Is there a time when schools don't matter at all?

[Deleted]

In honor of all the school posts re whether name or prestige matters.

Enlighten me.

[Wines Not Whines]

If you go to community college, I'm guessing it doesn't matter much which one you go to.

But now someone will probably tell me they want to the Harvard of community colleges.

[Deleted]

nursing and teaching come to mind

[Deleted]

Does it matter where K-12 teachers went to school (as long as it's accredited)?

Note that I'm not knocking K-12 teachers, but I'm not sure if Harvard-educated teachers have better positions than Joe Schmoe Southwestern State University-educated teachers.

[LoveTrains]

not in my world.

[karinothing]

May 18, 2012 12:47:05 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

If you go to community college, I'm guessing it doesn't matter much which one you go to.

But now someone will probably tell me they want to the Harvard of community colleges.

My community college was totally elitist and awesome! ;D

[protozoa]

In the military? I'm not sure about it, but that is the impression I get.

ETA: Duh, I'd missed tjenn's response, and she'd know. I know that diploma mills are big with that population. And that BIL got all sorts of credit for his military training.

[Deleted]

Teaching. In NY you need like six thousand things to line up to get a teaching job but none of them is a degree from any particular college.

[Deleted]

I went to Jr. College. Some are better than others in terms of transfer rate and have more money. The CCs in LA vary widely.

[aerowife2010]

May 18, 2012 12:48:29 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

In public accounting they hired a very wide range of schools and it didn't seem to matter once you got there in my experience.

I think that there are certain schools they hire a lot from (e.g., their "premer schools") but I agree that once you're in, where you went to school doesn't matter.

Others I would consider are teaching and nursing.

[kadams767]

Philosophy majors? I mean, does Starbucks really care where your degree is from?


(KIDDING!)

[protozoa]

May 18, 2012 12:52:10 GMT -5 @notquiteblushing said:

Teaching. In NY you need like six thousand things to line up to get a teaching job but none of them is a degree from any particular college.

I wouldn't say it doesn't matter at all - I think you have a better shot at getting a job if you go to a school that feeds schools in that area, for several reasons. Certainly it isn't important to go to a traditionally prestigious school though.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 12:55:00 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Philosophy majors? I mean, does Starbucks really care where your degree is from?

I believe +v+ was a philosophy major. LOL

[kadams767]

May 18, 2012 12:56:05 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

May 18, 2012 12:55:00 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Philosophy majors? I mean, does Starbucks really care where your degree is from?

I believe +v+ was a philosophy major. LOL

You quoted before I had a chance to edit. I'm just joking around. Though, I am quite sure her law degree may have played a big part in her current job, lol.

[80sjunkie]

May 18, 2012 12:56:04 GMT -5 protozoa said:

May 18, 2012 12:52:10 GMT -5 @notquiteblushing said:

Teaching. In NY you need like six thousand things to line up to get a teaching job but none of them is a degree from any particular college.

I wouldn't say it doesn't matter at all - I think you have a better shot at getting a job if you go to a school that feeds schools in that area, for several reasons. Certainly it isn't important to go to a traditionally prestigious school though.

Agreed

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 12:56:05 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

May 18, 2012 12:55:00 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Philosophy majors? I mean, does Starbucks really care where your degree is from?

I believe +v+ was a philosophy major. LOL

absolutley it matters... where you got your BA in philosophy will help or hurt your admissions into the PhD program for philosophy :-)

[kzoomaggie]

I think once you get to a certain point in your career (which will differ from career to career) it is your experiences that matter, not where you got the degree.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 12:58:51 GMT -5 kzoomaggie said:

I think once you get to a certain point in your career (which will differ from career to career) it is your experiences that matter, not where you got the degree.

I disagree.

DH has so many doors open to him just because of where he has degrees, even today 20 years after he graduated from undergrad.

Also his undergrad got him his first job, which got him his second, etc...

In certain fields pedigree matters and leds credibility to your candidacy.

In sales it probably doesn't matter where you went to college.

[amity]

May 18, 2012 12:48:38 GMT -5 @septimus said:

nursing and teaching come to mind

In terms of teaching, I would argue that this was true in the past but is not true anymore. Due to the current economic climate and diminishing school budgets, schools now have the luxury of being very picky about who they hire. In particular, I think schools are differentiating between online vs. brick and mortar programs.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 13:03:40 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

May 18, 2012 12:52:17 GMT -5 @domerjen said:

yeah, but the big firms hire a way higher % from some schools than others. i'd say that it mattered (you could be avg at one school but had to be in the top of your class from another). some schools can't even get big 4 to come to their career fairs.

