Re: College ...
Have you read yahoo's new statistical report on earnings and college status correlation? You should check it out, they have empirical evidence suggesting that Ivy League students make WAY more than everybody else.
If you're in the very top of your class from such a school, yes.
You will be "sought out" by the upper echelon of corporations in select industries.
But even then, it
varies heavily by field, and some major differences are prevalent.
As an Electrical Engineer (EE), the IEEE puts out some rather interesting "salary surveys" that cover this as well.
Hell, my lowest salaries ahve always been when I worked for NASA or a prime defense contractor.
I know many fields are like this in general, and it doesn't mean dick where you went to school.
School does matter, finance is the most lucrative industry, and if you want to do IB you must go to a top 10 school. They don't even recruit anywhere else.
I've worked with a lot of investment bankers, and they came from a lot of varied schools.
Some of the highest paid that I've worked with at one firm went to night school on her own.
I think you keep confusing the overwhelming majority with ...
A) the very, very small margin of people who have 4.0 GPA out of major schools, for
B)
only their first job out of school
Most people built their credentials on
actual work experience and the degree addresses their base qualifications.
In my field, engineering, if you have a 4.0 GPA, you pretty much have your choice of select engineering firms you will go to, and you'll start out at a much higher salary.
It really doesn't matter what school you go to, as long as it is ABET accredited -- there are fewer than 200 schools in the US with engineering colleges (not considering CS or non-traditional that are not ABET accredited in traditional engineering).
But that is only for your first job.
After that, it's your experience that make up the bulk of your credentials.
Furthermore, a
lot of engineering firms
frown on 0 experience fresh out of college.
They'd rather have someone with a 2.5 GPA with 2-3 years of technical co-op experience than someone with a 3.5 GPA and 0 years.
I know several investment banking houses also look at internships and other factors, more than GPA, unless you have a 4.0 GPA.
You're in school, so GPA means the world to you.
Once you get out, I really could care less what you have, if you can't follow the terms and practices in the industry.
Most feel heavily that way -- from the lowest trades to the most respected of professions.
I still run into plenty of investment bankers who don't know the first step in proving the functions they use on their calculator.
And even though I'm a "lowly" engineer, I can best them at such calculations many times.
Again, I know a lot of IBs who didn't go to any "great" schools, but are running Goldman, Lehman, etc...
I think you're thinking of those "1 out of 100,000" job applications that are ...
1) 4.0 GPA
2) from a top-tier program
3) for only their
first job