CMC VS U of Chicago VS Carleton

theboneyking
Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:57:39 +0000

As a current Claremont McKenna College student, I take offense to the “it pales to even its sister college” comment, but I’ll let that slide for the moment…

It seems like the OP is trying to figure out which school he/she should attend. There are many factors that go into this decision. One legitimate factor is which school will help you obtain a better career. There are many more factors that go into determining which school will help your career. Prestige is only one of these factors. Sure a Harvard grad might have an edge over a Podunk University grad, but there is so much more that goes into determining who gets jobs in real life.

Because CMC is a small liberal arts college, it is easy to get to know professors. I was helping a government professor do research for his book my freshman year. And this experience is far from unusual at CMC. I didn’t do anything special to get my job. But at a big university, professors would just get their grad students to be research assistants for them. Doing research as a freshman is a great way to explore a subject and potential careers. Also, it looks pretty solid on a resume.

CMC is very good at helping students find and obtain summer internships. The school gives out roughly a million dollars every year in stipends so students can afford to take unpaid summer internships. Professors and career services are all really helpful in helping students find jobs and internships. CMC has a small, but very loyal alumni network that also can help students get jobs.

A job applicant with lots of research and internship experience and with great recommendations from professors who know him is going to be a stronger applicant than someone who happened to go to a big name university. In my experience, that’s just the way most employers look at it. They want to know that you’ll be a good employee. They care less about whether your BA is from a fancy school.

I know a good number of students and alumni from Berkeley and UCLA. The average person on the street has heard of those schools and not Claremont McKenna or Carleton. I would even say that Berkeley and UCLA have more recognition “on an international scale.” But people I know from those schools definitely do not do any better in their careers than graduates from CMC.

My point is that prestige is not a particularly significant factor in career placement (and career placement is in turn not necessarily a significant factor in which school any given person should attend).