data.

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-banking

[Anonymous]

Other good stats here:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-target-schools/

https://bankingprep.com/top-schools-for-investment-banking/

https://www.koppelmangroup.com/blog/2023/3/15/best-undergraduate-colleges-for-investment-banking-jobs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other good stats here:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-target-schools/

https://bankingprep.com/top-schools-for-investment-banking/

https://www.koppelmangroup.com/blog/2023/3/15/best-undergraduate-colleges-for-investment-banking-jobs

I’m in finance and don’t think anyone here wants to know the truth…