does it matter what college you go to as long as you get a degree?

Question

Hi, I live in new jersey I am looking at Rutgers University. I want to become a lawyer like my uncle, he went through Rutgers law. Now how good is Rutgers Law? I mean, heres my question. Lets say you go through Rutgers Law you work at a firm, get paid good money, life is good. You have a masters in law. NOW if lets say I go to Harvard (just as an example) did the same stuff i did at RU, would i get paid more?

Answer 1

You're not talking about college. You're talking about law school. And there, reputation does matter.

Rutgers law is decent - it has a good reputation, especially in the NY/NJ area. If you got in, you should be proud, and if you do the right internships, do very well in classes, and do decent networking, you'll get a strong job coming out.

But yes, if you go to Harvard law, you will have entirely different companies/firms looking at you. It is possible that you will start with a far higher salary than a similar student coming out of Rutgers.

Does that mean that kids coming out of Rutgers don't do fabulous? No it does not. But out of Rutgers, recruiters may not be falling over themselves to hire you. Out of Harvard? Different story.

In the end, what this means is that doing well out of Rutgers is based on your own hard work. You will do well, if you prepare yourself well. Doing well coming out of Harvard - the path may be a bit eased for you, because of where you went to law school.

For example, certain employers will recruit at Harvard, but not Rutgers. They may accept your application from Rutgers, but they won't be actively seeking Rutgers students out. In addition, still other firms won't hire out of Rutgers. They'll only hire, or only hire for certain positions, out of the top 5-10 law schools. Of course, still other firms will be happy to hire Rutgers grads - again, it's a strong law school. But there are some that will only be looking at Harvard and schools like it.

So if you like Rutgers undergrad, great. Go there. It's the strongest public uni in NJ, and it's a great school. If you get good grades, maybe do an internship, etc - you'll be well prepared to apply to both Rutgers law and to HLS.

Answer 2

This is a tough question to answer these days. Although I did it the hard way and went to Junior College then to a major state University, I could still finish my Masters at the State University. I have heard a lot of examples of how people have received high paying jobs with only an online degree. It always comes down to a time, money factor. It is unfortunate for this. I am not sure what degree your son will be taking or going for and that could also be a factor. Some times it is just the interview. Military and College do not prepare for that single time in the office for that perfect job. Sometimes a good salesman selling yourself makes all the difference. Weigh the odds and come up with the best solution for the time. There are always higher degrees, but one step at a time.

Answer 3

Usually you would get paid more coming from Harvard. It is a matter of supply and demand in the marketplace. There are limited numbers of Harvard graduates and everybody wants them, so the firms have to pay more to attract them. Rutgers is fine, but there are a number of law schools which are at the same level as Rutgers, so the graduates of those schools would be interchangeable and would be worth less to the law schools.

I will say that the name of a school doesn't matter too much in some situations. If you wanted to bcome an elementary school teacher, or a social worker, or a social worker, or sell insurance, the employer doesn't care too much about the prestige of their employees, and they wouldn't pay a premium for someone coming from a top school. However, in the professions, it makes a huge difference. Law firms want to market themselves to clients by talking about the prestige of the law schools from which their associates graduated, so it helps a lot to go to the best school possible.

Answer 4

there are two things you need to consider when applying to college - course and reputation. it's best if you can get into a reputable, or good college that excels in the course that you wish to take. harvard is no.1 university in the world - especially in law and humanity. to an employer, say, a world-class law firm, your qualification and graduating university are equally important. if i have 2 candidates here with exactly same qualification, but one is from harvard and another from Rutgers, tell me who you'd prefer? However, if you want a comfortable life, being a barrister or solicitor in your local law branch will be good enough and that way good college isn't a must. it'll depend on where you wanna go, what kind of career you want, and most importantly, is law the right course for you.

Answer 5

Generally speaking, no. Unless your college has a fantastic reputation or a terrible one, whether you went to State College or the University of Your State is moot.

When you're speaking of specific majors or tracks, some college's programs are more reputable than others. Some is based on strengths of the program, but a lot is based on elitism... unfortunately.

You probably wouldn't get paid more by going to Harvard, but you may have access to different, more prestigious jobs and people than you would as a Rutgers alum.

Answer 6

No guarantees as with any job, but the Harvard name could open more doors if the managers are Harvard grads. same goes if they are Rutgers grads. - you just don't know what your opportunities will be generally.
I would go where you think your chances of success in school are the greatest.

Answer 7

Businesses normally just want a person who got a degree in college. However, the business is more likely to hire a person if they see that they graduated from Harvard or an ivy league school. If it is down to choosing one person from many, the person who went to the best college will probably get the job.

Answer 8

I don't think the name of the college matters. If I got a degree in (for example) chemistry at some small private college that your employer's never heard of, it'd be looked at the same as if it was a college like Ohio State University that everybody's heard of.

Answer 9

It really shouldn't matter but in the real world it probably would. I don't think you get paid more, but it would definitely open up more opportunities as in job offers.

Answer 10

I guess if you wanna be a bloodsucking lawyer, then it probably does matter where you go b/c the law profession is full of shallow, superficial, greedy, yuppies... and that kind of crap matters to idiots like that.