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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it’s the parents who didn’t themselves go to T20 schools that overstate their importance.  It’s not the golden meal ticket you think it is, the majority of students at these schools still have painfully average careers.[/quote]

Both myself and my partner attending T10 schools.  We have never used any connections from those schools once we graduated.  Yes, I'll admit that graduating in the early 90s, we both benefited from the school, in that not as many companies were hiring but we found jobs since companies were still going to these schools.  However, I went on at least 10,  2nd interviews at larger companies (including Ford, Anderson,Bell Labs etc) and at least half the interviewees at these sessions were not T20 students.  At the company who ultimately hired me, our incoming group of new hires (we knew each other as we lived together for summer then went off to grad school in fall), only 30-40% were from T20 schools, rest were from T60-80 schools, and at least 20% outside of those ranges,  even in a difficult time to find a job.

But after our first jobs, we have NEVER used connections/alumni networks to get jobs.  All future jobs have come because of the hard work, dedication we have done.  Literally nobody asks about where you went to undergrad----they want to hear about your projects, and references from people who've worked with you.  And even with our first jobs, we got hired because we both had over 3.9GPA in engineering at T10 schools---we earned our jobs by doing well.  And my data points indicate that we would have still found jobs even if at a T100 school, because we would have networked/used resources until we landed a job because that's our work ethic.

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I don't understand why you are bragging about never using connections/alumni networks after your first jobs.  The natural question is...why the heck not?  To each their own, but I am aware of plenty of folks (myself included) that went on to found successful companies, became P/E partners, etc. that absolutely worked their network of fellow graduates/friends and alumni.

Your personal network and the alumni network are the most important reasons to go to a Top 10 school...why you wouldn't work them is beyond me.[/quote]

Because we did not need to use work those connections.  We were able to find our way in industry thru hard work, dedication and being damn good at our jobs.  That's the whole point----if you are smart and work hard, you really don't need all those "connections" to succeed.  You can get there without attending an elite university.  Most employers care much more about your resume/recommendations from previous employers than where you went to undergrad.

Making $400K/year for one person at age 28.  The other was making $150K, then became SAHP for our kids.  By age 32, worth $4M+.  By age 40 worth over $10M, by age 50 worth over $40M.   Dont' know about you, but I'd consider that being extremely successful.  Not sure what more we could have achieved by "working our connections".  [b]Now the connections we have are those we built thru our careers, not from where we attending University. [/b][/quote]

+1 DH and I went to regional public universities but have had solid careers and now have plenty of contacts through our work and friend networks to build our own careers and help our kids get internships. No, not IB/consulting type contacts but neither kid is interested in that anyway. I don't know why people think only people who go to elite universities have "contacts". My son had an internship last summer with a firm headed by an HYP grad who I know through my social network. He's interviewing this week with another firm I work with -- I referred him to the president (elite LAC undergrad/Harvard MBA) because we work together regularly.  Shockingly, once you are out of college, elite-school grads actually work with people from lots of kinds of colleges.[/quote]

Shocking, yes, shocking.

More than half the executives at companies we have worked for (both large, small and mid sized) are "shockingly" not elite school grads.  I know Mary Washington, Towson, Oregon state, Xavier, etc grads who are successful executives---working alongside Elite-school grads along the way and in the E-suite. [b]But it's not like anyone cares---only reason I know where they went to school is because majority of companies include that in their executives public online profile.  Otherwise nobody knows or cares[/b] [/quote]

+1 The only reason I know where the two people I referenced above went to college was because this thread made me curious so I looked them up on linkedin. Otherwise I don't know where most friends and colleagues went to college and I don't care. It's totally irrelevant. It has only started to come up in the last few years as my friends and I have kids going through college applications so we've started talking more about our own application and attendance experiences.[/quote]

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