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 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.

There are studies on this, one of the more interesting is now about 20 years old, and they had data on where students were accepted and where they went, so they were able to see how a student who chose a state flagship over an Ivy fared. There was other data involved but long and short is that where one goes to undergrad does not matter nearly as much as people think; grad school does. It is hard to convince people of this, and it will not be true for everyone (if your kid is planning to screw up in college, go to the best college because the name is likely to matter for those towards the bottom of the class).

Anonymous wrote:DH went to name school, I went to great academics, but unheard of niche school; met on the job, in the same job, surrounded by people who went to all kinds of different schools. You will find the same results in nearly every workplace in the United States.

As a grad of an academically rigorous yet only regionally known school who has easily found employment from graduation on in geographic areas where said school was completley unknown, this is my experience. Some places, some fields, name will matter. In many, it won't. Trust me, the fact that most people think you're sneezing when you say "Gustavus Adolphus" hasn't cost me a job yet. The fact that my record speaks for itself has gained me access to the professional opportunities I've attained. This isn't really that uncommon. Not every employer cares so much where you went, they care about your skills and abilities and fit more.

Ultimately, in securing that first job, successfully showing your expertise and why you're the person for the job is likely going to matter more than the branding of your school, most likely. And once you are in that intial job, obviously the work you do there and in future jobs is what holds far more import in future hirings than where you went, what you majored in, etc., for the most part. Depending, as noted, on where you are and what your field is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some companies/organizations only recruit at certain schools. So, if you went to Dummy State U like I did...those companies never even come to campus. It just makes life harder to prove yourself w/o name brand cache.

So one of the things to check out when considering a college is how active/effective their Career Services office is. DC goes to a college that is not a well-known brand name, but the Career Services office takes their role seriously, and there have been good outcomes for most of the students.

+1
Also think of the alumni base. I've worked in Career Services (currently at a prestigious university) and we rely heavily on our alumni to connect with current students and to help foster recruitment with their companies. Ask about alumni engagement and how it correlates to student success.

Anonymous wrote:Some companies/organizations only recruit at certain schools. So, if you went to Dummy State U like I did...those companies never even come to campus. It just makes life harder to prove yourself w/o name brand cache.

So one of the things to check out when considering a college is how active/effective their Career Services office is. DC goes to a college that is not a well-known brand name, but the Career Services office takes their role seriously, and there have been good outcomes for most of the students.

Anonymous wrote:Some companies/organizations only recruit at certain schools. So, if you went to Dummy State U like I did...those companies never even come to campus. It just makes life harder to prove yourself w/o name brand cache.

Somewhat true at my D’s college. What her college does as many top smaller colleges do, however, is to fly students out to companies in various parts of the country.

Some companies/organizations only recruit at certain schools. So, if you went to Dummy State U like I did...those companies never even come to campus. It just makes life harder to prove yourself w/o name brand cache.

Prestigious SLAC (top 5 in US news) grad here. My school’s supposed prestige is worthless outside of major East Coast cities, grad school applications, and maybe prestigious employers (like I’m guessing a McKinsey HR might be impressed?). Otherwise, most people have not heard of it and assume it’s a random run-of-the-mill college. Gets me no cred whatsoever.

Anonymous wrote:It's cachet people, cachet. No one can take your opinions about education seriously if you keep saying "cache."

+100

There is an enormous difference between prestige and people have heard of it.

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.

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.

It's cachet people, cachet. No one can take your opinions about education seriously if you keep saying "cache."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good friend went to a respectable school for undergrad (Holy Cross) and got his first master’s from GW (also respectable). He went on to get another master’s from Hopkins. Although he was already successful by any measure, he claims the Hopkins degree has provided him cache and access he didn’t have before. (I know this is a conversation about undergrad education, but the point I’m making is - yes, name brand matters).

so then why are you talking about grad school?

Did you read the second part of my sentence?

Yes. You said that name brand matters, and described how the name of a man's GRAD degree is what provided him with cache.