Michigan vs Boston College

hawkette
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:57:12 +0000

According to the National Association of Colleges & Employers, the top five characteristics that employers seek are:

1. Communication skills (oral & written)

2. Honesty/integrity

3. Teamwork skills (works well with others)

4. Interpersonal skills (relates well to others)

5. Strong work ethic

Obviously these are personal traits that are not unique to any one college. As a result, major employers of undergraduates cast a wide net and hope to identify students with these qualities and also the intelligence and, in the cases of engineering and science-related fields, the relevant academic skill set for potential success in an industry. In the work world, the expectation of the vast majority of employers is that they will have to train and develop whoever they hire. This is true whether the student comes from Boston College or Michigan.

As for the value of a BC or Michigan degree, IMO the difference is noticeable in certain locales and industries, but overall it is negligible. Both place a large number of their students into the Northeast (and Michigan likewise places many in the Midwest) and both schools have extensive local networks of alumni (although Michigan’s large size is an advantage here). Clearly Michigan will be stronger in its home state and in the Midwest while Boston College is stronger in Massachusetts and much of New England, particularly in the locally important asset management and insurance industries.

As for NYC, both are present, but neither has a profile much different than their USNWR rankings (Michigan-24 and Boston College-34). In addition in NYC, many LACs are more highly favored than either Michigan or Boston College. A major factor in the recruiting for Wall Street is the existence of graduates in the hiring networks of the Wall Street firms. More so than Michigan, Boston College’s network extends more to the trading side of Wall Street. Both schools send a good representative number of students to Wall Street, but neither is truly a major player. At this point, Michigan’s network is more developed, but Boston College has shown great growth over the last decade as the quality of its students and graduates have improved to the point where the strength of the two student bodies is very, very close.

Outside of the NE and the MW, neither school has much of a profile or much cachet. In these geographies, Michigan may have slightly stronger brand awareness due to its sports teams and its engineering program (BC has no engineering). Both schools would be at a deficit to the schools in these other regions, including many schools ranked considerably below them. Why? Because employers value the five characteristics named above and they can find plenty of this also in students from local schools that may have inferior rankings, but don’t necessarily have inferior students.