How much does going to a name-brand university really help in getting a job?

Look up the employment stats at a place like Harvard and compare it to a place like Montclair State University and you tell us if you see any differences.

Yes, people hire grads solely based on the name of their school. This is reality.

Those people you mentioned who graduated from HYP working for minimum wage likely studied art history, and felt a bit too entitled for their own good. The media likes to blow this out of proportion, and it's definitely an exception, not a rule as often implied.

Go to the absolute best school you can get into, and analyze whether or not the benefit outweighs the costs (sometimes they don't).

Haha yeah. The humanities majors at my school are usually shit out of luck with finding jobs. However, I'm trying to figure out if having "art history" or "gender studies" or whatever gets them dinged or if those who are already really motivated head to econ, math, physics, chem, etc. My guess is that it's a combo of both.

It's called OCR. At the risk of stating the obvious, the only reason top schools have a larger presence on the street is because they're recruited out of. Know your shit and network and you'll be fine, it just won't be as easy. To each their own, but I'd take actually having a college experience + a struggle to break in, over going to a target + more easily getting in.... but again, to each their own

My school is listed above and all I can say is that yes it is very much possible to not have a job in your desired field even with a hard science degree. However, the percentage without a desired job from my college is much much lower than that of my high school.

The name brand definitely helps both in and out of college. Although I don't agree with this, my junior year internship employer only hired from ivy league schools (plus MIT/Stanford/etc.). It also makes networking a lot easier and better given that most of your classmates are successful.

Regardless of where you go and where you are in life you have to be hustlin.

@TheFix. What makes you think that?

There certainly are liberal arts majors at my school who get good jobs, but I'm just mentioning relative to the econ/math/stat/science majors.

Look, the Ivies provide you with a lot of fantastic opportunities that are almost impossible to find at any other school. But if you're not going to take advantage of the chance to grab a gold-plated IB or consulting job, it's a waste of money to pay sticker. Going to Yale doesn't make it meaningfully easier to get into med school or law school, and for non prestige whore-y jobs (almost anything that isn't banking or consulting), the guy across the table isn't going to slobber over your degree unless he's an alum. It's impressive, sure, but not worth $100k in loans. (And yeah, they do have great financial aid, which is nice.)

And yes, there are many, many people who squander those opportunities. Probably most, actually. Look at Harvard's average salary stats. Not that great. Which if you think about it, makes sense. There aren't enough IB and MBB analyst spots to take every Ivy kid or even half or a quarter.

Reality check is: if you get one of those gigs, you're in a really, really unique position. Don't fuck it up. There are TONS of Princeton guys that would kill for your DB ECM slot.