Narrowing down college choices

[soccerdad72]

I think all of the above in the past page or so is true to some extent - this isn't a one vs. another viewpoint argument.

• Yes, there are certainly prestigious schools out there that will draw interest from employers, depending on the major and the employer. Yes, a STEM-related graduate from MIT is going to have a leg up from other schools. Is the Humanities major going to get the same bump? Eh, probably not
• Yes, most employers are also looking for additional things on the resume besides your degree. My wife has been hiring accountants for nearly 30 years and she will absolutely choose a 3.5 student who worked, had extracurriculars and/or sports versus the 4.0 student who did nothing else but study.
• Yes, the longer you're in a given field, the less the school on your resume matters.

 

[Southernmiss]

You have to remember that a lot of folks fall into the college tuition donut hole, can’t afford full pay, but make too much money to receive financial aid. Top schools don’t offer merit, so many high stats kids need to go to less selective schools for financial reasons. Many doctorate programs are free for students.

A thousand times this.

Our kid's high school has a teacher who encourages kids to apply to the Ivy reach schools. He's got quite the track record and reputation of helping kids get into those schools.

However, several students (including my daughter with a 36 on the ACT and valedictorian and her friend who was the salutatorian with the same ACT score) who are in middle class families who can not afford the Ivy tuition and make too much for aid have had to go to the instate school that offers the best scholarships to them.

I had such a conversation with the teacher as he pressed our kids to applying. They did apply, and could have gone, but we could not afford the family portion.

The kids that have gone to Ivy schools from our school have all done great and we are happy that they could go there, they were able to go because their family income was low enough to qualify for full tuition. This tells me that our daughter and her friend could have also gone to Ivys and done great, too.

Fortunately, our daughter has applied for other opportunities in the summer at renowned schools and has been chosen to go and get those experiences. Her professors at her much less prestigious college have written great letters of recommendation and actually have connections at the other schools to get students in the door for additional internship and summer opportunities.

 

[mjkacmom]

A thousand times this.

Our kid's high school has a teacher who encourages kids to apply to the Ivy reach schools. He's got quite the track record and reputation of helping kids get into those schools.

However, several students (including my daughter with a 36 on the ACT and valedictorian and her friend who was the salutatorian with the same ACT score) who are in middle class families who can not afford the Ivy tuition and make too much for aid have had to go to the instate school that offers the best scholarships to them.

I had such a conversation with the teacher as he pressed our kids to applying. They did apply, and could have gone, but we could not afford the family portion.

The kids that have gone to Ivy schools from our school have all done great and we are happy that they could go there, they were able to go because their family income was low enough to qualify for full tuition. This tells me that our daughter and her friend could have also gone to Ivys and done great, too.

Fortunately, our daughter has applied for other opportunities in the summer at renowned schools and has been chosen to go and get those experiences. Her professors at her much less prestigious college have written great letters of recommendation and actually have connections at the other schools to get students in the door for additional internship and summer opportunities.

My daughter‘ friend was valedictorian, went to Rutgers. My son’s friend was salutatorian, went to Rutgers. My middle daughter’s friend was salutatorian, went to UDel. The median income in my town is $104,000, median home listing price $515,000. So, either you can afford to pay $80,000 a year, or you are really struggling to live here. We have good schools, but not many go to tippy top schools, very middle class town in our area. My kids went to safety schools.

 

[NotUrsula]

With all due respect to the previous poster's DD, the culture in research labs is very different from in most jobs. It really doesn't matter so much what university you attended; what really matters is what lab and Principal Investigator you were affiliated with, because in hard sciences research, the golden ticket is a history of publication credit on well-cited papers. (Many junior scientists I know do not even bother to put the name of their university in their email signature; what they put there instead is something like "Bill Stevens Lab".) Certain PIs are rock stars in their fields, and having worked with and for them imparts a high shine to one's CV.

For many graduate programs and entry-level corporate research jobs, one of the key admissions/hiring factors is whether or not you actually did meaningful research as an undergrad, which usually means getting your name on papers. A lot of the big research schools don't give as much opportunity for that to undergrads; sometimes you are better off at a smaller school that allows more research opportunities for undergrads, if the head of the lab you'll get to work in is someone who is highly cited. If a particular field of research is the goal, searching Google Scholar for highly-cited papers in the field and then tracing back to the CVs of the authors to see where they came from will give you a good idea of places that merit a good look. You'll be amazed at how many of them did not go to big-name schools for their undergraduate work; if there is a big-name school it is more likely it will be their grad school.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I think all of the above in the past page or so is true to some extent - this isn't a one vs. another viewpoint argument.

• Yes, there are certainly prestigious schools out there that will draw interest from employers, depending on the major and the employer. Yes, a STEM-related graduate from MIT is going to have a leg up from other schools. Is the Humanities major going to get the same bump? Eh, probably not
• Yes, most employers are also looking for additional things on the resume besides your degree. My wife has been hiring accountants for nearly 30 years and she will absolutely choose a 3.5 student who worked, had extracurriculars and/or sports versus the 4.0 student who did nothing else but study.
• Yes, the longer you're in a given field, the less the school on your resume matters.

THIS. If I have to hire someone based on resume alone, of course I will favor the candidate who went to the school with the better reputation. However, that quickly changes once you actually sit down for the interview. I don't want to hear about your GPA or what classes you enjoyed, or even if you have an advanced degree - it is the PERSON I will be working with day in and day out. Tell me about your hobbies, or your team if you played a sport. Definitely bring up your any career related clubs you participated in. Really ANYTHING that shows me you are more than a transcript will spark my interest.