Since there are so many university rankings out there and I believe a lot of students, myself included, look at the university rankings to determine which one will probably land them better jobs in the future, I kind of wonder do employers looks at our university rankings too when they need to hire employees?
As the title says, is university ranking an influential factor in employability?
It depends on the field. In some, like computer science, your abilities count more than your diploma. In others, like selective Wall Street jobs or prestigious law firms, university ranking is more important.
Employers don’t parse the rankings as carefully as parents & students do- for a start, they don’t have the time! Think of it more in bands or tiers of colleges. For example:
=>super-famous names (either the university, or a school within the university) will either open the door (‘feeder schools’) or get the person reading the application to slow down a bit and give it a closer look.
=> for some professions, how strong the reputation is for the program / major can make a significant difference- including putting a state university ahead of an Ivy in an employers view.
=> simple human nature plays more of a role than you would probably like to think: has the employer heard of the school, and if so what are the employer’s associations with the school? An employer who came through the college process when Flavor of the Month LAC had a 60% admit rate- not the 15% rate it has now- may not think much of the college. The employer’s (and their kid’s) experiences of a college may color how they rate it as much as anything.
=> not counting the above, in most cases what you actually achieve in college will matter much much more. So the woman who just graduated from GWU with super internships beat out an applicant from Harvard for the job.
The only ranking that matters for international students, is what employers in their own countries think. You need to plan for when you return home after completing your education and any paid work experience here (usually limited to 12 months) after completing your degree.
Good catch, @happymom- I missed that the OP is international.
I agree with @happymomof1, you need to research in your country how employable you would be with a US degree in your country.
But how can one do that? @“aunt bea”
@paul2752 - Most international applicants have parents and other adult relatives who have friends and professional contacts who know even more people, and someone within this extended network is likely to know someone who knows someone who knows about job hiring for the specific career in question. Very few international applicants are so entirely bereft of contacts as to have absolutely no way to access this kind of information.
What are the major employers in your country? Start there. Then look to smaller companies.
US employers don’t know rankings and typically don’t care. They care about what you did with the opportunities offered to you.
Most top 25-30 LACs and universities will offer the same typebof opportunities to their students. Most universities and LACs in the top 50-60 will offer the same opportunities. Etc… Then, it’s up to you.
OP is international.
Hello, I don’t plan on returning back to Indonesia if i could find a decent job in Europe/US/other countries because the starting wage here is awful.
Well, it’s very hard for qualified internationals to get a visa (the system has been taken over by sham groups that use offshoring… which leaves very very few H1Bs for legit graduates from US colleges).
You have better chances in Europe and Canada.
Maybe Canada, esp if your family has the money to invest, but Europe isn’t any more welcoming to internationals looking for jobs than the US.
As a new college graduate with only a bachelor’s degree and no real work experience, getting a work visa is unlikely.
Most international students who wish to stay in the US will go to graduate school after college. The H-1B work visa process is not kind to fresh college graduates, nor to employers who wish to hire them. (You’d literally have to win a lottery for your work visa application to get processed at all. And how many employers wish to play a lottery for a foreigner instead of just hiring an American citizen?)
The safest route to immigration to the US is through marriage to a US citizen.
Canada is a lot more welcoming to young professionals.
That all being said, yes, the few H-1B sponsoring entry-level jobs that exist for international students seem to be sensitive to the prestige of the university. You’ll have much better odds of at least getting an interview with a degree from Stanford or Berkeley, than a degree from San Jose State.
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Most international students who wish to stay in the US will go to graduate school after college.
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Bingo! One of THE main reasons why our top graduate schools are oversubscribed with internationals students, especially STEM-related majors (Math, Engineering, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, etc.). I remember vividly one of our Engineering Professors walking into one of graduate classes and stating, with amazement, that it was like walking into the United Nations. I don’t think their was a single US born student in the class. This was over 25 years ago. Not sure much has changed since then. One only have to look at the engineering faculty at most of the Engineering schools in the US to see that the faculty is comprise of mostly foreign born professors. The same is true for other STEM programs.
All the friends at made in graduate school eventually married US citizens, who were either born in their country or the children of parents born in their country (Iran, Indiana, China, etc.). Very few went back to their home country after completing the MSE and a large number went on to complete their PhDs. Mst MS/PhD students end up living permanently in the US.
Being an engineer - then working your way up the ladder into management - pays better than being a professor. That’s why most Americans don’t pursue grad degrees in fields such as engineering or math. And because international students CAN’T work, they go into PhD programs.
Which is a long way of saying, if you’re an international student, don’t plan on working after you graduate. Plan on doing very well as an undergrad and, if you don’t want to leave the US, go to grad school. You won’t earn a lot of money, but you will be able to stay in the US.
Spend some time researching educational opportunities in Canada and Australia. Both of those places have friendlier work visa policies during your education and afterwards.