Does from where you graduate matters?
After receiving admission offers from multiple colleges, students often face the dilemma of deciding which college to attend. Should they prioritize their career goals or choose based on the college’s prestige?
Decision criteria
The common decision criteria include:
- Whether a student is admitted to their intended major
- The reputation of the college or program
- The cost of attending the college
Common milestones for attending prestigious college
Typically, sequence of events play out as follows:
- Students go above and beyond during their college preparation to get into top colleges.
- They pay substantial fees solely for the prestige associated with the college’s brand name.
- They sever ties with their community and move to an entirely different place to attend a prestigious college.
- Many students accumulate a significant amount of debt by the time they graduate.
Advantages of attending prestigious college
The desire to get into prestigious colleges is rightfully justified because:
- Prestigious colleges boast significant endowments, enabling them to recruit top-tier faculty and establish advanced laboratories, fostering cutting-edge research.
- Graduating from a top college bestows a lifelong reputation, as these institutions are known for their highly selective admissions processes, generally accepting only qualified candidates who have invested significant effort.
- Alumni from prestigious colleges often dominate and safeguard the corporate ladders in traditional companies. In large corporations, the corporate hierarchy is typically filled with individuals from specific colleges, with alumni from those institutions being the ones primarily promoted up the chain.
- Many average candidates from affluent families gain admission to prestigious colleges thanks to the generational knowledge passed down from their family and friends. This allows them to navigate the system effectively and secure positions within corporate hierarchies, thereby strengthening the alumni network’s influence.
- Prestigious colleges can be seen as remnants of a feudal society, where many students from affluent families across the globe gain admission through legacy or by making substantial donations. These future business leaders often recruit their college friends primarily based on trust and familiarity.
- Many prestigious colleges possess effective go-to-market systems, which facilitate the successful launch of ideas and innovations.
- In highly regulated industries such as medicine, law, finance, and academia—often overseen by governing bodies—attending a prestigious college is essential to be successful.
Benefits by career stage
The benefits of attending a top college unfold at various stages of one’s career in the following ways:
During college
- Access to renowned faculty and advanced equipment
- Availability of research materials and access to current research opportunities
- Internships with top companies
First Job
- Higher Starting Salary
- Breakthrough with great companies that look good on resume,
- Better reception within company network
Early Career
- Assigned to better projects,
- accommodating working conditions
- Leveraging the alumni network and support from other prestigious colleges is invaluable. These institutions often function like a close-knit cohort, ensuring that only individuals with specific qualifications can gain entry.
All of the above reasons provide compelling argument for someone to choose a prestigious college.
Attending Prestigious college does not guarantee success
However, even after gaining admission to a prestigious college, success is not guaranteed.
- The corporate world is unlike the education system, which is governed by strict rules and supervised by teachers. Rules will be broken by usurpers.
- In today’s world, where skills, experience, and adaptability are highly valued, your alma mater is just one piece of the puzzle.
- There is a significant discrepancy between what is taught in colleges and what is actually required in the industry.
- Market competition is intensifying, with product cycles shrinking to less than a year. There is no longer room to develop talent gradually; instead, acquiring talent has become crucial as new products need to be brought to market immediately.
- Skills can become obsolete quickly, making adaptability and the ability to acquire new skills increasingly important.
- Self taught and hands-on experience is valued more for top companies as companies are struggling to keep up with pace of change.
Downsides of attending prestigious colleges
While being an alumnus of a prestigious school has many benefits, some downsides include:
Early career
- Unless paid huge scholarship, cost of attending prestigious college can easily run into 80K per year which includes tuition and living expenses
Mid Career
- Alumni from prestigious colleges are held to high standards, and even well-performing positions may be seen as a failure.
- If a candidate is not part of your alumni network, they are often passed over due to the fear of being usurped.
- The value of such associations diminishes with the frequent changes in technology or work methods.
- Education becomes no factor when there is a career change or career break due to unforeseen events.
Late Career
- In later career, Corporate network or company Alumnus become important.
- Managements are usually bunch of people who keep on shuffling between companies taking same group of management with them.
- Non-skilled positions often involve a lot of politics, and prestigious colleges won’t prepare you for that.
Tech, engineering, and media industries lack governing bodies, which allows ideas from the field to flourish and lead to innovation. However, this also means that academic history holds less significance in these industries.
Conclusion
Startup culture has unlocked new opportunities for innovation beyond universities. Due to intense competition, companies are no longer investing in talent development. Instead, acquiring in-demand skills and the ability to learn quickly have become important. Therefore, even after graduating from a prestigious college, continuous performance is expected. While a degree from a prestigious college is not a safeguard, it does open doors more rapidly than for others.
As a General rule if you are getting lot of scholarship then attend for prestigious college otherwise opt for best public colleges with in-state tuition. Attend graduate or PhD’s in Prestigious colleges where you will have opportunity to participate in research. Unless your are looking for pride and personal glory, there is no point in assuming huge debt for undergrad.
