Brown and Cornell are Second Tier

[courts]

Brown and Cornell are Second Tier

January 7, 2011, 2:46 pm

By Tom Bartlett

If you want to get a job at the very best law firm, investment bank, or consultancy, here’s what you do:

1. Go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or (maybe) Stanford. If you’re a business student, attending the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania will work, too, but don’t show up with a diploma from Dartmouth or MIT. No one cares about those places.

2. Don’t work your rear off for a 4.0. Better to graduate with 3.7 and a bunch of really awesome extracurriculars. And by “really awesome” I mean literally climbing Everest or winning an Olympic medal. Playing intramurals doesn’t cut it.

That’s the upshot of an enlightening/depressing study about the ridiculously narrow-minded people who make hiring decisions at the aforementioned elite companies. The author of this study—Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University—gained inside access to the hiring process at one such (unnamed) business, and picked the brains of recruiters at other firms.

The portrait that emerges is of a culture that’s insanely obsessed with pedigree. These firms pour resources into recruiting students from “target schools” (i.e., Harvard, Yale, Princeton) and then more or less ignore everybody else. Here’s a manager from a top investment bank describing what happens to the resume of someone who went to, say, Rutgers: “I’m just being really honest, it pretty much goes into a black hole.”

What’s surprising isn’t that students from elite universities have a leg up; it’s that students from other colleges don’t have a chance, even if those colleges are what the rest of us might consider elite. Here’s what a top consultant had to say about M.I.T.:

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(Much more at this link )

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This country is becoming more and more of an anti-meritocracy.

[King]

This story is kinda twisted.  This isn't anything new or controversial.

These investment banks aren't tossing undergraduate work at Michigan and Rutgers on a resume aside as bad seed.  That would be shocking.  They are preferencing post-grad study at Harvard Business School, Princeton Law, and John Hopkins Med over the others.  That's normal.

It's always been accepted as fact that undergraduate education can be achieved anywhere but not all graduate schools are created equal.  You can still go party down at Florida or pay in-state tuition for your BA, but if you are really serious about working at the top Wall Street investment firm right out of school then you better go to a real graduate school.

[opebo]

...if you are really serious about working at the top Wall Street investment firm right out of school then you better go to a real graduate school.

Apparently you misunderstand what it is that sets one school apart from another, intermoderate.

[Verily]

These investment banks aren't tossing undergraduate work at Michigan and Rutgers on a resume aside as bad seed.  That would be shocking.  They are preferencing post-grad study at Harvard Business School, Princeton Law, and John Hopkins Med over the others.  That's normal.

LOL. I hope those Princeton Law School graduates are doing well!

[bullmoose88]

These investment banks aren't tossing undergraduate work at Michigan and Rutgers on a resume aside as bad seed.  That would be shocking.  They are preferencing post-grad study at Harvard Business School, Princeton Law, and John Hopkins Med over the others.  That's normal.

LOL. I hope those Princeton Law School graduates are doing well!

Snicker. 

[Sam Spade]

These investment banks aren't tossing undergraduate work at Michigan and Rutgers on a resume aside as bad seed.  That would be shocking.  They are preferencing post-grad study at Harvard Business School, Princeton Law, and John Hopkins Med over the others.  That's normal.

LOL. I hope those Princeton Law School graduates are doing well!

Snicker. 

hahahaha

Did they take any Space Law courses?

Anyway, this explains why this country is really in sh!t shape actually.

[opebo]

These investment banks aren't tossing undergraduate work at Michigan and Rutgers on a resume aside as bad seed.  That would be shocking.  They are preferencing post-grad study at Harvard Business School, Princeton Law, and John Hopkins Med over the others.  That's normal.

LOL. I hope those Princeton Law School graduates are doing well!

Snicker. 

hahahaha

Did they take any Space Law courses?

Anyway, this explains why this country is really in sh!t shape actually.

Which does, the rampant elitism inherent in capitalism or the minor factual error?

[TeePee4Prez]

Other criteria:

All- Out of an A&F catalog, from a prep school/award-winning suburban public school district

Men- Over 5'10", BMI < 27 could accept up to 30 if low body fat.  Preferably over 6'.  Better be looking at Brooks Bros. , Jos. A. Banks, or Aramani.

Women- Over 5'4", blonde, blue eyes, BMI < 21.  Better be shopping at Ann Taylor or Neiman Marcus.

Oh and I almost forgot...... WHITE!

Now I oppose race-based AA in principle, but I would definitely favor stronger anti-discrimination measures that have gotten far worse during this recession.  Making it in the business world, I hate to say, requires the above.  Most firms don't want to look at minorities OR blue collar whites (unless really good looking + stellar GPA > 3.7).

[dead0man]

Wouldn't this just hurt the "elite" companies in the long run?  If they are turning away EVERYBODY that couldn't get into special school, they are turning away a lot of talented people who will go to their "lesser" competitors and make them better.

[patrick1]

It's nice that these same elites on both sides of the Atlantic had a huge role in nearly destroying our economy and entire financial system.

[Redalgo]

The "very best" law firms, investment banks, and consultancies can have their über-applicants. I am not going to pretend like there are not scores of quality graduate schools out there. Why even bother trying to jump through the ridiculous hoops some of these firms lay out? After all, I have no need for a salary exceeding five figures, am modest enough not to care whether I have prestige, and do not have ambition enough to hunger for power. Life is about far more than the big fish in the pond could ever offer me. If others want to chase their dreams and those lead them to elite establishments that is swell and all but that is not the road to happiness for me.

[King]

These investment banks aren't tossing undergraduate work at Michigan and Rutgers on a resume aside as bad seed.  That would be shocking.  They are preferencing post-grad study at Harvard Business School, Princeton Law, and John Hopkins Med over the others.  That's normal.

LOL. I hope those Princeton Law School graduates are doing well!

Thank you for proving my point.

[TeePee4Prez]

It's nice that these same elites on both sides of the Atlantic had a huge role in nearly destroying our economy and entire financial system.

That's the funny part.  One of the arguments with the bailouts and the insane bonuses was "talent retention."  Wow, what a crock of sh**t.  You can probably get anyone out of work from a community college B-School to do what they do if you train.  And really, the rules in Finance or Accounting for that matter are the same whether you graduated from Harvard, Wharton, or a state school.  When I was an undergrad at Temple's Fox Business School, a lot of the same profs taught at Wharton and admitted they didn't change a bit for Temple.  I just paid a lot less and didn't have to deal with the elitist BS.

[phk]

Finance has a huge pedigree bias as a rule.

[TeePee4Prez]

Finance has a huge pedigree bias as a rule.

Sadly, it's as bad as Art History for most people.  Accounting, not so much, but still a pain nonetheless.  Nursing and the hard sciences probably have the least.