Ask HN: Does University Choice Matter? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does University Choice Matter?

9 pointsHDMI_Cable31 comments

Hi all, I'm about to go to university in the fall, and I wanted to get all of your opinions on whether specific universities have any benefit.

I'm a high-school graduate with slightly above-average grades who has been accepted to a somewhat good university, but nothing like the Ivies, Berkeley/Stanford, or McGill/UfT. My university has had a couple Prime Ministers, some arch-bishops, 1/2 of a tech CEO, & a beloved children's book character.

But other than that, there is no real "prestige" to the university (but the city/campus are very nice).

I'm thinking of going to a post-graduate degree (medical), so I wanted to hear from all of you. Thanks.

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> "Does University Choice Matter?"

A better university matters only if you're able to take advantage of what it offers. While the core curriculum is more or less the same for all accredited colleges / universities, a better university gives you access to a larger selection of advanced courses, proportionately more well known instructors, and better labs and facilities. However, the pace of a better university is higher, the hours are much longer, and the competition from fellow students much stiffer than in high school; the transition can be very jarring. Only you know whether you're talented enough and able to put in the hours (the latter can substitute for the former to an extent) to do well enough as an undergrad to make it into a post-graduate program, but understand that the bar is generally pretty high.

> A better university matters only if you're able to take advantage of what it offers.

There's more to it. A top university gives you a stamp that signals "I was smart enough to get in" for the rest of your career. That matters.

Kind of but at some point the rubber meets the road. You see a lot of comments on HN that say "Wow, this person came from a top university / FAANG and yet couldn't pass our interview or did badly on the job."

Think of it from the opposite direction -

If you take only the people who can pass the interview and do well on the job, the ones from top universities/FAANG get more opportunities to interview in the first place.

It's much easier to be a capable person who is associated with a prestigious institution than to be a capable person who isn't.

Do you think grades / things you did outside of school would matter? Would a top student from a small school have a better chance than an average student from a good school?

Yeah, that's what I was (a bit) worried about. I just don't want to be passed up for an offer, (or something similar) simply because I went to a smaller school.

Hopefully the graduate degree matters more in my case.

From the small bit I know about non-medical graduate admissions, the rigor of the program is a factor in graduate admissions but it only matters when comparing a candidate with good grades from a weak program and a candidate with equally good grades from a strong program. Again, it's all about the student and how well they can prove they learned the material, not about prestige.

If you really want a more in-depth answer to your question, go to https://academia.stackexchange.com/ and see what practicing academics say; this sort of question has surely been asked and answered many times. (I'd dig up some links for you but, not to be unkind, the very first thing you'd better get used to if you hope to reach graduate school is finding stuff out on your own given some hints.)

Oh yeah of course, you've already done quite a bit by answering, thanks. I now realize I probably could have looked there first, but quite honestly I only ever go onto StackOverflow.

No worries; good luck to you.

There are a few really specific situations where I would advise you to only attempt if armed with the most insufferably prestigious degrees possible (if you wanted to be a humanities professor at Oxford, for example), but for most industries there are plenty of ways in. Practicing medicine? Definitely can do that without the Ivy-tier prestige degrees.

You can probably call up some department at your school and get actual stats for what schools the pre-meds go to.

The prestige racket is real but it's not everything, it just wants you to think it is. Hope you can get away from the grueling college app process and let the wind blow those clouds off your sunrise a little. There's gonna come a day when you look over at your work colleague or close personal friend and realize you don't know where they went to school and you don't care enough to ask.

> The prestige racket is real but it's not everything, it just wants you to think it is. Hope you can get away from the grueling college app process and let the wind blow those clouds off your sunrise a little. There's gonna come a day when you look over at your work colleague or close personal friend and realize you don't know where they went to school and you don't care enough to ask.

I've just finished, thanks. The more I think about it, the more I feel like you're right. All of this worrying about College applications and "presitgious" universities seems like a ploy to make kids more stressed. Ultimately, I'm simply happy at getting in, so worrying about the 5% edge case where the degree matters is pretty futile.

You have a good attitude. Prestige colleges are a lot of things, including brands, and it's in their interest to have everyone develop a tender-age psychological sore spot over whether they're worthy of the brand. Not the other way around, they don't want us wondering whether the prestige college system is worthy of us. We only win when enough of us decide not to play.

It varies depending on the field but what matters more than university popularity is how you spend your time at said university.

