Does where you go to college truly matter?

[Anonymous 4]

If there were 2 job applicants and both had the same amount of experience, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the one that graduated from the top school got the job.

[Deleted User 1461]

Having a degree that matters is the most important thing.
And it would help if it’s not horribly expensive too. It’s difficult to deal with student loans.
Just get the degree .
Although I know quite a few people who are successful without a degree.

[Deleted User 276]

My daughter had to make a tough decision when choosing between colleges - a high prestige college 800 miles away or a small liberal arts college a couple of hours away. She spoke with the department head in the field of her choice at each college and specifically asked what kind of alumni involvement was there as far as internships and hiring after graduation. The smaller college had much more success with placement and a more involved alumni association and that was the college she chose.

Name recognition can be good but connections to professionals in your field can be equally good if not better.

[ReadingRainbow]

It depends what job you’re going for.

Most jobs, no.

Science or legal based jobs, yes.

[Deleted User 1461]

It depends what job you’re going for.

Most jobs, no.

Science or legal based jobs, yes.

Many more jobs necessitate a degree. A degree opens doors almost everywhere nowadays. My granddaughters are about to graduate from college and are finding it true.
One needs a masters in education. The other needs a4 year degeee for business, finance careers.

[Anonymous 7]

The degree is what matters. What field does she want to work in?

[SisterSomeone]

That's not a yes/no question. The answer, and its implications, depend heavily on where you are in your career. Also a few other things, but let's stick to this one for now. The rule of thumb I tend to use when interviewing job candidates is that the cutoff for name dropping your college is once you've been out of it longer than in it. There's exceptions in either direction, but from my experience, I've found that it works for me as a general principle.

Practically speaking, if you're a professional with 5+ years of experience and you're still name dropping where you went to college, that's alarming, and likely to turn off potential employers. If you still feel the need to dazzle me with your college at this stage, it makes me wonder why the hell don't you have anything more relevant and recent to offer. This is an infraction that becomes worse with time.

Along the same lines, if you're job hunting as a recent grad from a community college or a college nobody's ever heard of, that's alarming too. You have to be aware that, in most fields, this meaningfully limits your prospects at this stage. For one, if I have to google your college to verify that it indeed exists, I'm already wondering why weren't you able to get in anywhere better. And for two, networking is essential in most professional careers, and everyone knows that bullshit colleges generally have bullshit alumni networks. There's a lot of places that won't even interview you if you went to a bullshit college entirely because you don't have anyone to put in a good word for you.

tl;dr: What Valentina said, but longer.

[Anonymous 8]

I don't think it does.

[Anonymous 9]

No it doesn't which has been shown by research done on the subject.

[Anonymous 5]

No it doesn't which has been shown by research done on the subject.

Go ahead and post the research.