Yeah I guess it matters but in a different way. I never met anyone in my big 4 career from a truly elite (top 10) school (overall, not in accounting). In contrast, the people who went to BYU seemed to own large portions of that region even though I don't think of it as an extremely elite school.

They hired plenty of idiots from my school which was not elite in any way.

ETA: So I do retract my original statement. It does matter.

I think they hire much deeper in the class from a school like BYU or UT Austin (McCombs) than they do from Middle Tennessee State University.

[UnderProtest]

May 18, 2012 12:54:16 GMT -5 aerowife2010 said:

May 18, 2012 12:48:29 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

In public accounting they hired a very wide range of schools and it didn't seem to matter once you got there in my experience.

I think that there are certain schools they hire a lot from (e.g., their "premer schools") but I agree that once you're in, where you went to school doesn't matter.

The firm I was at hired from where it's current employees went. It was big five (at the time) and they had employees recruit at their alma mater. I somehow made it in and started recruiting at my unknown, but public SC college. They did this until too many people from my school screwed up.

[kzoomaggie]

May 18, 2012 13:00:38 GMT -5 @septimus said:

May 18, 2012 12:58:51 GMT -5 kzoomaggie said:

I think once you get to a certain point in your career (which will differ from career to career) it is your experiences that matter, not where you got the degree.

I disagree.

DH has so many doors open to him just because of where he has degrees, even today 20 years after he graduated from undergrad.

Also his undergrad got him his first job, which got him his second, etc...

In certain fields pedigree matters and leds credibility to your candidacy.

In sales it probably doesn't matter where you went to college.

I agree that going to a good school can definitely open doors for you and you can have opportunities open up because of those connections, but don't you think at some point, say 20 years after you graduate, most companies focus more on your previous experiences (which will certainly have been dictated by which school you previously went to) and not by your degree or the school that degree was obtained at?

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 13:08:34 GMT -5 @domerjen said:

I think most top 10 schools are way more liberal arts for undergrad, right? So it'd be unlikely that kids from there would want a traditional public acctg job.

the Deloittes, KPMGs, PWC, etc used to recruit from top 10 schools but more for the consulting side than the public accounting

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 12:58:27 GMT -5 @septimus said:

May 18, 2012 12:56:05 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

I believe +v+ was a philosophy major. LOL

absolutley it matters... where you got your BA in philosophy will help or hurt your admissions into the PhD program for philosophy :-)

Now THIS will get you a job at Starbucks, LOL.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 13:04:34 GMT -5 v said:

May 18, 2012 12:56:05 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

I believe +v+ was a philosophy major. LOL

I was!

I think my choices upon graduation were: (a) law school, (b) the real world (i.e., Starbucks), (c) grad school in philosophy to postpone the real world (i.e., Starbucks)

Let's just call this "RBP is a stalker" week. LOL

[Maeby]

I agree that it doesn't matter much for teaching. You just need the requirements for a teaching certificate.

I think it means more where you intern or have student-taught - that will get you into a preferred school/district.

-someone with a teaching certificate

[Deleted]

Yes, I think there comes a time where your experience working in the real world is more valuable than where you learned stuff in class.

If you have exactly the same experience as another applicant and the same exact qualifications in every way EXCEPT that one of you went to a better school - I can see that it would always matter.

But how often does that really happen anyway?

Someone with great experience and recommendations is way more valuable than someone who just did well in school, IMO. Even bad employees can excel at Harvard. Good student =/= to good employee necessarily.

[Deleted]

I went to a state school and I don't think it matters in a lot of individual contributor business rolls.

[insominac]

May 18, 2012 12:50:30 GMT -5 karinothing said:

May 18, 2012 12:47:05 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

If you go to community college, I'm guessing it doesn't matter much which one you go to.

But now someone will probably tell me they want to the Harvard of community colleges.

My community college was totally elitist and awesome! ;D

Santa Monica City college has the most transfers to UC schools...

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 12:58:51 GMT -5 kzoomaggie said:

I think once you get to a certain point in your career (which will differ from career to career) it is your experiences that matter, not where you got the degree.

I think this tends to be true, esp. of careers that are performance driven such as certain sectors of finance. After a certain point, all people really care about is what kind of results you are capable of achieving.