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The New College Rankings
Are you better off having a degree from Princeton or Purdue? As the economy tumbles, it may not be so obvious anymore. A Daily Beast investigation into which schools recruiters like best.
With their high rejection rates and celebrity faculty, the Ivy League schools are a ticket to employment euphoria—at least, that’s the image they’ve worked hard to maintain. But the recession scrambles this truism. In the best of times, a degree from Harvard or Yale will open virtually any door. When jobs are scarce, however, it can be less important to study anywhere near the top of the spectrum than to study at exactly the right place somewhere in the middle.
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That’s because today, with pragmatism trumping prestige, certain campuses have become the favorite hangouts of corporate headhunters—and many of them are not the gold-plated universities you might assume. (Some of them you’ve probably never even heard of.) Though most companies are loath to reveal exactly which colleges they scour for new hires, there are ways to deduce where their efforts are targeted. “I tell parents when selecting a college, make your first stop the career center,” says Steve Canale, head recruiter at General Electric. “It’s the fastest way to tell what companies respect a degree from that school." Finding patterns in the alma maters of a company’s employees is another way to surmise where their recruiters are poking around. A Daily Beast analysis unearthed surprising evidence that suggests certain low-profile colleges are high on the lists of America’s corporate talent scouts.
Health-Care Industries
The health-care job market is one of the few on the rise, with no slowdown in sight as Baby Boomers begin to retire en masse. Industry giant Hospital Corporation of America, which runs nearly 300 facilities nationwide, has had a lot of luck hiring many of its 180,000 nurses, administrators and technicians from Western Governors University—an online program that costs just $3,000 per semester. The lucrative world of Big Pharma also combs for recruits in unusual places. Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, trolls the campuses of Indiana University, University of Minnesota, and Michigan State for new hires. And leading biotech firm Genentech, which is responsible for discovering many of the highest grossing drugs ever, got its top execs from schools like the University of Nevada and Iowa State. “Genentech's goal is to recruit people who are the best at what they do,” says spokesman Geoffrey Tweeter. Translation: An Ivy League education isn’t their first priority.
Creative Industries
Dreamed of working on the next Spider-Man or Iron Man franchise? Marvel Studios, which has captured several box-office records in recent years, finds most of its talent at UCLA, USC, and New York University. The comic book side of the company recruits the majority of its editors from three colleges: Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Arts, and Savannah College of Art and Design. “Most of our people have spent time working at DC Comics as well, so [recruiters at DC Comics] probably look at a lot of the same schools,” says Mary Sprowls, head of Marvel’s human-resources department.
Moreover, even if you do end up at a top-tier school, counterintuitive courses of study have forged many paths to companies seemingly unrelated to them. Google, for instance, ends up hiring a lot of linguists. And one of the trendiest programs right now is the Stanford Institute for Design, which sends grads to companies like Amazon, Disney, and red-hot design consultancy IDEO. Some even predict d-school, as it’s called, could become the next b-school.
Tech Industries
Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University: This trio is on a list of 40 schools from which General Electric hires at least 60 percent of its newest employees. GE may sound a little old school, but it’s a solid blue-chipper that brings on about 1,000 new recruits each spring and posts them in offices all over the world. Even minus Jack Welch, GE is still renowned for cranking out some of industry’s top managers. Just be sure to choose your major early if you hope to work there. “We don’t hire a lot of liberal-arts students,” says Canale, the recruiter. “We pick kids that already know what their passion is, whether it’s finance, building jet engines or designing health-care systems.” Other schools on GE’s list include Purdue, Notre Dame, and Case Western.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Kathleen Kingsbury covers education for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Time magazine, where she has covered business, health and education since 2005.
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spb9850
I believe Renee Fleming actually got her Bachelor's degree from SUNY Potsdam, at the Crane School of Music.
BernieO
This article states: "Industry giant Hospital Corporation of America, which runs nearly 300 facilities nationwide, has had a lot of luck hiring many of its 180,000 nurses, administrators and technicians from Western Governors University-an online program that costs just $3,000 per semester. "
Can this possibly be true? YIKES!! I am going to google HCA to find out what facilities they run so I can avoid them. Who it their right mind wants a nurse or technician, let alone an administration who was trained by an online course? I am sure HCA likes to hire these people because they can pay them a lot less.
hammer
This is a puff piece to keep all those who didn't get into Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT and the other top 20 schools placated. Come on, if given the opportunity would one rather go to the top 20 or Phoenix University?
