The Fascination with Ivy Leagues

[GrayMatterWife]

And I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it but shortening my "handle" to "Ms. BS" is unsavory, I prefer MRS. BS, thank you very much

OH MY GOSH!! That's too funny! I'm so sorry...I didn't even realize what I'd done! I was trying to shortened it...(and this sounds stupid)...because I was in my apartment at the time. And freezing...I turn the heat way low during the day because it is so expensive. My fingers were so cold that it hurt to type!

[GrayMatterWife]

I think law is different from undergrad. The "tiers" definitely matter when it comes to law school.

this.is.so.true

The three things that matter most: where you went to law school, whether you were on law review, your class rank, and whether you clerked. Especially the first two. They follow you your entire career. It's weird, actually.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Actually, my company has this strategy, though more in relation to region rather than ivies. They found that people from outside the region tended to leave after 3-4 years to go back home. When I was an intern, the MIT co-op kind of had to deal with that, even though she was from Texas.

My old consulting firm did this but in a pro-Ivy way. It was a small firm in Boston (although it's getting huge!) and they could only choose 3 schools to recruit from simply because of time/energy/money; they only take 5-6 undergrads/year so they don't recruit at a ton of places. They choose Harvard and Dartmouth since they were geographically the closest Ivies. Then they choose Princeton because their first client's daughter went there and she was hired so by default, they went there too. Their theory was that if you only have a few resources to put into hiring, one way to know you'll get great candidates is to go to top schools and assume that the admissions committee did their job way back when. It's a BIG assumption and I think we got burned a few times but I understand why they did it this way. It would have been way too expensive to recruit at every school in Boston in hopes of finding 5-6 candidates.

Also, I know it's crazy but in the East Coast consulting world (and probably finance too), they make a big thing of publishing bios in the backs of all proposals and clients like to see "top" undergrad and MBA degrees on their consultants. They want to believe their money is buying brainpower. Again, it's a gross generalization but I know several clients who would proudly joke about us ALL being Ivy Leaguers, I thought it was bizarre but hey, a client is never wrong!

Another thing my company really stressed though was athletics. Being on a collegiate team got you a LONG way. It showed time management, committment, (obviously) teamwork, etc. We have several non-Ivy grads that were fantastic athletes and that's what got them hired, no question.

The resume is about the total package but there are firms that look for "buzzwords" whether that be a degree from a certain school, a certain sport or extracurricular, etc. I tend to think though that it doesn't matter after your first job.

It's also regional. In Boston, people care a LOT about where you went to school because it's very academic (MA has a very high concentration of graduate degrees). In Cleveland, no one seems to care.

[SoonerTexan]

Random offshoot, but in Texas, the A&M community is very very strong and influential in hiring. Those Aggies are Networkers!

[Michele]

THE Ohio State?

SoonerTexan: in my experience ALL Texas schools are like that... My alma mater is. But Aggies may be the best/worst at it. They all introduced themselves in law school with that "whoop" thing. Not being a native Texan I was completely weirded out by it! End Texas hijack.

[GrayMatterWife]

. . . in my experience ALL Texas schools are like that.

Yes! I cannot count the number of times when I have had The Texas Advantage. Either as a UT undergrad, a SMU law grad, or just flat-out being from Texas. It is amazing how many times I encounter UT and SMU grads who do professional courtesies based solely on my schooling. And just last week, this Texas attorney did something sort of procedurally "not proper" here in STL, and I completely blew it off. His local counsel, who I know well, was worried that I was going to come down on him and the Texas attorney, and maybe remove them from the docket or something. I laughed and said, "No, you gotta understand. What Texas Attorney did--that's just how it's done in Texas. I get it. Don't worry about it. He gets a Texas pass." Makin' sure that the good-turns-for-Texans keeps on goin'!

Sorry...REALLY ending the Texas threadjack!

[ladymoreta]

I agree - around this part of the world, an Ivy League education is almost as likely to hurt your chances as it might help, so if you plan on staying here, it makes much more sense to go to a state school.

I've also noticed that about Texas A&M. It's true Texas peeps stick together, but they're a whole other breed of loyal!

[SoonerTexan]

Hmmm...what do you call "Alma Mater Nepotism?"

I can trace my hiring back to a manager who has been at my company for 15 years. She hired an OU grad 5 years ago that got me in, and now I've got another OU grad in as an intern.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Right, so clearly my point about "buzzwords" has been made. In some cases it's a specific school or set of schools, an extracurricular, a sports team, etc. I've even seen resumes in Boston list "watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees" under their interests. People just want a hook!

I'll be very curious to see if I get any reaction (positive or negative) in Cleveland since the network from my school is much smaller in Ohio than in the Northeast. It could go either way really. Luckily I have a few more months before that's relevant!