YAST: College Sizes...

[TheBoyBlunder]

Does it matter what the school name on the diploma is? Well, what I mean is does it matter if you go to an enormous school like the University of Colorado at Boulder, or a smaller school like Metropolitan State or the University of Northern Colorado? Some say that the bigger the school, the more prestiege (sp?) and "weight" it carries. I say it doesn't really matter as long as you do well in your major. What do you think?


//edit - YAST - yet another school thread

 

[Corporate Thug]

it matter, if you look in the princeton review, top 20 schools with the highest salaries are all Tier 1 big name schools. you can find prestigious small schools, just look at Caltech

 

[NutBucket]

It doesn't make any difference. It might help you get your first job but after that employers just want to see a diploma. They don't worry about GPA or any of that crap.

 

[Soybomb]

Its going to depend on the field of course, but for alot of people it will help determine their first job's salary, after that, they're on their own and their work history will.

 

[ajayjuneja]

hmm, so I used to think name didn't matter, but name + opportunities at the school do.

I'll be entering my last year at CMU in the fall, and honestly, after the amount of torture it's been, I'm glad to say that it pays off in the end big time, especially if you make yourself stand out.

It's my last summer, and I get to do exactly what I wanted where I wanted to be (SF Bay area working on really cool audio stuff) and the connections I've made in the professional world during my time at and away from here are paying off BIG TIME.

 

[KenGr]

Schools matter a lot. Not so much school size but reputation.

Large companies don't waste time recruiting at small or mediocre schools unless they are local or have some special connection. Small companies don't even know of the smaller schools. If a resume comes in from a school without a reputation that resume has a deficit to make up immediately.

Good people come from all sorts of schools but if you graduate from a no-name school you have to prove yourself somehow just to get in the door. People from top schools don't have to do that.

 

[Syringer]

Smart people = good schools = good pay.

It is NOT simply, good school = good pay.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
It doesn't make any difference. It might help you get your first job but after that employers just want to see a diploma. They don't worry about GPA or any of that crap.

top 5% in law school get you a $100,000 to start, the other 95% doesnt

 

[ShOcKwAvE827]

If class size was starting salary out of college, I wouldn't be disappointed at all graduating from UT.

 

[fizmeister]

It's not the bigger the school the more prestigious (*cough*Texas A&M*cough*). If you look at places like Princeton, Rice, U Chicago, Dartmouth, Caltech, etc., you'll notice that prestige !!!!= size of the school (these are all very small schools but among the most prestigious in the country).

As an anectode, I attend an Ivy-Caliber (top 15 by U.S. news) prestigious school--my roommate, after freshman year of college, was offered a law internship based solely on the name of the school ("we need more people from -----------"), and snagged a spot (that usually goes to first year law students in the area, although the law schools around here suck).

But the way I see it, it's not "great school = great pay." It's exactly like Syringer put it--the reason people recruit from these schools is that they know (very much moreso than a non-prestigious or a state school) that anyone they recruit will be very smart (chances are, that is) and should be able to pull his/her own weight. It's a gamble with a state school, because, although there are plenty of smart students there, it's in much less porportion and you may pull someone who's not what you're looking for.

Also, connections are easier to attain (IMHO) at a top school.

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: ShOcKwAvE827
If class size was starting salary out of college, I wouldn't be disappointed at all graduating from UT.

neither would i 😉 too bad it doesn't work that way 🙁

 

[TwinkleToes77]

It doesnt make a difference unless its for an ivy league school compared to a normal one.

 

[fizmeister]

Originally posted by: TwinkleToes77
It doesnt make a difference unless its for an ivy league school compared to a normal one.

Or Ivy-caliber. the Ivy league is merely a sports conference; if you think only Ivy Leagues work, then you can discount schools like Stanford, Rice, MIT, Caltech, U Chicago, Duke, etc. Which, I think, are far more than just "normal" schools.

 

[TwinkleToes77]

Originally posted by: fizmeister

Originally posted by: TwinkleToes77
It doesnt make a difference unless its for an ivy league school compared to a normal one.

Or Ivy-caliber. the Ivy league is merely a sports conference; if you think only Ivy Leagues work, then you can discount schools like Stanford, Rice, MIT, Caltech, U Chicago, Duke, etc. Which, I think, are far more than just "normal" schools.

That too