People who are talented and ambitous will always be that way. And with the right breaks and connections they can be successful. It certainly can't hurt to go to a top school, but the way this senseless blog is written it seems like it is a handicap or provides no advantage.
AndreainNY
Very interesting. Is there a reverse college directory by company and where they recruit? It would be interesting to know where industry leaders recruit.
Davidpaul
There are many fine institutions of higher learning that are often overlooked by serious students, especially those on the East Coast who might be blinded by the light of the Ivy League schools. As a non-famous graduate of the University of Illinois, I valued the education I received there and was proud to be among the many people who did become famous:
Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape), John Bardeen, 2 time winner of the Nobel in physics, noted journalists Roger Evert, James Reston, Bill Geist and Gene Shalit; performing arts notables Gene Hackman, Ang Lee and Jerry Orbach; innovative architects Max Abramovitz (the UN building, Avery Fisher Hall), Henry Bacon (Lincoln Memorial) and Cesar Pelli; 5 astronauts, Governor Jon Corzine, writer Nelson Algren, publisher Hugh Hefner, ambassador Avery Brundage......I could probably name more. I would suggest that nobody should be ashamed of the quality of education that many universities in the middle of the country have provided.
brooklynbridge
Obama started his undergrad days at Occidental, but he received his degree from Columbia. As did Eric Holder.
Granite
BernieO--Most of those people probably already worked for HCA and conveniently got their on-line degree paid for by HCA so they could get a promotion.
Bulldoglover100
Gosh I might have dregded up some respect for your article if you had even bothered with some superior southern schools such as Rice or OU....yet you proved, once again, how very small your world truly is........
maliana
I think the obsession with top tier schools, particularly the ivy league, has grown to a ridiculous level. The combined enrollment of the to 10 schools on U.S. News survey is 137686 students (this includes undergrad, grad, and professional students). There were 17.4 million students at university in the U.S. in 2005. Of course people from other schools get jobs, many of them very good jobs, this is in no way surprising.
I think the article does make an interesting point though, too many students wait until the end of school to think about career development. I think that preparing students for a job search should begin very early on in school and there should be structured support both before and after graduation.
boopsie
Hold on people, too many people getting defensive about their education. I have two Ivy League degrees, and I applaud this article. Ok, so she didn't cover every industry, so she didn't get the schools in the South where the major Southern industries recruit - most places recruit close to major operations. But it is very worthwhile to see who recruits at your school, especially if you know what you want to do. In my Ivy League school, they really discouraged career planning early on, but hey, some of us, like me and most Americans, get in debt to go to college and need a real return on our investment to pay it off. So bravo, for pointing this out and not letting brochures on how pretty the campus is distract you. It's nice to have fun, but it's about getting an education that will get you a career. Sure, I think my degrees have helped a lot, even after hte first job. People just assume you're smart. But you can show your smart by your accomplisments after school as well. One tiny criticism of the article - it's not important where 40 or 50 year old CEOs or executives went to school; recruiting patterns can change a lot over since they graduated, as can the overall reputation of the school. Look at who's recruiting there now.
misha1000
May I plug my Alma Mater, Canisius College.
I got a wonderful education, and it has stood me in good stead for 34 years.
flyoverland
Ivy League alumni are great. I know, I went to a third tier state school and I had plenty of them working for me.
PublicusOrator
Emory University
flyoverland
Ivy League Graduates are great. I know. I went to a third tier state school and I had many of them working for me.
Charlemagne712
just a note about how "objective" these rankings are, it was either last year, or the year before, but i believe it was last year, my school (Presbyterian College) was ranked as the #1 liberal arts college in the nation, but PC maintained its position that such rankings are overrated when potential students are trying to find the right fit....i dont think anything has changed, in fact PC is opening up a pharmacy school among other improvements to the campus and relations with other institutions. but this year they were ranked in the 50s. go figure
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