<p>I have the grades and the scores to get into a very prestigious school (Northwestern, Georgia Tech, Purdue, etc.), but I was wondering what some of the pros and cons are of going to a less prestigious university (Santa Clara, St. Louis Univ., etc.)?
In other words, is it harder to get a good job? Is it easier to get a scholarship? Is that trade off worth it? and other questions like that.
Thanks!</p>
<p>This is a bad place to ask that my friend…Some here may say that Northwestern, Georgia Tech, and Purdue aren’t prestigious enough and that you need HYPS (not even M nowadays) to get a reasonable job. Or Berkeley or Mich if you can’t get into HYPS.</p>
<p>Ask your counselors or even walk into a corp and ask the managers for fun.</p>
<p>Do you know what your intended major is? Or what field of work you want to enter upon graduation? If you enter a field of work that is in demand, and you are a good worker, it won’t really matter where you get your degree. Your schooling only helps you get that first job, after that, it’s up to you to climb the ladder. Also, remember that companies hire people, not colleges. If they like your grades, work ethic and personality, it won’t really matter where you went.</p>
<p>Honestly, whoever says you can’t get a “reasonable job” from any of the schools mentioned is crazy.
Obviously, the biggest pro to going to a school with a big name is that people will be impressed right off the bat (more than likely). BUT by going to a slightly less prestegious college, especially since you had really high scores and grades, you will have a better chance of getting more scholarships and being at the top of your class.</p>
<p>It basically comes down to if you’d rather be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond, and in the end, you have to go where you feel most at home.
If you have what it takes (and your major isn’t something ridiculous like Women’s Studies), you’re going to get a job, regardless of whether you went to some fancy-shmancy school or not.</p>
<p>I hope that helped a little.</p>
<p>You’ll definitely have an easier time of getting scholys and into Honors Colleges at less-prestigious universities. Plus, like every smart grad student says (like the med student who goes to Dartmouth who sat in on my med checkup today), spend as little money as possible as an undergrad, then pay up for grad school. I recently saw some charts comparing the starting salaries for undergrads from a SUNY and Columbia, and there was, at most, a $14,000 difference (not much). But when it comes to grad school, the differences are huge. So save up your money for grad school, and then you’ll be all set</p>
<p>
Well, that depends. Medical school or graduate school? Make up your mind; medical and graduate school are not at all the same, and the distinction is worth learning. </p>
<p>Any graduate student worth his or her salt gets full funding, whereas that is rare in medical school (outside of MSTP programs).</p>
<p>^Sorry, I didn’t know that grads get “full funding”…I’ve actually never heard of that before</p>
<p>Yeah, grad students definitely don’t get full funding.</p>
<p>Since there is some confusion on this thread, I will explain the differences. There are two types of post-undergrad education:</p>
<p>a) Graduate school (typically MA/PhD students)
b) Professional school (MD, JD, DVM, MBA, et al students)</p>
<p>Professional school (medicine, law, business, etc.) is usually not funded to any significant degree. While costs may be somewhat offset with scholarships, the student is still expected to shoulder a significant amount of costs and loans.</p>
<p>Graduate school (arts & sciences, engineering) is usually funded, though this is not always the case for master’s students. Such students typically have all of their tuition paid and receive a stipend for living expenses; occasionally they receive other perks like health insurance. In return for these benefits, graduate students grade papers, act as research assistants, or teach classes.</p>
<p>Please don’t call me or anyone else ignorant. It’s rude.
Of all the people I’ve known that have been in grad school (and that’s quite a few people), NONE of them were “fully funded”. Yes, many students are offered jobs as Teaching Assistants or something similar, but they still have to pay for classes, just like any other student.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech has a good reputation for job placement. Even w/o a scholarship, GT costs less for OOS students than the private schools mentioned.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the advantages of attending a less selective school would be (a) merit scholarship eligibility, (b) likelihood of being one of the top students who offered research opportunities, (c) honors college and its benefits (course selection, dorm selection, special classes with faculty contact, etc), (d) perhaps a better GPA upon graduation at a less competitive school, in other words, the perks and benefits of being the big fish in a smaller pond.</p>
<p>On the other side, perhaps you would learn more in an environment where you are pushed by having top students as your classmates. Top employers don’t bother recruiting at schools below a certain level (but as I said, the programs that GT offers are highly regarded by employers - they know you had to <em>earn</em> a degree from GT). The other thing about so-called elite schools (not GT or Purdue) - you are more likely to be able to network into rich and powerful people who send their children to those schools, which may help you over your lifetime.</p>
<p>
Possible explanations:
[ul][<em>]You are still confused on what a graduate student is. (If so, I don’t think it can be explained more clearly than in my post above.)
[</em>]You are Canadian. Universities in Canada require tuition, but they take it out of the stipend, which usually still leaves an adequate amount of money for living expenses.
[li]Those graduate students attend a university which neglects to pay its students properly. Usually this is the case with universities of dubious quality, but occasionally reputable universities like Wisconsin will admit graduate students without funding.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>I’m a graduate student, and every single graduate student in my department is fully funded – as is every student in our sister department and every student in other departments I’ve met. None of us has paid a single penny toward graduate education.</p>
<p>In fact, a good many programs and/or universities won’t even admit students unless they can provide full funding. Examples:
</p>
<p>Of course, all of this is getting quite beside the point. Several of the OP’s prestigious schools (Georgia Tech, Purdue) could actually be a good bit less expensive for in-state students than “less prestigious” schools like the cited Santa Clara and SLU.</p>
<p>I would imagine it’s a bit easier to get a job interview from a prestigious university. Once you’re in the interview, though, it doesn’t matter whether you’re from Podunk or Harvard, the person who “fits” better will get the job. The only factor that might have some effect is URM status, as companies like to “diversify” their workforce. While it might be easier to get a higher GPA at a lower-ranked school, if you can attend a more prestigious institution, I would go for it. With the exception of law school, graduate and professional schools aren’t stupid. They know that the kid with the 3.5 at a top university could probably maintain a 3.8+ at a low-ranked state school. My pre-med friends here at Emory and my friends at Rice both say that they get “wows” from adcoms if they manage even a 3.5 from these institutions. I can only imagine what someone from Yale or Columbia gets. On top of this, all graduate and professional schools have standardized tests, so as to eliminate these discrepancies. That’s just my two cents.</p>
<p>“The other thing about so-called elite schools (not GT or Purdue) - you are more likely to be able to network into rich and powerful people who send their children to those schools, which may help you over your lifetime.”</p>
<p>This cannot be understated. </p>
<p>As we all know, career success is more often about who you know rather than what you know. At an elite school, you’re surrounded with the best of the best. Your friends will almost universally rise to high places, and many of them will already be well connected. This may not be the case at a lesser school.</p>