My theory on higher ed in the USA is that you should make an effort to attend a school with a great brand name reputation like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford or Berkeley.
If that doesn't work you should go to the best place that costs you the least amount of money.
I'll probably offend the alumni of the schools I mention, but as someone who has assisted with hiring for startups, I don't believe HR really distinguishes between places like McGill, Amherst or Tufts (or even places like Cornell and Brown.) However, Harvard, MIT or Stanford will definitely get you an interview.
I didn't get into anywhere good and instead went to a no-name private school in the midwest that essentially paid me to go there. Since then I've worked alongside, and been paid the same as people from MIT, Stanford, Harvard and Berkeley, as well as people who dropped out of high school.
I would have preferred paying for Stanford if that had been an option. However, I'm very glad I'm not 200K in debt to a "2nd choice" school.
In your situation I'd probably go to Tufts if Yale doesn't come through. Living in that area definitely beats Amherst.
It's still Harvard. It ranks #1 in nearly every other subject. A Harvard degree will get you an interview at Google or anywhere I've ever worked. However, I don't think it matters that much for the OP since he (or she) didn't apply there.
Google recruits everywhere. I have lots of friends that have interviewed at Google.
Will going to Harvard surround you with like-minded people to learn from and work on projects with? Sure, but probably not as many as some other schools.
I didn't intend to start a debate about the merits of Harvard's engineering department. I was just using it as an example of a school with an obvious (perhaps the most obvious) brand name reputation.
Agree with the point, except that the true answer is MIT or Caltech, Harvard really wouldn't push you ahead to any HR guy worth his salt at a tech company.
It might get you an interview, but any interviewer worth their salt will be seriously worried whether they are getting garbage Harvard grad, or a smart one. Compare this to places like Chicago, CalTech, and MIT where you simply can't fake your way through college.
Comments
My theory on higher ed in the USA is that you should make an effort to attend a school with a great brand name reputation like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford or Berkeley.
If that doesn't work you should go to the best place that costs you the least amount of money.
I'll probably offend the alumni of the schools I mention, but as someone who has assisted with hiring for startups, I don't believe HR really distinguishes between places like McGill, Amherst or Tufts (or even places like Cornell and Brown.) However, Harvard, MIT or Stanford will definitely get you an interview.
I didn't get into anywhere good and instead went to a no-name private school in the midwest that essentially paid me to go there. Since then I've worked alongside, and been paid the same as people from MIT, Stanford, Harvard and Berkeley, as well as people who dropped out of high school.
I would have preferred paying for Stanford if that had been an option. However, I'm very glad I'm not 200K in debt to a "2nd choice" school.
In your situation I'd probably go to Tufts if Yale doesn't come through. Living in that area definitely beats Amherst.
Harvard has a terrible engineering reputation
It's still Harvard. It ranks #1 in nearly every other subject. A Harvard degree will get you an interview at Google or anywhere I've ever worked. However, I don't think it matters that much for the OP since he (or she) didn't apply there.
Google recruits everywhere. I have lots of friends that have interviewed at Google.
Will going to Harvard surround you with like-minded people to learn from and work on projects with? Sure, but probably not as many as some other schools.
I didn't intend to start a debate about the merits of Harvard's engineering department. I was just using it as an example of a school with an obvious (perhaps the most obvious) brand name reputation.
Agree with the point, except that the true answer is MIT or Caltech, Harvard really wouldn't push you ahead to any HR guy worth his salt at a tech company.
It might get you an interview, but any interviewer worth their salt will be seriously worried whether they are getting garbage Harvard grad, or a smart one. Compare this to places like Chicago, CalTech, and MIT where you simply can't fake your way through college.
Harvard has a terrible engineering reputation
Really? Would it be worse to go to Harvard than, say, to the University of Nevada Reno?
http://www.unr.edu/engineering/
I would bet that most of the University of California schools (and many others) have better engineering reputations than Harvard.
UC Santa Barbara? UC Davis? Purdue? University of Illinois Urbana Champaign? University of Michigan Ann Arbor?