CU Boulder Cocaine/Drugs

[ucbalumnus]

@blossom

Mechanical engineers from MIT don’t have career “optionality” because the school is prestigious. They have optionality because they’ve already completed most (if not all) of the pre-requisites for med school without even trying- the combination of the institute requirements AND the HASS requirements does that for them.

Basic pre-med requirements would need four or five additional science courses beyond the MIT GIR and ME major requirements (though one can fulfill the restricted science elective); at other schools, an ME major would need four to six additional science courses. MIT HASS requirement does not specifically require the medical school recommended psychology and sociology courses, though a pre-med ME major could certainly choose them, similar to a pre-med ME major at other schools.

@blossom

They have optionality because most financial institutions know that even without a “finance course” or a finance track, they already can do the quant basics, and can do the advance stuff with minimal training. They won’t need a GMAT prep course– the math they’ve taken is significantly more difficult than what is tested on the GMAT.

How is that different from the math that ME majors anywhere are required to take?

Finance employers who prefer MIT over other schools when looking at ME majors are doing so for reasons other than math more advanced than the GMAT or what is necessary to understand finance.

@blossom

And they won’t need (some may want, but they won’t need) a Masters in Engineering to confirm their interest in the subject before entering a doctorate program.

Engineering PhD programs normally admit those with bachelor’s degrees in engineering, so this is not something unique to MIT.

[blossom]

If you are ready to die on the hill that states there is nothing educationally/intellectually relevant or content/rigor based about an ME from MIT vs. University of Southern Maine- then go for it. I respect your commitment to your POV.

[ucbalumnus]

@blossom

If you are ready to die on the hill that states there is nothing educationally/intellectually relevant or content/rigor based about an ME from MIT vs. University of Southern Maine

Not saying that there is nothing different, just that the differences you mention are not all that convincing, or that preferences of MIT over University of Southern Maine or (back to the topic) CU Boulder for ME graduates based on perceptions of such should be as strong as they actually appear to be.

In any case, since positive prestige does apply in hiring of college graduates, why is it hard to believe that negative prestige can apply, even for reasons that make no sense to you or many other people?

[blossom]

Folks can believe what they want, it’s a free country. But I’ve hired for huge multinationals for virtually my entire career (many decades) across functions, geographies, business units and different industries, and I have yet to see a single college “blackballed” in the way that people on CC insist happens.

Could it happen? Of course. Does it happen with the intensity that the posters here claim? “They won’t even look at a resume from U Michigan” or “They won’t hire from Cal Tech, they’re all prima donnas” or the most recent “druggie” claim?

I’m not buying it. Does every company have its “Core Schools list”? Most do. But for every company which focuses on Princeton and U Michigan and UIUC, there are likely companies focused on U Cincinnati and URI and Stonehill. And most companies have both overlapping lists and distinct lists based on the roles. The UIUC CS grad isn’t likely to be a strong contender for an entry level HR role and the Bard Literature grad isn’t going to be a candidate for a tech role, but there are many companies which have room for both.

[vwlizard]

@SJ2727

C26 has it on their list because of a program that is almost unique in the country and because they loved the campus. It’s also a program with both good placement after undergrad and admits into top graduate schools, so clearly not everyone is laboring under such misconceptions.

Programs like that make all the difference. S23 is at CSU. While it has a very high acceptance rate and he could have gone anywhere, for this particular program, it really is the best in the country, and he will be well ahead of kids from “prestigious universities” when it comes time to apply for jobs or grad school. People in the field know the program. If it is one of the programs that is recognized by people in that field, I say there will be absolutely no mark against them for going to CU (if that’s even a thing anyway).

@blossom

Could it happen? Of course. Does it happen with the intensity that the posters here claim? “They won’t even look at a resume from U Michigan” or “They won’t hire from Cal Tech, they’re all prima donnas” or the most recent “druggie” claim?

Even if it did happen, like it’s always said on CC, no one will care about where you went to school after you get your first job. Can you imagine a hiring manager looking at someone with great experience and then seeing CU and turning them down because they might have partied hard in college?

[twoinanddone]

Well, is it better to hire a CU grad who smoked pot legally or to hire someone from any other college in the US who smoked it illegally? (and only those over 21 can smoke it recreationally, legally, in Colo or the other multiple states that allow it now).

I don’t think the OP was worried about legal pot smoking but hard drugs. I don’t think CU is any more or less a drug culture for hard drugs (or IMO pot be it legal or illegally purchased). The laws are not more liberal for hard drugs than other states. It is absolutely illegal to have drugs of any kind in the dorms, and to smoke anything, of any kind, in almost all parts of campus. Not saying it doesn’t happen, but it is not legal.