Last week, we discussed the way most families attack the college selection process: perusing the U.S. News rankings. We provided an alternate option: investigating the strength of individual fields of study. For the focused student, not only will this lead to a richer academic experience, but it also opens up strong programs in colleges with higher admit rates.
We’ll be adding an additional way of selecting schools this week. It’s the reason behind the strength of the film programs at USC and NYU; why California schools have better marine biology programs than colleges in Iowa; and it says something about why the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is so good at hotel management. It’s the school’s location.
It really does make sense to look at schools situated where students can earn significant experience – professional, hands-on experience – that can contribute to their employability after graduation. Let’s look at the most relevant example of this approach: the business major.
People who know even the most mundane facts about American colleges know about the prestige of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Donald Trump’s alma mater ranks near the top of every list published when it comes to B-school rankings. But does one need to attend Penn to land a high-paying job?
Let’s look at the school rankings – but let’s look at them a bit differently. Let’s investigate the job-placement rankings of highly touted business programs.
The top-tier schools tend to rank well when it comes to placing their undergrads in good jobs. Wharton, Haas at UC Berkeley, and Cornell are all at the top of the list. But, not all top-tier programs are that successful. The Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis is an outstanding program in general. However, “Business Week” only awards it with a grade of “B” in terms of job placement. Similarly, the University of Richmond, ranked ahead of Carnegie Mellon, gets low ranks when it comes to job placement. Richmond, the 15th best business school in the country, gets a “B” for its placement rating.
When we look at the list even closer, other patterns begin to disclose themselves. Boston College, ranked well but not near the top of the list, earns itself an “A+” for job placement. Northeastern University, a few minutes away from Boston College, lands an “A+.” And Bentley College, a small school ranked just number 29 in the country, gets an “A” as well. And this makes sense: All three schools are ranked by “Business Week” as some of the best schools for business internships in the country. In fact, the magazine has ranked Northeastern – not the University of Pennsylvania – as providing the best pre-graduation work experience in the entire country.
But how are these non-Ivies so good at getting their graduates jobs?
For one thing, these schools have made a commitment to their students. The business programs are small and focused on work experience. But even further, Boston as a locale has been a hotbed of business activity for over a century. The area is one of the top-10 largest metropolitan areas in the country, and sits just a few hours from New York City. Boston is known for both its entrepreneurs as well as its experts in finance.
Just as location is so important in the world of real estate, it is equally significant in the world of college admissions. In fact, examples like the above abound throughout the country, and they help to shed light on some of the oddities of colleges and their strengths.
This isn’t to say that location is everything in college admissions, but it does show how important it can be. And the same rule applies to disciplines outside of business. The same goes for computer science, engineering, journalism, and the life sciences.
But the point of the above is to show how we can think differently – but just as effectively – in this new college admissions climate.
