<p>Hi I’m in a position right now where i’m worried that I will not be able to have the opportunities for many doors open to me after graduation. What is it that I can do right now as a junior to get job offerings like that of an Ivy league grad. Because I go to a less selective school, Calvin College and I don’t want to end up jobless for 2 or 3 years right out of school.</p>
<p>This probably depends much more on how you market yourself, how well you did in school, any research/internship relevant to your field, and what your degree is in–roughly in that order.</p>
<p>If it’s any consolation, I know two recent graduates from Calvin College who are doing well (one is an electrical engineer, another is a high school math teacher) and had no problems, to my knowledge, finding employment.</p>
<p>But what if I want to work for Microsoft or Invidia or Google, they only hire from state universities, universities with academic strengths, or elite colleges. Will Calvin College be enough to cut it and earn me a position in their business (without grad school)?</p>
<p>^ maybe. no one can argue that getting a degree from an ivy will be detrimental for job opportunities.</p>
<p>Wait i didn’t know what you mean by “detrimental for job opportuniteis”. Are you saying it affects me or it affects the ivies? Or is it sarcasm?</p>
<p>he’s saying that nobody is saying going to an ivy would HURT your chances of getting hired, because they’re well respected. </p>
<p>google (and the majority of companies) hires people that are good at what they do. it doesn’t care where they come from.</p>
<p>“nobody is saying going to an ivy would HURT your chances of getting hired”</p>
<p>Of course not, I’m not even going to an IVY. They’re ivies and have grads who have been doing well. But what if they hire someone from a college they never heard of probrably for the first time. Then will it hurt my chances? And how is Google going to know what i’m good enough for them? They don’t know Calvin, they don’t know the quality of their academics.</p>
<p>That’s what a resume and interview is for, so you can prove to Google or whomever that you’re worth the job. It doesn’t mean much if somebody graduates from Harvard, at the bottom of their class, is completely incompetent in their desired profession and lacks the skills required to perform the job. I’m sure a company would choose skill over the an Ivy label.</p>
<p>While having a diploma from an ivy college may get your foot in the door, the applicant still has their own work to do - which is nothing you or anybody else can’t compete with.</p>
<p>True, but I mean getting the interview is the key since i’m kinda concerned about being jobless after graduation. Is there anything besides an IVY name that will appeal to employers on my resume so I can get a foot in the door? Or does it even matter at all since maybe 90% of companies don’t care about brand names.</p>
<p>Wow, it’s not like Ivy League grads are the only students able to find jobs upon graduating. If a school is well known for its programs in a certain field, then its graduate students from that field should be well off as far as where they got their degrees from. For example, I bet most people on CC have not heard of Arcadia University, but it has one of the “top 10” physical therapy programs in the country and is well known through out the physical therapy field, and especially here on the east coast. So don’t say it’s IVY LEAGUE OR NOTHING for all students of all fields just because of your situation.</p>
<p>BTW, Penn doesn’t even have a Doctorate of Physical Therapy program, and as far as I know, Columbia is the only Ivy that is considered a “top” school for physical therapy while MOST of the others are state schools.</p>
<p>Well the major i’m taking at Calvin is computer science and it’s not the top 200 colleges ranked for its program. But it is however accredited. So you’re saying it might also hurt if I don’t go to a school with a good reputation in a certain academic?</p>
<p>It will not necessarily help that your school is not highly ranked in your field, but what college you graduated from is only one thing employees look at. There are still many things to consider (e.g.: internships, experience, leadership qualities, enthusiasm, etc). Basically, you can still do well despite graduating from a small college. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/547498-if-you-were-employer-what-would-you-look.html#post1060807800[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/547498-if-you-were-employer-what-would-you-look.html#post1060807800</a></p>
<p>Its unlikely that you’ll be unemployed. But its going to be a long shot to land a job at a top company like google.</p>
<p>Firecube, how are your grades and your internships? You still have a couple more summers before you graduate so make sure your grades are good and you get some internships. It doesn’t matter THAT much what school you graduate from as long as you present yourself well. While it may be very difficult to get into Microsoft and Google and the such, don’t worry about not finding a job. If your grades and experiences are decent, you’ll be fine. So going on that, how are your grades, internships, leadership activities looking?</p>
<p>My grades are so and so, 3.2 gpa, no internship yet cuz I just decided my major at end of sophmore. No leadership activities but I’ve been involved in 3christian community orgs, habitat for humanity, and a cycling club.</p>
<p>I mean I’m not sure how one would answer to " a long shot or difficult to get into a top company like google". All I’ve heard was when a student from a lesser college has to do something special like create a search engine, then that person was able to be hired by google. Or else it takes that person 5 years after graduation to work at a some small company and work his/her way up to a bigger company. But all it takes for say a CMU student is “just graduate” and you’re in quickly and easily.</p>
<p>Why don’t you consider transferring to a more well known school?</p>
<p>Is it worth?</p>
<p>I love my college right now, it’s small and a background of morals which fits me.</p>
<p>Secondly, I doubt my grades would get me into other top colleges. I’ll probrably have to spend 2 or 3 semesters just to boost my grade up and i’m not sure if it matters much in the long run or if I’ll even get in.</p>
<p>I think your school MIGHT have an impact on whether you get into Microsoft and Google. However, from what I’ve heard, Microsoft and Google regularly get 10000 applicants for each position. So not only does the school you go to matter, but everything else you do. Having a 3.2 GPA probably already disqualifies you because everyone else has a 3.5+. Then not having internships probably hurts too because everyone else applying has 2 or 3. I don’t think it matters what school you go to as long as you do things that set you apart. You can go to ABC college but if you have 3 good internships and a 3.9 GPA and are in leadership positions of 3 clubs, you would probably beat out a guy from CMU with a 3.2 GPA, 0 or 1 internships, and MEMBERSHIPS in 2 clubs.</p>
<p>Really <em>rejoicing!</em> Then in that case i’m gonna bring my grade up and find internships like crazy. I mean i’m just transfering from this 3.2 college to this small LAC college. Hopefully I can start over again and big companies won’t care about the grades from the previous college I transferred from.</p>
<p>Unless they rate Calvin College’s accreditation and strenght of its program or if they have or know any employees from such college.</p>