stevejobs
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One of my friends is an hr recruiter at a well known tech company, but he has been around so his opinion is not just restricted to his most recent employer. He said that to them there was little value in a liberal arts degree for an entry-level position that did not correspond to the major if the person did not graduate from a top 100 college or university. Even that was stretching it as they gave significant weight only on the Ivies and the handful of other top colleges (Stanford, MIT, Amherst). Meaning you could get a job as a project manager from Proctor & Gamble even if your major was in Russian literature provided you received your degree from Princeton. And you could have been a mediocre student to boot. If it came from Belmont University then you're out of luck.
While you may have busted your balls getting a liberal arts degree from Kalamazoo College, a nice, well-regarded regional institution (#67 in US News 2008 liberal colleges), at a cost of $35K a year in tuition and room & board, to recruiters, unless you did something extraordinary there, your effort and financial sacrifice was not "worth" it in terms of ROI. You might of as well of gone to a state college and saved yourself the thousands of dollars in extra costs.
That is not to say non-elite colleges don't offer networking opportunties and other benefits, but strictly as a matter of gaining leverage upon and impressing future employers, they don't for the vast majority of graduates.
While you may have busted your balls getting a liberal arts degree from Kalamazoo College, a nice, well-regarded regional institution (#67 in US News 2008 liberal colleges), at a cost of $35K a year in tuition and room & board, to recruiters, unless you did something extraordinary there, your effort and financial sacrifice was not "worth" it in terms of ROI. You might of as well of gone to a state college and saved yourself the thousands of dollars in extra costs.
That is not to say non-elite colleges don't offer networking opportunties and other benefits, but strictly as a matter of gaining leverage upon and impressing future employers, they don't for the vast majority of graduates.