There is a whole chapter on this question in a great book you should check out, There Is Life After College, by Jeff Selingo.

He makes a case that location does matter, espec if you are considering a school in a small town or rural location (essentially, tends to limit your options in terms of internships and first jobs compared to schools placed in metro areas).

I think this is a very typical DCUM thread -- many people extrapolate their experience to a general experience, i went to school in South Dakota and have a job in DC therefore all kids who went to South Dakota can get jobs in DC . . . . Most schools publish statistics on where their students get jobs, or where employers who recruit on campus come from. My guess is at the vast majority of schools, most recruitment will be local/regional. That does not mean if someone goes to school at Arizona State they are consigned to Arizona, which may not be a bad thing anyway, but it does mean that if you think you might want to work on the East Coast after graduation and you have options, it might be better to choose an East Coast school. People are right that most HS seniors have been exposed to very little and may not know where they want to live but that does not mean that they should ignore the likely regional job prospects of most schools. I hope it all works out but give a specific look at the college stats where your child is considering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For DS, who likes JMU and VA Tech, that means I'd say he should pick VA Tech since, IME, more people on the West coast have heard of that while nobody knows JMU.

Nobody out West knows about VA Tech, either. Choose Tech over JMU because it is a better school not because more people far away have supposedly heard of it.

When did you move? I had heard of VA Tech growing up in the west but only after the mass shooting (Not trying to be a jerk, I'm from a town that most people know from a mass shooting)


I'm a Tech alumni who moved to Portland and everyone I met had heard of it.

Whoops, bad at formatting:

When did you move? I had heard of VA Tech growing up in the west but only after the mass shooting (Not trying to be a jerk, I'm from a town that most people know from a mass shooting)