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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/opinion/college-gpa-career-success.html#commentsContainer

My kids, who were mediocre high school students, excelled in college and have happy, fulfilled lives. Your kids can, too.
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I've been in recruiting meetings at work ... we don't have the time to give everyone a chance, we have feeder colleges that have a history of giving us the talent we need and we literally won't even look at your resume with less than a 3.7 (software filters). The Times produces a lot of bullsh*t click-bait for the masses. All the big time journalists there send their kids to elite colleges. Kristof kids Harvard ... Charles Blow son at Yale ... on and on and on.[/quote]

Meh - it depends on the industry. The more technical the position, the less concern about pedigree. [/quote]

Yes, this is 100% true. My husband has no college degree, yet is brilliant in the technical field, has done well, and is highly sought-after.

My eldest is a tech guy - finishes this year with a degree in computer science, wanting to go into cyber security. He's in 'lowly' George Mason (according to DCUM). What he's gotten there are teachers who work in the industry. So not only is he getting meaningful projects and lectures, but more than one of his professors have dedicated classes to discussing how to get the first job, how to interview, what do focus on, etc. His classes are all tailored by these non-academic professors towards real-world. They get how the world works, unlike those who never step out of the academic environment.

My middle child is at a highly regarded DCUM college. It's all academics and when she graduates, getting a job will be hard, because they steered my kid towards the soft-sciences and all that other pablum these elite colleges teach. We will pay extra for this kid to take at least one certification course in project management to increase marketability. Her excellent grades and the name of the school will take this kid far, but the coursework will NOT.

My youngest just got into his target school. He wants computational linguistics and probably could have gotten into a linguistics program at another DCUM target school. But he said those schools will not prepare him as well as his target will. As he put it "I can go to Harvard, get a degree in linguistics, and not be prepared for real-world A computational linguistics degree at a school that also has a great computer science department will help me get an actual job" When I asked him the difference, he said that undergrad linguistics degrees qualify you to put foam on lattes. Undergrad computational linguistics degrees teach you how to program Siri not to say f*ck.  The latter is much more marketable.

The key to ANY college education is marketability when you graduate, as well as preparation. Someone who learns hard technical skills in ANY college is always MUCH more marketable.[/quote]

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