Value of a name/prestigious college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a name-brand school. I worked as a paralegal for two years and then went to an elite law school, so I don’t know how much the name of my undergrad has helped me relative to the name of my law school (which I think is much more important). But here’s where it did, for sure, help:
(1) I had mediocre grades in college and was still hired as a paralegal at a DC biglaw firm. I specifically remember that they didn’t ask for my grades, because I was extremely relieved when they didn’t. When I left for law school, I helped interview for my replacement, and we absolutely did look at/consider the grades of applicants from UMD and similar schools.
(2) I have had a number of professional mentors who have taken an interest in me because they were alums of my undergrad. This could happen with any school that has a close-knit alumni network, though. One partner at the firm I was a paralegal at (who I had never worked with) was a fellow alum and approached me to proactively offer to write me a law school recommendation.
(3) I was admitted to a reach law school despite my mediocre grades (much lower than the median GPA of admitted students in my class). I don’t know if my undergrad helped get me in, but it was probably one factor.
(4) People have given me the benefit of the doubt and assumed I’m smart in both professional and social situations just based on my undergrad school. Not necessarily merited, but people have literally said things like “you went to XYZ, you’re smart.”

So while I don’t know that my undergrad is worth the $250k COA today, it has provided some benefits. Not that the above things are by any means exclusive to attending a name brand school; you just might have to work harder for them otherwise.

I am that too but in accounting. Got into a big name school, then no requirements to get into the business school or major in accounting (like minimum GPA, etc.), no requirements to get a Big Four offer (like GPA). My 2.8 cumulative GPA was good enough for multiple Big Four offers.

Why?

Because I got into this university. Period. I had hurdled their threshold as a 17 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a name-brand school. I worked as a paralegal for two years and then went to an elite law school, so I don’t know how much the name of my undergrad has helped me relative to the name of my law school (which I think is much more important). But here’s where it did, for sure, help:
(1) I had mediocre grades in college and was still hired as a paralegal at a DC biglaw firm. I specifically remember that they didn’t ask for my grades, because I was extremely relieved when they didn’t. When I left for law school, I helped interview for my replacement, and we absolutely did look at/consider the grades of applicants from UMD and similar schools.
(2) I have had a number of professional mentors who have taken an interest in me because they were alums of my undergrad. This could happen with any school that has a close-knit alumni network, though. One partner at the firm I was a paralegal at (who I had never worked with) was a fellow alum and approached me to proactively offer to write me a law school recommendation.
(3) I was admitted to a reach law school despite my mediocre grades (much lower than the median GPA of admitted students in my class). I don’t know if my undergrad helped get me in, but it was probably one factor.
(4) People have given me the benefit of the doubt and assumed I’m smart in both professional and social situations just based on my undergrad school. Not necessarily merited, but people have literally said things like “you went to XYZ, you’re smart.”

So while I don’t know that my undergrad is worth the $250k COA today, it has provided some benefits. Not that the above things are by any means exclusive to attending a name brand school; you just might have to work harder for them otherwise.

I am that too but in accounting. Got into a big name school, then no requirements to get into the business school or major in accounting (like minimum GPA, etc.), no requirements to get a Big Four offer (like GPA). My 2.8 cumulative GPA was good enough for multiple Big Four offers.

Why?

Because I got into this university. Period. I had hurdled their threshold as a 17 year old.

I went to Marquette, which is hardly prestigious...all of my friends who studied accounting and weren’t deadbeats ended up at the Big 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a prestigious SLAC (though many people have not heard of almost any SLACs).

I don’t think that the prestige necessarily has helped me but the education I received was excellent and prepared me well for a top law school as well as my career.

I think the value of a SLAC may not be obvious and may not show up for years. I think they do very well over time, although I don’t know how you can show this. Just my intuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a prestigious SLAC (though many people have not heard of almost any SLACs).

I don’t think that the prestige necessarily has helped me but the education I received was excellent and prepared me well for a top law school as well as my career.

I think the value of a SLAC may not be obvious and may not show up for years. I think they do very well over time, although I don’t know how you can show this. Just my intuition.

Good SLACs often outperform on the 34 year old median salary after grad school etc. is done.

[Anonymous]

My child opted for fit over ranking. He has had a great freshman year.

This summer (post-freshman year), he had trouble landing an internship.

