# Does it REALLY matter where you graduate from?



## dulcinea (Aug 22, 2011)

It depends on what you want to do. I think prestigious colleges are for people who want to get an advanced degree and want to get into a really prestigious field like law or become a politician or entrepreneur of a big business. The value of such a degree comes with your ability to network with wealthy people, as wealthy people tend to send their children to such schools, and the nominal value to employers or clients who tag any value to that. 

Other than that, no it doesn't matter one bit. Especially in fields that have a huge demand like nursing or computer science. Every single nurse I know went to a technical community college; I'm a group for self taught programmers who have a variety of computer related jobs and a wide variety of educational backgrounds. Some went to good colleges, some went to bootcamps, some were 100% self taught.


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## Figure (Jun 22, 2011)

Others can weigh in on things like Law, Medicine, the Arts. My background is in business/consulting, so I'll weigh in there for anyone interested in following that path. 

In my experience the college you go to does matter in business, IF you are pursuing a career path that has a hierarchy of prestige and you want to be at the top. That would be areas like investment banking, consulting, software development, marketing, business development, even sales. 

The school prestige is really only important for your first job. When you are trying to get an internship, your school and grades can serve as your source of credibility to employers. The internship then solidify your first position post grad, and prove you are serious about the field. I would start early, Sophomore year if not earlier. 

It's actually the network of the school in relation to your chosen path that makes an enormous difference. This would apply to your internship, first job, and ongoing network. Schools that have a large alumni base in your field will provide a substantial resource for many, many years used in combination with in person networking and sites like LinkedIn. 

The school prestige is less important here than geographic location. If you are interested in investment banking, you may be in a better spot at a place like, say, UNC Chapel Hill (close to Charlotte) than say Cornell, even though Cornell is more prestigious. If you think you may want to do the consulting/project level stuff with the feds The University of Maryland College Park is right by all the Washington DC government contracts and is a better bet for that than, say, NYU because there are a lot more people who work at offices around DC who may be UMD grads than NYU. That's not to say Cornell and NYU grads can't break in here, just that jobs these days are dictated by referrals and having a well-connected alumni base to your industry helps a ton. 

Basically, for anyone interested in business areas I would recommend having some level of certainty as to what you would like to do before choosing a school, as well as where you may like to live. It doesn't have to be dead set plans, but just a general idea of what you like. I'd then do some research on the alumni bases and see who all is doing what, to get a sense of the bodies of people you may have access to interacting with if you chose the school. 

Above all, in addition to that, you want to choose a campus and student body you fit well with. You need to like the campus and the culture.


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## la_revolucion (May 16, 2013)

MAYBE graduating from a prestigious university can help you gain some good career opportunities through the resources they offer on campus (internships)... But as someone who has been in the work force for 5+ years after college, my initial reaction is HELL NO. 

I do interviews and etc, and honestly, unless you have zero job experience, idgaf where you graduated from or your GPA. Get a few years of work experience under your belt and your education becomes more of a check box. Okay, this person has a four year degree, cool. Now what are their recommendations and job experience?


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## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

arqanai said:


> Asapscience made a video about this for quite a while ago - I can't post the link because i'm wayy to inactive at this site, but the name of the video is "Does Your School Matter?"


Here's that video






Experience matters more in the workforce than education (in my experience). I think if you want to stay in the world of academia, the school's reputation and your GPA are going to weigh a lot more. (But then your experience relevant to working in academia is still factored in just as much).

That being said, I went to a (solidly reputed) state school and had professors that came out of Ivy League schools...some that used to teach there as well. So I guess there's some cross-pollinating between schools anyway. Also managed to land a summer internship with a PI who came out of Yale (and the internship is also at a more prestigious private school, not a state school). So I was somewhat surprised at that, but I guess it shows that where you do undergrad isn't always relevant to those hiring you.


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## isn't anything (Apr 6, 2017)

Yes


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## OrangeAppled (Jun 26, 2009)

_Who you know_ matters... which will likely affect where you graduate from, and where you graduate from will affect who you know in college, etc.


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## Winter Queen (May 16, 2017)

OrangeAppled said:


> _Who you know_ matters... which will likely affect where you graduate from, and where you graduate from will affect who you know in college, etc.


That's another important aspect to keep in mind. Networking among your future peers can be important, depending on your field of study. I'm a more recent graduate, but from what I've seen and read graduating from a top school gives you a better launching pad for your career, in some fields. You may have a higher starting salary and find it easier to get hired early in your career by leading companies. Mid-career your college choice isn't nearly as important and this can be demonstrated by salaries leveling out between Ivy League grads and others at this point.


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## Tridentus (Dec 14, 2009)

It depends... The human factor is so huge in this that it's impossible to say. There's no standardised way that individualised recruiters and HR departments will view the matter, it's all just opinion.

Having said that, even if you are from a lower tier university, you can overtake a Cambridge student (at Bachelors level) without experience, if you have been very pro-active and shown excellent initiative. Those who can show good adult-level initiative while still a student will be massively impressive to employers, because they know that this type of initiative is even more bankable than academic success.

Everyone can organise international internships and good connection-building at the age of 35+ after learning those skills through work, but if you can do it at 19 you will have people incredibly excited in your potential.


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## mashedpotatoes (Jun 13, 2017)

I would say graduating from a well-known school or program gives you a slight advantage during the application stage. Depending on the program, employers may already know what the applicant is capable of doing because of the curriculum in said well-known program. 

However, at the end of the day, a title from a prestigious school isn't going to get you anywhere if you can't apply your knowledge in real life settings and different employers look for different sets of skills.


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## coa999 (Jun 29, 2017)

yes, it does, and it should.


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

If your school is putting out a lot of failures, or people who graduate without having any of the skills then that will affect its reputation. I remember hearing that in MIT people just come in and start handing out business cards. Getting a good job seems to have a lot to do with having good connections.


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## SoCalDave (Jul 15, 2017)

I'm in Education, so a very prestigious school is not necessary. We all get paid on a salary schedule which means that if you have student loans to payback that you're best bet is to go to a state school for the lower price tag.


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## Darkest NiTe (Mar 3, 2013)

Not really.

I went to a prestigious school. Partied pretty hard one year, it ended up killing my cumulative GPA. Couldn't find a decent paying job to save my life, so I went to Americorps and then became a teacher (which is a great job, also the hardest job in the world, but wasn't what I imagined myself doing as a child).

A childhood friend of mine went to a state school. His school doesn't TOUCH my school. However, he did very well. If he's not making 6 figures right now, he's RIGHT there (~$95k).

In other words, rather than the school, I'd major in something difficult, study my ass off, get AT LEAST a 3.6 GPA, and then be good.

If I could do it all over again, honestly, I would have gone to community college for a year.


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## chad86tsi (Dec 27, 2016)

I have a technical degree, so it may differ. In interviews, not once was my school discussed, only the coursework. Even that wasn't discussed much. Just having a degree in my field set me apart far enough to get the interview for the jobs I was applying to. After that, they are more interested in personal interactions, because those with technical degrees working in these fields often have personal interaction problems. I can fake that pretty well.


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