I'm a CS student from a very small university myself (so apologies if this doesn't translate well for you), and I know several smart people from very small universities whose contributions to open source software, personal projects, and connections within the startup community and various other factors really pushed them ahead.

So spending time meeting people with similar interests and pursuing meaningful things in university is essential to your experience there.

Thanks, that helped quite a bit! I’m guessing the difference between CS and my situation would be that I should spend more time doing research and studying than worrying about the “name”.

Yes, and I might sound naïve here but if medicine is truly your passion and you’re willing to go to any length to make sure you contribute positively to the medical community, then you won't regret your time there.

Have fun in university, and good luck with your studies. We’ll be rooting for you. :)

So there’s this study[1] that says it largely doesn’t matter if you already come from privilege and wealth, but it CAN matter if you don’t.

In my personal experience, the professional network you build in college is ultimately what has value to your career long term. This opens up opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t occur. You’re basically paying for a 4 year opportunity to collaborate with folks at a certain level of ability(?) wealth(?) social standing(?). And the degree you earn signals more about your social standing - you belong to that “club” - then specific knowledge or skills you’ve earned.

I think if you didn’t go to college and could swing a gig at Google or another FAANG, you’d have the same kind of credentialing...

1- https://www.nber.org/papers/w7322

I was wondering if you could elaborate on that network more. Is it just about having the same school as someone you're meeting, or is it more about personally knowing that person? Medicine (from what I've heard) is a pretty university-agnostic field, so would the network-effect be more like practice?

More personally knowing the person. You develop a friends network of people, and everyone in that network is credentialed enough to get into a college and do reasonably well. So they'll get opportunities, and help you get opportunities.

Speaking primarily from my experience as a Comp Sci undergrad at Virginia Tech... I had good opportunities from my network on graduation. Which helped me grow my network even further when I got a job. I suspect if I went to MIT or something, that network would be even more substantive.

> but nothing like the Ivies, Berkeley/Stanford, or McGill/UfT.

Wow, you are putting universities of vastly different calibers in the same bucket. McGill/UofT are pretty much large state schools, not at all in the same ballpark as Berkeley or Stanford.

For tech recruiting in Canada I found that UBC and UofT were pretty good in term of signal to noise ratio. The best one was Polytechnique in Montreal, but it's really small so recruiting season doesn't last a long time.

For med school, I have no clue. I suppose it's about choosing the best program to prepare you for the MCAT, or whatever the exam is in your country.

Yes, it matters. It doesn't guarantee anything of course but it makes life a bit easier down the road. Go to the best university that will accept you. (I didn't and I think that it was a big mistake)

Thanks for the candidness. Hopefully I can pick the best university (for me) in the future.

Of course you should choose the best school you have been accepted too. But it's important to not let the fact that you didn't get accepted into a "better" school distract you from taking full advantage of your current path.

For lesser known schools, I would favor a smaller regional school with a real campus. Personally I think the community experience and potential to build relationships with faculty is greater, compared to a lower tier "me too" university in a larger center that is more about the city than the university (I don't want to pick on any schools, but e.g. some other english universities in the same cities as the Canadian schools you named)

Yeah, I'm glad I already know the campus / area. I'm guessing you're talking about the absolute behemoths that are UfT, McGill, and UBC. I was thinking of choosing between them, so knowing that I (and other people) will have a more personal experience is nice.

//My university has had a couple Prime Ministers//

//other than that, there is no real "prestige" to the university //

I am not sure what to say. Okay how many Prime Minsters from one university needed to count it as "prestige"? sorry for naïve query.

Compared to the two main universities in my country, we come in a distant third. Also, these prime ministers were also old, with one of them presiding over the First World War (he is on the $100 bill, which is cool).

Malcolm Gladwell makes the case for smaller schools > https://www.businessinsider.com/malcolm-gladwells-david-and-...

> "The Big Pond takes really bright students and demoralizes them."

That's really compelling. Being at a bigger school means more emphasis on the name of the institution rather than what you did there, while with a smaller school, people are more quick to look at your (likely higher in comparison) grades/research/life outside of school.

It matters, but choice of major and taking advantage of opportunities matter more. After your first job, for most career tracks, nobody asks what your school / GPA was.

I went to a mediocre school and have paid for it since. I worked super hard in college to optimize my resume and still have difficulty getting the opportunities “slacker” students at better schools get. I really have no hope for my future in this industry to be honest.

If you're majoring in STEM, degree choice has much less of an impact than if you're a liberal arts major.

If you're going to grad school- your second college matters a lot more than your first

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