Creating this thread just to help and give some insight on things about Colleges here in the U.S. Most of these are my opinions based on my own personal experiences and opinion based on some fact. Hope it helps some to achieve what they want or at the least give an idea on what direction one would want to go.
Picking a College/University
One thing you don’t want to do when choosing a college is that, going to a certain college because of a “name” that it is representing. This is what you call being “branded”. Like in all things we are all branded in some way. Nike and Coca-Cola are the biggest ones in the world. Sadly this applies to colleges as well. For example, everyone knows that Harvard or Yale is probably the hardest ones to get into or have that “wow, you went to Harvard/Yale” factor. This is true to some degree, however there are plenty of colleges that have that as well. Cal Tech and MIT comes to mind. Here are some known facts that many are confused about. “If you are going for a undergraduate program whatever college you decide to go to doesn’t have a major influence for you to get that “high paying job”. Lets all be honest here, no one wants to really work for anyone. Everyone wants to have a high paying job to have a certain life style. As an undergraduate student it really doesn’t matter which college you really go to. Except, obviously if you are going to become a doctor a path is pretty much set for you as to what you need to do.
What gets you that high paying job?
This is an easy question, because most think that you could get the 80k a year job right out of college. This is also some what true but not quite. You could get lucky for example your family knows someone who owns a nice size company who can help you however the likely hood of anyone in that situation is like someone winning a lottery ticket. There is so much competition out there that it would be hard to find a job that pays you decent amount a year. Right out of the gate your only advantage to you against most candidates is because you will be “cheaper” if you were right out of college. This is due to lack of experience, and work history. So how do you get a job that pays well? Simple, go to graduate school! Graduate school is actually what matters when you claimed to go to a certain school. At this point you really do want to get into a big name college that specializes in your field. For example if I graduated with an engineering degree, I certain want to go to the top engineering graduate program. This in turn will yield a high paying job in the future, but this is also not guaranteed. Again you are in competition with everyone in the work force. With the economy as the way it is now, most people have graduate degrees.
So how do you end up with a high paying job?
There are two ways that I know of. First is that while in college there will be some people who already have something set up for them. Knows someone or who are incredibly smart. Get to know them, befriend them and hopefully in your search of a job you may run into them that already have a job. This is called “networking”. Anyone in the freshman year should be doing this for four years. Believe it or not, “who you know will get you that foot in the door”. That is all you can hope for because getting an interview is tough, I really mean tough. But if you can get it a non conventional way that it’s a big plus to you.
The other way is like the long way around. You would first get a decent paying job, network your way through your contacts over the years and get in that way. Also doing this will get you that experience that HR managers are looking for which is a plus to you.
Stay on top of your grades
Again competition in the work force is fierce you do not want to turn in a resume where your overall GPA falls below 3.2.
Overall GPA VS Major GPA
Overall GPA is something that is calculated based on the classes that you have took and got a grade for. You will also get a calculated GPA based on only the classes mattered for your major. You maintain your overall GPA then your major GPA will also be maintained. Keep up with it and don’t fall below at least a 3.2. The reason I say this is because when submitting a resume online, it gets pre screened by a computer. They look for key words and possibly numbers and will give it a list to the HR manager to the best candidate to worst. If they had included a gpa requirement most likely it will not be below 3.2. Which also means you won’t be getting a call back for an interview in turn no opportunity for a job.
Will this help anyone? I hope so, I expect a lot of flame for this because a lot of the people on NB isn't at this stage but certainly in my opinion it's something to think about. If this helps at least one person I certainly won't mind the flames.
Hope it helps.
Picking a College/University
One thing you don’t want to do when choosing a college is that, going to a certain college because of a “name” that it is representing. This is what you call being “branded”. Like in all things we are all branded in some way. Nike and Coca-Cola are the biggest ones in the world. Sadly this applies to colleges as well. For example, everyone knows that Harvard or Yale is probably the hardest ones to get into or have that “wow, you went to Harvard/Yale” factor. This is true to some degree, however there are plenty of colleges that have that as well. Cal Tech and MIT comes to mind. Here are some known facts that many are confused about. “If you are going for a undergraduate program whatever college you decide to go to doesn’t have a major influence for you to get that “high paying job”. Lets all be honest here, no one wants to really work for anyone. Everyone wants to have a high paying job to have a certain life style. As an undergraduate student it really doesn’t matter which college you really go to. Except, obviously if you are going to become a doctor a path is pretty much set for you as to what you need to do.
What gets you that high paying job?
This is an easy question, because most think that you could get the 80k a year job right out of college. This is also some what true but not quite. You could get lucky for example your family knows someone who owns a nice size company who can help you however the likely hood of anyone in that situation is like someone winning a lottery ticket. There is so much competition out there that it would be hard to find a job that pays you decent amount a year. Right out of the gate your only advantage to you against most candidates is because you will be “cheaper” if you were right out of college. This is due to lack of experience, and work history. So how do you get a job that pays well? Simple, go to graduate school! Graduate school is actually what matters when you claimed to go to a certain school. At this point you really do want to get into a big name college that specializes in your field. For example if I graduated with an engineering degree, I certain want to go to the top engineering graduate program. This in turn will yield a high paying job in the future, but this is also not guaranteed. Again you are in competition with everyone in the work force. With the economy as the way it is now, most people have graduate degrees.
So how do you end up with a high paying job?
There are two ways that I know of. First is that while in college there will be some people who already have something set up for them. Knows someone or who are incredibly smart. Get to know them, befriend them and hopefully in your search of a job you may run into them that already have a job. This is called “networking”. Anyone in the freshman year should be doing this for four years. Believe it or not, “who you know will get you that foot in the door”. That is all you can hope for because getting an interview is tough, I really mean tough. But if you can get it a non conventional way that it’s a big plus to you.
The other way is like the long way around. You would first get a decent paying job, network your way through your contacts over the years and get in that way. Also doing this will get you that experience that HR managers are looking for which is a plus to you.
Stay on top of your grades
Again competition in the work force is fierce you do not want to turn in a resume where your overall GPA falls below 3.2.
Overall GPA VS Major GPA
Overall GPA is something that is calculated based on the classes that you have took and got a grade for. You will also get a calculated GPA based on only the classes mattered for your major. You maintain your overall GPA then your major GPA will also be maintained. Keep up with it and don’t fall below at least a 3.2. The reason I say this is because when submitting a resume online, it gets pre screened by a computer. They look for key words and possibly numbers and will give it a list to the HR manager to the best candidate to worst. If they had included a gpa requirement most likely it will not be below 3.2. Which also means you won’t be getting a call back for an interview in turn no opportunity for a job.
Will this help anyone? I hope so, I expect a lot of flame for this because a lot of the people on NB isn't at this stage but certainly in my opinion it's something to think about. If this helps at least one person I certainly won't mind the flames.
Hope it helps.