Chosing between colleges: Focused degree or a recognized name

egrizzly

If you plan on focusing on a particular major....e.g. Information Security thoughts and opinions on whether it's better for your job prospects to go for a focused degree (e.g. MBA - Information Security) at a lesser known school like University of Texas - Tyler, or if it's more advantageous for you if you take a generic MBA from a school such as UT Dallas, or UT Austin.

I have often had a theory that a more recognized brand (in this case a University) would be more beneficial, however thought to garner opinions from TE land

EANx

I think that there are distinct advantages to be gained from going to a "name" school, the only question is if you think they apply to you. For someone who wants to land a gig as a trader in a hedge fund, they probably need to graduate at the top of their class with a well-regarded MBA. To get into that school, they probably need to graduate with a 3.8+ GPA at a top ranked undergrad college. I can also see the name school having a much greater advantage in a foreign country. It doesn't matter where a school ranks on the US News pages, Harvard/Stanford/Princeton will always outrank U of A.

Short of those or similar reasons, I don't see much advantage to the name school, especially as you get older. Name schools tend to have better alumni organizations so a younger person will benefit more than an older one.

DatabaseHead

Generic MBA from a named school, all day long.

Why not a CS Masters?

yoba222

For large companies, a generic degree from a recognized school is at least familiar to them.

All these recent specialization degrees that schools are marketing are way too new to have any sort of name reputation among companies. Unfamiliar fluffy wording.

DatabaseHead

yoba222 wrote: »

For large companies, a generic degree from a recognized school is at least familiar to them.

All these recent specialization degrees that schools are marketing are way too new to have any sort of name reputation among companies. Unfamiliar fluffy wording.

Actually saw one called marketing visualization. While in concept it probably rolls, database, stats, dashboard design etc.... which is great for analytics the name and the way the degree was marketed comes off extremely cheap......

NetworkNewb

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Generic MBA from a named school, all day long.

Why not a CS Masters?

+1 to this ^^^

I'll probably be applying to the Master's in CS program at Georgia Tech sometime soon. Really good price and all online. Can even go down there and walk with the graduating class at the school when you finish.