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Comment by chollida1 | Hacker News Reader

I'm Canadian, but I always thought I was knowledgeable about American universities.

I'd never heard of Harvey Mudd college, and here it is competing with the two giants of US engineering, MIT and Caltech.

The take away from this seems to be that you shouldn't assume your interviewer knows that your degree is from a "name" school, or that the school you went to will influence any one in a positive way.

I remember someone here mentioned that they went to University of Texas Austin and that they thought that should ensure them of getting an interview anywhere and I wasn't sure if they were joking or being serious as I'd never heard of UoT Austin before as being a good computer science school.

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I would imagine that most US employers are more familiar with them than most non-Americans because we're more likely to come across the less-well known schools when we were applying for college. Edsger Djikstra was a professor at UT Austin, by the way, so their computer science program is pretty well known.

Technical types in the US have heard of it, and (as others have mentioned) Rose Hullman, and hold them in high regard. They're just much smaller than their counterparts, and don't have huge grad schools, so they wind up lumped in with liberal arts colleges in the collective mindset.

UT Austin is one of the top few public Computer Science programs, up there with University of Illinois and UC Berkeley and maybe 1 or 2 others that I'm missing. When the oil money started coming in, they went on a hiring spree.

btw - I'm a big fan of the idea of more Engineering schools in NYC. Even with Poly, Columbia and the new Cornell school, there are more jobs than talented candidates.

> They're just much smaller than their counterparts

Caltech is pretty small, just under 1000 undergrads. When I attended, it was around 750.

http://admissions.caltech.edu/about/stats#student

Yes, with a larger grad school and research empire.

I'd err on the side of saying you're just not knowledgeable of American universities. But there's really nothing wrong with that, nor is it necessarily reasonable to expect someone not from the US to be familiar with US universities. At the very least, it opens you up to considering candidates based on their interview and not pedigree.

For what it's worth, Harvey Mudd and UT Austin are both very well-regarded schools.

You probably never heard of Rose-Hulman either, which consistently dominates Harvey Mudd in the rankings :)

I have, because I got in and couldn't afford to go. :(

You've heard of it because you got in? How were you admitted without knowing about it beforehand?

Bad word choice. I first heard about it from my high school government/history teacher.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/86369/11-colleges-that-are...

Also the downvotes must be from Harvey Mudd alum.

I've been told to not bring up the interviewee's degree or university unless they explicitly bring it up. Typically, the conversation stays focused on recent projects and coding questions.

If I had gone to Harvey Mudd or Rose-Hulman, and my interviewer hadn't heard of my school, I might have backed out.

You couldn't work with foreigners?

Why? Does the name of the school matter that much? If the person that is doing the interviewing is judging you by your skills objectively, they shouldn't care about the school you went. There are plenty of great engineers that went to state schools, and plenty of crappy ones that went to more known schools.

Also, after a couple of years of work experience (after your second job), nobody really pays attention on where you went to, so don't get too hung up if your interviewer is not familiar with your school.

Does the name of the school matter that much? My comment was under the presumption that the interviewer asked what the school was.

It isn't the name, but the strength of the program that matters.

I went to Rose-Hulman and almost no one out here in SF has heard of the school. Doesn't matter.

I didn't go to Rose-Hulman but was recruited to do so. I have a very high opinion of the school and I'm here in the bay. Just a data point from a UofI alum.

Caltech is much the same way though, outside of engineering nobody has heard of it. Like Harvey Mudd, it's a small *private school that hasn't yet become a household name.

Feynmann taught at caltech. It is far from unknown.

I didn't say it is unknown. It's well known, but only in certain circles. As contrasted with, say, Harvard which is known by just about every mother, brother, and child.

> only in certain circles

The circles that matter :-)

As a graduate of both Harvard and Caltech, I can confirm that this is true. Even many people in Pasadena, where Caltech is located, are only vaguely aware of its existence, and even many southern Californians confuse it with Cal Poly Pomona. Of course, Caltech is universally known and respected among technical people, but the contrast with Harvard—which, as you say, is known by just about every mother, brother, and child—is unmistakable. (Indeed, it's telling that many references to Caltech in these comments misspell its name. Hell, even many Pasadena city street signs misspell its name. Apparently the Institute is embarking on an ambitious new branding strategy—I suggest that getting Caltech's home town to spell its name right would be a good place to start.)

Small note -- Caltech and Harvey Mudd are both private, not public.

Whoops, sorry. Edited.

Apart from the sitcom the Big Bang Theory.

Even in Silicon Valley, Caltech is often confused with Cal Poly. I agree that you can't assume your interviewer has a clue.

Both Harvey Mudd and CalTech are private. :)

Bonus: Day9 and qxc of Starcraft fame went to Harvey Mudd.

I went to a tiny rural high school and I heard of Cal Tech. I applied, but did not get in.

I went to a suburban high school in the southeast, and while I'd heard of Stanford, I literally had no idea where it was. I thought it was in the northeast. No one from my high school had ever gone there, and I'd never even met anyone who went there (not that I knew of, anyway). It's probably different now, that was the mid 80s.

I'd heard plenty about all the ivy league schools, and kids from my high school went to them.

I was very aware of MIT as THE best tech school (in the reputation I'd heard), but I also had heard of CalTech at the hardest school.

Other schools that were on my radar did include Harvey Mudd, though I had no clue at all where it was. Colorado School Of Mines too, for some reason. Probably more because of the weird name than anything else.

I did well on the SAT and had a large box full of brochures schools sent me, so I got exposed to a lot of lesser-known places that way.

There was one that had me utterly fascinated, Deep Springs College. It's a 2 year school out in the desert. You basically work a ranch and take a sort of custom curriculum, then transfer to another school to finish a degree. I was too chicken to go, but if I could change one decision in my past, I'd go. I think it would have made for a radically different experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Springs_College

> I did well on the SAT and had a large box full of brochures schools sent me, so I got exposed to a lot of lesser-known places that way.

Is this typical? I did well on the SAT (in 2003) and had exactly one school sending me literature, a university in Tulsa, OK. And I'm pretty sure they were doing it based on my PSAT score, not the SAT.

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