unless you go Ivy league, or go to a school for a specialized degree, school rankings are overrated.

if you are someone who is getting a more "generic" degree, like Business, Marketing, PR, etc etc, the school itself is not going to get you a job or earn you more money.

nobody is going to look at 2 identical resumes and go "wow, this guy went to Arkansas State. I'm going to pick him over this candidate that only went to Louisiana Monroe"

Now if you go to a more prestigious medical school, or law school, it will help, but even then, it isn't a big difference.
I know a couple who both got law degrees at NC A&T because it was cheaper. I'd be willing to bet they make more money than 97% of the people on this forum.

Not to say rankings aren't pointless, but I think some people tend to overestimate how important they really are in the real world.

(09-11-2015 09:04 AM)NCeagle Wrote:  unless you go Ivy league, or go to a school for a specialized degree, school rankings are overrated.

if you are someone who is getting a more "generic" degree, like Business, Marketing, PR, etc etc, the school itself is not going to get you a job or earn you more money.

nobody is going to look at 2 identical resumes and go "wow, this guy went to Arkansas State. I'm going to pick him over this candidate that only went to Louisiana Monroe"

Now if you go to a more prestigious medical school, or law school, it will help, but even then, it isn't a big difference.
I know a couple who both got law degrees at NC A&T because it was cheaper. I'd be willing to bet they make more money than 97% of the people on this forum.

Not to say rankings aren't pointless, but I think some people tend to overestimate how important they really are in the real world.

Yep. And it is what you do with your degree that really matters. One piece of advice I've heard and subscribe to is that your degree usually helps you get your first job, but then it is all you after that.

The prestigious schools do offer more but it is usually in connections or reputation.

(09-10-2015 08:47 AM)btcharpied Wrote:  

(09-10-2015 07:56 AM)BurlingtonApp Wrote:  We're #10 regional university in the South. I know the research universities think research is all that matters but we're excellent in the actual undergraduate education part of college.

(Note: I'm biased as I'm Executive Director of an international business school teaching organization, as well as manage conferences for other such business management organizations)

You're spot on that research is 'king' in most of these rankings which makes them pretty worthless. I did my undergrad and MBA at Coastal. My younger brothers have MBAs from Columbia and NYU. The reality is that the education I received at Coastal is significantly beyond what they received at two of the most highly touted institutions in the nation. Not once did my brother at NYU have a PhD. Every 'professor' was a teaching assistant who was either an Executive MBA student further down the line or a PhD student.

At teaching institutions where research only qualifies for ~40% of the workload, you get a legitimate education (often at a fraction of the price).

Again, I'm biased, but these lists are always too top heavy with research institutions. It is fantastic that you have the big name researcher on faculty, but how often does he or she step foot into a classroom? Almost never.

Well, that's kinda why they break us up into categories. Not saying I think the methodology is the best it can be, but it's understood by many that you'll see a trend toward greater undergraduate focus as you move away from the research schools. You have to check them each out individually to see what you're in for. (e.g. Here at Georgia State we have a BIG push to boost the chances of students who struggle academically when they first hit college, with supplemental instruction and early alert programs. And from what I can tell, almost every class is taught by a Ph.D. All I've taught as a science grad student are labs and an orientation class.)

I think the schools that get lost the most in these rankings are those like Georgia Southern...probably somewhere between, say, us and App in terms of their focus as an institution. They have enough research that they can't compete for those nice high spots in the regional rankings anymore, but they have more of a battle than most of us do to break out of the national RNP.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and congrats NMSU! Yet another reason you'd make a great full SBC member...

Not neccessarily. A lot of companies will limit themselves to recruiting workers from a handful of schools because of their programs.

Pretty sure the Cajuns number will be 12,400 for 2015.

(09-11-2015 09:31 AM)nsavandal09 Wrote:  Not neccessarily. A lot of companies will limit themselves to recruiting workers from a handful of schools because of their programs.

And those jobs probably make up 1% of the work force.

Based on typical career earnings unless you got to one of the schools in the top 50, get a degree from a mining school or engineering degree where you go to school does not matter much at all. Certainly not life altering money.

(09-11-2015 12:33 PM)JCGSU Wrote:  Based on typical career earnings unless you got to one of the schools in the top 50, get a degree from a mining school or engineering degree where you go to school does not matter much at all. Certainly not life altering money.

where your degree is from is important if you are competing for a top job at a fortune 500 company. otherwise, just get one and know your stuff and you will do fine.

(09-11-2015 03:59 PM)runamuck Wrote:  

(09-11-2015 12:33 PM)JCGSU Wrote:  Based on typical career earnings unless you got to one of the schools in the top 50, get a degree from a mining school or engineering degree where you go to school does not matter much at all. Certainly not life altering money.

where your degree is from is important if you are competing for a top job at a fortune 500 company. otherwise, just get one and know your stuff and you will do fine.

No. Just being at a Fortune 500 company doesn't make where you got your degree from matter.

My brother has no degree and works for a fortune 100 and makes 6 figures .

School ratings, 90%+ of the time, don't matter.