Does the school rank really matters that much? (San Antonio, Austin: schools, university)

[yinghawl]

Hi All,

For someone whose goal is not trying to get a PhD, does school ranking really matter? Does the decent ranking school put me at disadvantage when applying for jobs?


Ying

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by yinghawl

Hi All,

For someone whose goal is not trying to get a PhD, does school ranking really matter? Does the decent ranking school put me at disadvantage when applying for jobs?


Ying

Depends on where you're going and what field you're in.

Getting a PhD, the school matters much less than the individual with whom you get your degree. Getting a professional degree (MD, JD, MBA etc), the rank matters more.

For undergrad degrees, it depends. If you intend to stay in San Antonio, a degree from any SA-area school is fine in most fields. Most people know the schools and will have some association with them. Anywhere in Texas, I think degrees from Texas schools matter - people here seem to care more that you went to UT or A&M than if you have a degree from Harvard. If you intend to move outside Texas, no one will know the SA schools or cares about UT or A&M and that could matter.

But it also all depends on the field.

[need4speed2012]

Nope, because if you have read anything lately concerning this, you'll find that many schools ratings are falsely inflated..

[Rustybolt]

It can make a difference, but the difference depends on you. I have an engineering degree from UT Austin and an MBA from Boston University. My engineering degree carries weight over most other schools. My MBA carries weight over many other schools, but ranks at the bottom if I were working in Boston. So many variables to consider. Were you *** Laude? No matter...you have what you have and regrets aren't a factor. Look forward...build on what you have. Be the snowball that becomes an avalanche.

[L210]

I'll repeat what I said in another thread. A program's ranking is usually more important than a school's ranking. Some unranked and low-ranked schools have very good reputations in certain fields because they are highly-ranked in certain fields.

In my field (and probably several other academic fields), the ranking of your program matters when it comes to where you want to work in academia. It is exceptionally rare in my field for a program to hire someone with a PhD from a lower-ranked program. The only program I know of that regularly hires people from lower-ranked programs is the #1 program. They hire people from the #2 and #3 programs.

With professional degrees such as the MBA and JD, the rank of your school does matter. Some MBAs can get around rankings by having substantial experience. For other masters degrees such as the MS and MA, the competitiveness of your field will determine how important rankings will be. Also, some fields will value experience over rankings.

I wouldn't underestimate the nationwide name recognition and alumni networks for UT-Austin and Texas A&M - College Station. They also have some of the best programs in certain fields. For example, Texas A&M is ranked a few spots higher than Columbia University in statistics. It is ranked almost 10 spots higher than Cornell. Texas A&M ranks very high in a few engineering fields. Harvard does not fare as well in engineering.