Do kids from mid and lower tier colleges get jobs in Chicago? (Champaign: job market, neighborhoods)

[Chicago87]

In addition to Big Ten schools and the elite University of Chicago, you are also competing with schools like Loyola and DePaul that have a lot of local clout since a lot of professionals that work in Downtown, Chicago went there for their MBAs.

As far as schools in the Chicago area goes:

1.) University of Chicago
2.) Big Ten schools
3.) IIT
4.) DePaul & Loyola
5.) UIC
6.) Other four year non-profit universities
7.) Chicago State
8.) City of Chicago Community Colleges
9.) Useless FOR PROFIT universities that will accept anyone that will pay their insanely high tuition.

[UrbanCheetah]

Originally Posted by Chicago87

In addition to Big Ten schools and the elite University of Chicago, you are also competing with schools like Loyola and DePaul that have a lot of local clout since a lot of professionals that work in Downtown, Chicago went there for their MBAs.

As far as schools in the Chicago area goes:

1.) University of Chicago
2.) Big Ten schools
3.) IIT
4.) DePaul & Loyola
5.) UIC
6.) Other four year non-profit universities
7.) Chicago State
8.) City of Chicago Community Colleges
9.) Useless FOR PROFIT universities that will accept anyone that will pay their insanely high tuition.

I would actually put IIT and DePaul and Loyola together. If anythung DePaul and Loyola tend to be more known their reputation than IIT. What I meanis you hear a ton morethings about DePaul and Loyola than IIT.

edit. My bad saw you were talking about mbas.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Chicago87

To be honest, it is really hard to compete in Chicago. Not only are you competing with the Big Ten school grads, you are also competing with The University of Chicago graduates.

There's a fair number of grads from the Ivy league (and other comparable schools) here as well.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by jman07

I'm talking colleges like Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois, other smaller public colleges outside Chicagoland? It seems like every person I meet in the city graduated from a Big 10 college like Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, etc. I rarely meet anyone with a decent job, much less who lives in the city from lesser colleges.

A good chunk of the student body at those schools come from the Chicago area; presumably most of them come back home looking for work here and presumably most eventually do so. Count me among them.

[PerseusVeil]

Originally Posted by UrbanCheetah

I would actually put IIT and DePaul and Loyola together. If anythung DePaul and Loyola tend to be more known their reputation than IIT. What I meanis you hear a ton morethings about DePaul and Loyola than IIT.

edit. My bad saw you were talking about mbas.

I believe that was a rank of undergraduate universities only. That list would change dramatically if it was for MBAs, because Loyola's and IIT's programs are unranked, but DePaul's isn't.

In general rankings, Loyola and I believe DePaul are both climbing for undergraduate universities. Not certain about IIT's program. All three schools are currently ranged from numbers 101 to 121 on US News' most recent rankings. Loyola at 101, IIT at 109, and DePaul at 121.

Originally Posted by NARFALICIOUS

Carbondale (SIUC) students are a mix of Chicago , St Louis, central IL, southern IL. Then a smaller percent are other states, and also a decent foreign-born population. The exact percentages for all categories, I'm not sure. From my experience at SIUC, I would say a majority of the "Chicago" students are suburban. Out of all my friends at school, I was the only one from Chicago itself.

When I graduated, I got a job in my field in the suburbs, while also working a job in the city.
Now I moved away. A lot of people in my program move away for work, Los Angeles, Detroit, Southern Indiana, etc.

A tad off topic, but did you guys have an opinion of Edwardsville? I only ask because you hear people in the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis sometimes talk about Edwardsville's growing prominence in the area.

[marothisu]

The only thing I know about SIU-Edwardsville is that they are down state and my alma mater kicked the **** out of them in basketball in one of their first ever D1 games.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

There's a fair number of grads from the Ivy league (and other comparable schools) here as well.

I came here with a small, good but relatively unknown school bachelor degree. Been here most of 18 years. Now I have a masters from an Ivy school, but that wasn't true most of my career.

Is it competitive? Yes. Is it insurmountable? No.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by jman07

...
3. Kids who go to Big 10 schools tend to me more ambitious and outgoing. They also meet a lot of kids from Chicago and other areas of the country and become more comfortable with the idea of moving there. Kids from the smaller colleges seem to be more intimidated about the idea of moving to Chicago. They often wanted to "stay closer to home."

I grew up in rural Oregon (the state, not the western Illinois town).

My family had strong tradition of education and mobility. Hell, my grandfather was technically a polygamist because he never divorced a wife in a previous locale.

Anyway, I went to a small school in rural Indiana, but it was 2,000 miles from where I grew up. And I chose to take a semester in Chicago, to intentionally open my eyes and broaden my horizons.

A lot of the people I grew up with wanted to stay close to home, but I was always interested in the larger world. If you're smart and ambitious, you can make Chicago work, and work well for you.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by PerseusVeil

A tad off topic, but did you guys have an opinion of Edwardsville? I only ask because you hear people in the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis sometimes talk about Edwardsville's growing prominence in the area.

I barely heard it discussed to be honest. I lived in Carbondale for 2 years, even during breaks.
However, I did know 2 people (a couple) in my group of acquaintances/friends who were transferring to Edwardsville for a specific program. They were from Chicago though, so I'm not sure how that helps you. I knew a handful of people from St. Louis, but they never mentioned SIUE, or at least I don't remember.

Personally, as long as a school is accredited, is in the right location, and has the program I want, I'd consider it.

[ChiNaan]

I was shocked to see that the Edwardsville campus of SIUE has almost as many students enrolled as the main campus in Carbondale. (I looked it up just now out of curiosity.) I've met several people over the years who went to Carbondale, in Chicago (even though Carbondale is further from Chicago than Edwardsville is) and elsewhere. I've only met one person, ever, who went to Edwardsville. He was a grad school classmate of mine who graduated from there in the 90's, and made it sound like it was a really small campus at the time. My guess would be that Edwardsville, for whatever reason, draws more people from the St. Louis metro who tend to stick around there, while Carbondale draws people from all over the state, though I have no data to back this hunch up.