There was a street light many years ago when I was in Hamilton. I recently just received an email from a new graduate from Colgate. I didn’t know him, but he sounded nice, so I forwarded his resume on to appropriate people.
You would join other ECs, like music, art. You would go watch your friends play, and drink beer while you watched. I did 30 years ago. I still don’t do sports.
You would have to look very hard to find those top 12%, and most of the time you would need to deal with the other 88%.
I enjoyed my 4 years at Colgate, but the school became too small for me after 2 years, just like any LAC would have been for me. Colgate was a safety for my girls. I didn’t want them to attend the school because of the size, but I did appreciate the excellence of the education it offered to me, and it continues for its students. Both of my kids went to an Uni with 13K+ students. I know Colgate has strengthen its study abroad program even more to make the globe as a classroom to its students.
I am from the south and I went to a top 50 LAC in the Northeast. It was the kind of place I wanted and I had a great experience there. However, I don’t doubt for a second that going to my state flagship (or any other state flagship, especially one in the region) would have been more likely to make a positive impression on people in my home state.
I visited the USAFA a few years ago, and when one of the admissions people was talking to me about the admissions process, she said that one of the big things they look for was to be sure that this was something the applicant wanted to do, not just the parent(s). Apparently one time they had a girl who applied that was a very strong applicant, but when they started contacting to start the interview process and other stuff, the girl didn’t even realize at first why she was being contacted - it turned out that the parents had filled out and submitted her application. The girl had no interest in attending the Academy. (And no, she did not go.)
I know a lot of people who have never heard of many of the schools discussed on CC. A friend’s son is valedictorian of his class, has a 35 ACT, attends the top private high school in the area, the father is a judge…and the young man only applied to 3 in-state schools. THAT is the norm for most of America.
We know a few kids that have ventured far and wide in their college pursuits, but they are definitely outnumbered by the kids who stay locally or in-state.
@sseamom@notrichenough And maybe even associate with members of the human race who never took an AP class? Or someone who didn’t apply to 14 colleges, maybe just one? What torture these kids that go to state universities must subject themselves to.
@oldfort So do you have a set list and if someone’s school isn’t on it, they’re out, and if they are, they are automatically considered? Or do you research their college(s) to determine their individual merit?
Are you really saying that you wouldn’t know when other students are not keeping up in class? D2 was taking IB courses, but had to take a local literature course to fulfill her international school requirement. She said it was a struggle for her because most students didn’t do their required reading, so the class discussion was a joke. Whereas at her private school back in the States, she was constantly challenged because most kids came prepared.
It is one thing to turn your nose up on the college ranking, but it is another to believe quality of students, professors, facilities do not matter.
Many, many jobs do not rely on GPA’s, tests taken by high school student or “rankings”. I have never, nor has my husband, had to submit their GPA, SAT score, or “school rank”. You can’t possibly know about all programs at all of the nearly 4,000 colleges. Going by arbitrary rankings helps, I’m sure, but I’d be willing to bet that you’ve tossed aside some perfectly capable potential employees for the sake of numbers. And that’s a tragedy.
I don’t need to. I can fill the positions I have with programs I know 10 times over. I have limited time, I can’t interview every qualified person, I only need to fill those positions the most efficient way. the tragedy is not on me, but for those perfectly capable potential employees.
" the tragedy is not on me, but for those perfectly capable potential employees."
Well, yes, because you can’t be bothered to give them the time of day because you only value a tiny portion of the graduates out there. I guess your industry does not value out of the box thinking, like passing along a resume from someone gasp from an “lower ranked school”. Whatever it is, I’m glad not to be a part of it.
Ok, so here is one case where the Colgate network paid off. I’ve heard of cases that go the other way, too, where a company will only look at grads from the State U.
When I get 1000+ resumes for 5 positions, why would I need to think outside of the box? What could I be possibly missing by not going to an “lower ranked school”? Do I think top performers from lower ranked schools would be able to do the job? Absolutely. But when I have top performers from higher ranked schools applying why wouldn’t I use those schools as filters for me? Of course, if we find Google and FB of the world are getting those candidates then we’ll expand and think outside of the box to fill those positions.
I don’t think it should surprise anybody that your undergrad school can have an influence on where you land your first job out of college and what doors are opened.
If you want someone with 10 years of experience, do you still care about their undergrad school?
" the tragedy is not on me, but for those perfectly capable potential employees."
Well, yes, because you can’t be bothered to give them the time of day because you only value a tiny portion of the graduates out there. I guess your industry does not value out of the box thinking, like passing along a resume from someone gasp from an “lower ranked school”. Whatever it is, I’m glad not to be a part of it."
Oh come off it. If she has hundreds of resumes, she’s going to filter using SOME criteria. What’s the difference between that, and her HR dept deciding they will only go to colleges x, y and z?
