For those who watch school rankings - how low to go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

Agree. Our oldest is at a regionally ranked niche college you've (probably) heard of. We wouldn't have encouraged/allowed/paid for most other schools ranked like this, but name recognition is the exception.

[Anonymous]

I'd go as low as my in-state flagship, whether it's Berkeley, UMass, or South Dakota.

For private schools, I have a mental graph with two axes: there's an axis for cost and an axis for prestige/ranking/quality, and the former is given greater weight.

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t matter. In terms of name brand I honestly lump schools like Penn State Baylor and Purdue in the same grouping. Regardless of major. And they all have the same types of recruiting, no advantage to any employer except maybe a regional preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter. In terms of name brand I honestly lump schools like Penn State Baylor and Purdue in the same grouping. Regardless of major. And they all have the same types of recruiting, no advantage to any employer except maybe a regional preference.

Baylor is a weird inclusion here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

Agree. There are a bunch of fun household name schools around 140-160 that get the job done, especially if you study nursing, engineering, accounting, ROTC, or are headed for med or law school. Most have good merit aid, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the uni level, beyond HYPMS and possibly Wharton for finance, I just don’t think it matters very much at all. I say this as a proud alum of a T20 who loved my time there, but I’m not sure that degree, nor one from G’Town, or Cornell, Brown, or Rice or whatever comparable uni, gave me a world of possibilities that I couldn’t have gotten at PSU or UMD or Clemson. At the end of the day as long as it’s a college most people have heard of (not in a notorious sort of way at least), it should be more a function of what you put into it than anything else.

Why does it matter if you went to one of those schools either? Can you name me one opportunity available to graduates of those schools that is not available to a graduate of Brown, Cornell or Rice? Even the most exclusive firms/jobs have more than those schools on their target hiring list (though, they don't have PSU/UMD/Clemson on all of them and possibly none of them).

Pp here. It may not. I frankly don’t believe in the rarified air of those places.

I think it might be easier for a middle of the class student at those schools to land the “elite” job than it would for a comparable one elsewhere. But most won’t want these so-called “elite” jobs. A Clemson or PSU grad may not land at Goldman Sachs or Jane street, but they can absolutely end up at the Philly or Atlanta office of a nation I banking or consulting firm.

Agreed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Matter for what? Most of the answers here focus on career. But you might care about experience on campus, actual learning, etc.

I went to a highly selective LAC, and when I was a freshman, a friend who was a senior in HS visited. A classmate ran in at one point, super excited about a reading from religion class. My friend was shocked: he'd visited his brother at a large state university and never heard anyone excited about academics. He ended up at an Ivy, where I think he was happier than he would have been if he'd joined his brother.

Hopefully they also taught him about the hasty generalization fallacy while he was there.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

Money being no object, not sure I'd pick Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia or Penn over Illinois for CS.

That would be a huge mistake considering those schools are known start-up/tech factories with funding opportunities on campus for undergraduates. CS is a bubble that has already started to burst; the “name” schools are the ones getting grads hired. Two of the schools on that list have all of engineering including CS with average starting salaries above 110. The others are close behind. Only 2% unhired for 2024. Those three are close to MIT and stanford for what they offer engineers.

[Anonymous]

UIUC lists 25% of engineering undergraduates do an internship during their time. The starting salaries are 78-85k for Engineering. That is very low compared to ivies with an engineering school /Stanford/MIT. The students who go to grad school do not overwhelmingly get into T20 engineering grad programs and most are masters not phD. Grads of ivy/ elite schools get into the best (and funded) grad programs or go into careers that start 20-25% higher. UIUC does only a little better than VT. That’s sad.

[Anonymous]

OP stay in the top75 and itll be fine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid 1-we were conscious of the ranking for the FIELD OF STUDY but didn't care about the school
Kid 2-wants to be a teacher. Doesn't matter. Just so long we can afford.

DS Junior is approaching his college list the same way as your Kid 1 - ranking in his desired major/field of study vs. what US News says a ranking is.

He also looks at graduation rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter. In terms of name brand I honestly lump schools like Penn State Baylor and Purdue in the same grouping. Regardless of major. And they all have the same types of recruiting, no advantage to any employer except maybe a regional preference.

Not true for engineering. Purdue is a top ten program. Penn State is in the 20s. Baylor is somewhere after 150. They do not have the same recruiting. Purdue has a very strong reputation and corresponding recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

Money being no object, not sure I'd pick Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia or Penn over Illinois for CS.

It's interesting you would specifically say UIUC. Have a friend with a kid at Chicago and UIUC for CS and she says the Chicago kid has far more internship/job opportunities present themselves than the UIUC kid.

Maybe due to proximity? UIUC being in the middle of nowhere?

I know a UChicago 2024 grad still looking for a job and a UIUC employed grad. Does that mean either school is better? So much depends on the kid. In CS, a lot is skill based, most kids get OAs and it goes from there. It does not matter what school you go to, if you don't have the skillset its tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the uni level, beyond HYPMS and possibly Wharton for finance, I just don’t think it matters very much at all. I say this as a proud alum of a T20 who loved my time there, but I’m not sure that degree, nor one from G’Town, or Cornell, Brown, or Rice or whatever comparable uni, gave me a world of possibilities that I couldn’t have gotten at PSU or UMD or Clemson. At the end of the day as long as it’s a college most people have heard of (not in a notorious sort of way at least), it should be more a function of what you put into it than anything else.

Why does it matter if you went to one of those schools either? Can you name me one opportunity available to graduates of those schools that is not available to a graduate of Brown, Cornell or Rice? Even the most exclusive firms/jobs have more than those schools on their target hiring list (though, they don't have PSU/UMD/Clemson on all of them and possibly none of them).

Pp here. It may not. I frankly don’t believe in the rarified air of those places.

I think it might be easier for a middle of the class student at those schools to land the “elite” job than it would for a comparable one elsewhere. But most won’t want these so-called “elite” jobs. A Clemson or PSU grad may not land at Goldman Sachs or Jane street, but they can absolutely end up at the Philly or Atlanta office of a nation I banking or consulting firm.

So, you agree with me. There are opportunities available at places like GS or Jane Street that aren’t available to the PSU or Clemson grad.

I imagine many Clemson or PSU grads would in fact love to have one of these “elite” jobs if the opportunity were available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

Not an answer to your question but obviously this is a very regional strategy. I live in South Jersey and Rowan is where most of the kids' teachers went (undergrad and masters), and everyone knows it has a very good engineering program - and the price is certainly right.

+

Don’t live in New Jersey but as a year out of college, I lived in Manhattan. Our boss had us sort resumes for interviews. She called attention to one from an Ivy. It had a typo.
She threw it in the trash.
The new hire came from Rowan.