target schools

Jan 20, 2020 28 Comments

Do you see a difference between candidates from target schools vs. non-target schools? I feel like this term is overused and it just works as a prejudice against people who were less fortunate.

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TOP 28 Comments
  • I think practically speaking the very smartest people end up going to do PhDs so you have a decent number of top candidates for finance and programming jobs from the top 30 ish schools. Places like Harvard and MIT have disproportionately more people going to top PhD programs, leaving the less talented for industry. However as you move down the rankings you have to screen harder and harder.

    If the person has strong coursework and grades aren't too low I'm not worried. I find with grade inflation at top schools, the grades are still sort of comparable to schools where less As are given because the people complaining loudest about grade deflation usually deserve their bad grades.

    Finally, I've seen some really slow/clueless people from top 6 schools so it's not necessarily a good signal.
    Jan 20, 2020 0
  • On average yes. But any one person can make the most out of their situation and be an outlier.
    Jan 20, 2020 0
  • Ripple / Eng
    oekg25

    Go to company page Ripple Eng

    PRE
    Two Sigma
    oekg25
    Malcolm Gladwell has a great talk on this, using actual data, not a bunch of anecdotes from Blind users. One thing that stuck out to me was the graduate student publication rate. The conclusion was to pick the top students from every school, not every student from the top schools.
    Jan 20, 2020 5
    • Ripple / Eng
      oekg25

      Go to company page Ripple Eng

      PRE
      Two Sigma
      oekg25
      Only one of us saw the talk. I gave you the takeaway. I mentioned one example, and then you assumed you knew the whole story about it, when you don't. Just watch the talk, or forget that I even mentioned an example and just read the conclusion.
      Jan 20, 2020
    • @Ripple I’m not dogging you. Just sharing my experience. Friendly fire bro....;-)
      Jan 21, 2020
  • MassMutual / Eng
    RrEeEeEe!

    Go to company page MassMutual Eng

    BIO
    Lead Software Engineer
    RrEeEeEe!
    As a fresh grad:
    Yes.

    Once you have actual accomplishments your resume:
    Maybe. You need to remember that some of these students may actually have the potential and qualities identified by alumni - like Yale.

    Other students may have faked their way thru preparation for the admission process ... and rote-forced their way thru school.

    I'd like to know how lazy the student was in school to get to graduation ... combined with their class rank. The lower the effort and higher the rank ... or see what actual valuable work they did in college. (Not classroom crap.)
    Jan 20, 2020 2
  • As a non-target myself. I’d love to hear more people’s experiences
    Jan 20, 2020 2
    • New / Finance
      JoshBrown

      New Finance

      PRE
      Merrill Lynch
      JoshBrown
      My girlfriend went to a target school. Her roommates were clueless, but compared to a lot of my friends from my non-target they were definitely a notch above.
      Jan 20, 2020
    • Yep, target schools are definitely way better on average. I went to a non-target but most of my high school friends went to target schools.
      Jan 20, 2020