In my college choice, prestige is a large factor in my decision. It affects how I see myself, as well as my future job positioning which is important to me. As such, I was wondering if certain honors colleges or scholarships meant something for recruiters/companies. For example, would a regents scholar at Cal be seen as equivalent to an ivy candidate, but they just chose a different school? would a Indiana honors college be seen as equal to a Michigan grad? Any advice on this would be great.
It’s been shown over and over that long term success by students who are qualified to go to prestigious institutions is the same whether or not they actually go to one or not. So, strong enough for Cal Regents, or HYPS, career outcomes will be similar if you attend any state school. There are a few career paths that are exceptions, but not many. Don’t take my word. Look up which schools produce the most Fulbright recipients.
I think you’re thinking about this in more mathematical/formulaic terms than it actually works out in real life. It’s not like people think “Well, Indiana is about 3 places below Michigan but the honors college designation brings them up 3 places” or “Well, Cal is behind Harvard, but they’re a Regents so that brings them ahead.”
If you’re talking about lay person ‘prestige,’ that’s not how it works at all. A random person off the street who sees Yale as prestigious and Berkeley as not is not going to suddenly assign you prestige because you went to the honors program there. A person who doesn’t think Indiana is a prestigious school won’t think it’s more prestigious to attend the honors college there as Michigan. But the thing is, you shouldn’t care about that, because who cares what a rando off the street thinks? You care about employers.
When employers look at your resume, they’re looking at an entire package, not JUST where you went to school. All of the colleges you named are excellent ones, and with the exception of a handful of fields most employers are not going to turn up their nose at any of them. If you’re an involved student at Indiana with the requisite experiences you could even get a job OVER someone from Yale or Stanford or whatnot who is less impressive. The name of the college only gets you so far, and most employers really don’t care.
However, you know what will care? Your pockets in 5 years. So if you have the opportunity to go to a college for a greatly reduced fee and your alternative is big loans at a more prestigious place…think seriously before turning down that scholarship.
@juillet
@eyemgh
Thanks for your responses! However, both of you said that certain fields will look down on certain colleges. Is investment banking one of those fields?
Investment banking is one of those fields. It’s not that they “look down” on most colleges - the only ones I think they would “look down” on are degree mills and for-profit online colleges (think University of Phoenix). It’s simply that they value some colleges over others - prestigious ones. What they’re “selling” to their clients is the idea of really smart, energetic young people with elite educations poring over their numbers and whatnot; hiring from predominantly elite institutions supports that image. But depending on the organization, their definition of prestigious may be more expansive than what you would otherwise think.
“prestige is a large factor in my decision. It affects how I see myself, as well as my future job positioning which is important to me.”
What field do you want to go into?
If you are going into investment banking or high-priced law firms, then prestige matters. Ivy League, Stanford, or MIT are tops. Cal, Michigan, Chicago and Caltech are good, but not quite up with the top 10.
Otherwise, get over it. No one else is going to care, except that if you are too heavily into “prestigious” then some people will try to avoid you.
@DadTwoGirls Investment banking. I agree on @juillet 's assessment
“@DadTwoGirls Investment banking.”
Then looking for prestige makes sense. If you are a senior, have you already picked where you are going?
Where have you been admitted and can you afford to go?
(List all affordable acceptances even if you don’t find them prestigious, since semi targets are not easy to pinpoint from a lay perspective and you may have good possibilities. For instance, Hamilton scores better than most for IB.)
@DadTwoGirls @MYOS1634 Here are my choices. I mainly asked the question in case a waitlist comes through (i.e. UChicago or NYU Stern) and I was wondering if Regents mattered at all.
1st choice: UC Berkeley Regents
Others: Boston College
UT Austin Mccombs
Indiana Bloomington Kelly Honors
UCLA
UCI Paul Merage and honors/regents
UCD
UCSB
Santa Clara U
UNC
Waitlist: UChicago
NYU Stern
WUSTL
Notre Dame
Your vest shot at investment banking is probably Kelley Honors
UCB and UCLA are well-recruited too and you have Regents at UCB however you roll the dice for Haas.
So, if you really want IB take Kelley honors, if you want prestige even if it doesn’t lead to IB take UCB. In addition, UCB is likely to be cheaper for you.
Deposit at one.
If you get off the WL at Mendoza or Stern take it only if it’s affordable.
@MYOS1634 interesting. Not UChicago? I thought they were heavily recruited and thought the same as ivys
^Yes they are, but Stern is at least if not more recruited and it’s easier to get into thatn UChic. Same thing for Mendoza.
Out of the ones you’ve actually been accepted to, Berkeley, Indiana Kelley, UCLA, UT-Austin, and UNC are good choices for investment banking recruiting. Perhaps Boston College as well, although I think your mileage may vary more with that one. (Where are you from? There are a lot of UCs on your list so I assume California? Berkeley and UCLA would certainly be more cost-effective unless you have scholarships elsewhere).
Out of the ones you are waiting for, I think all four of them would be good choices, although Stern, Mendoza and Chicago are probably the best.