<p>You guys who say where the degree comes from doesn’t matter, all else being the same, are simply wrong. </p>
<p>BobWallace started this by saying:
“…starting pay varies over a wide range based on the quality of the candidates, and the school is one of the factors that goes into that.”</p>
<p>Read that again people. Nobody said where you got your degree makes ALL the difference. It just makes up one data point in the evaluation of a candidate.</p>
<p>Let’s get ridiculous to illustrate the example…
All things appearing equal, I’m not going to offer the same salary to a Cornell graduate and a regional college graduate. Sure, they may have had the same GPA, but my assumption is the Cornell education was more complete.</p>
<p>And it’s not a ranking thing. Those of us in larger corporations have some experience with grads from certain schools. Some schools create a local reputation for creating good engineers… ready to contribute from the start. Graduates from those recognized schools, when compared to graduates from equally ranked schools, will get a higher offer.</p>
<p>So there could be a significant difference in offers between schools that you would think are equal. Using a comparison already given in this thread…
In the MetroNY area, a graduate of RPI would probably get a better offer than a graduate from Purdue. It’s because the local companies have more experience, therefore more faith, in RPI creating a good candidate. </p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubbles, but that’s the way it is in the industry. </p>
<p>I’m surprised we’re even having this conversation. It’s absurd to think where you got your degree doesn’t matter. Of course it matters. It’s not everything, but it certainly matters.</p>
<p>If you want to work in Boston, your best shot is to go to WPI or Northeastern or one of those. If you want to work in NYC, your best bet is NYU-Poly or Stevens, or Rutgers or one of those.</p>
<p>So now we’re down to small sub groups of schools. Yeah… you only have a point if someone is hiring for an engineering job in Boston and their choice is two seemingly identical graduates, one from WPI and the other from Northeastern. In that narrow circumstance, yeah, the offers might be identical. :-</p>