Hard to know if that was due to low name recognition of his school or the fact that he is a freshman with very limited work experience. (Field is science)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child opted for fit over ranking. He has had a great freshman year.

This summer (post-freshman year), he had trouble landing an internship.

Hard to know if that was due to low name recognition of his school or the fact that he is a freshman with very limited work experience. (Field is science)

Probably more of a freshman thing. Focus on the awesome first year. Internships aren’t everything.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, good reality check

[Anonymous]

Alumni network counts for perhaps more than it should. A lot of those SLACs offer connections to serious jobs. I say this as someone who went to one that doesn't have much pull beyond grad school applications... but still.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are talking SLACs - “smaller one that offers good academics but no one has heard” - people in the know would know about Amherst, Smith, Wellesley, Barnard, Vassar, Kenyon, Oberlin, Reed, Pomona...

“People in the know?” Hmmm.....Interesting.

I grew up in the South where everyone just went to their flagship state school. Until I moved to DC about 20 years ago, I hadn’t heard of a single one of these schools. To this day, I only know 1 person who went to Amherst and a couple of loonies who went to Oberlin. None of the others. Then again, I work with a bunch of engineers and most of my closer friends have STEM or business degrees. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Doesn’t sound like you are the liberal arts type. If you are into engineering, business or other pre-professional programs, a state university or a big-name college would be sufficient. If you are the OP, not sure why you are asking what you are asking.

+1 In engineering, the big state schools are the prestige schools.

In engineering there are also schools that no one outside of the engineering world have ever heard of, yet graduating from there is fairly prestigious. Rose Hulman comes to mind.

[Anonymous]

OP its not the "name" or the fact you can repeat that name ad nauseum throughout your professional life.

Its the actual quality of teaching and curricula, the unique opportunities available at these colleges, the quality of the minds of your peers and the connections you all form.

I don't know why this actually needs explaining. Maybe you just don't understand because you are so far removed from the experience of a first class education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are talking SLACs - “smaller one that offers good academics but no one has heard” - people in the know would know about Amherst, Smith, Wellesley, Barnard, Vassar, Kenyon, Oberlin, Reed, Pomona...

Kenyon and Pomona? No, not really.

Oberlin yes but only because of people like Lena Dunham, which hasn't given it the best reputation (has a crazy anything goes reputation).

[Anonymous]

I mean, everything else being equal, it can't hurt right?

But obviously in life everything is not equal. Is it worth paying up for? Maybe, maybe not. That's extremely hard to quantify. Is it worth going into debt for? Usually not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child opted for fit over ranking. He has had a great freshman year.

This summer (post-freshman year), he had trouble landing an internship.

Hard to know if that was due to low name recognition of his school or the fact that he is a freshman with very limited work experience. (Field is science)

Probably more of a freshman thing. Focus on the awesome first year. Internships aren’t everything.

+1 My company has a big internship program. We never hire students after freshman year. I expect to see a regular summer job (retail, camp counselor, etc.) on the resume for that summer. If it's something else I figure mommy/daddy got you the job with a friend.

[Anonymous]

This is about 20 years ago, so who know how applicable nowadays. I graduated from a highly rated SLAC, and I'm pretty sure that was the primary reason I got a fellowship (worth around $25k a year) to the professional Master's program I enrolled in. There were 2 other grads from the same SLAC enrolled at the same time I was, and we all got that fellowship.

With some of theses SLACs, although they may not have a lot of name recognition with the general public, they do have recognition with other schools, so it can be a benefit when applying to grad or professional programs.

[Anonymous]

" My child opted for fit over ranking. He has had a great freshman year.

This summer (post-freshman year), he had trouble landing an internship.

Hard to know if that was due to low name recognition of his school or the fact that he is a freshman with very limited work experience. (Field is science)

Probably more of a freshman thing. Focus on the awesome first year. Internships aren’t everything.

+1 My company has a big internship program. We never hire students after freshman year. I expect to see a regular summer job (retail, camp counselor, etc.) on the resume for that summer. If it's something else I figure mommy/daddy got you the job with a friend."

The point of the summer after freshman year is to hold a job, any job. If you got a job the summer before freshman year, you increase the odds of having a better job after freshman year.

None of these are really "full blown" internships in that they almost never lead to job offers. Internships with enough responsibility to lead to a real job offer occur after junior year.

Yes, there are "training" internships that many pay enough to foot the bill of living in another city after sophomore year but the best result from those is being invited back, not a job offer.