Does it matter where you get your degree? And other ?'s

This is my personal opinion, so take it as you will: unless someone is aiming for fields like med school or law school, I don't believe the college attended makes a significant difference. I earned my degree from a mid-major California State college, while my husband graduated from the University of Michigan. Despite attending very different colleges, neither of our careers has outpaced the other.

I believe the proliferation of online colleges has diminished the value of a traditional education.

In the end, opinions on the value of college education can vary widely based on personal experiences, career paths, and societal perspectives. Each person's journey is unique, and what matters most is often how individuals leverage their education, skills, and opportunities to achieve their goals.

What is he majoring in? That plays a very important part in the equation. If he is in engineering, then LSU would be my choice. For general studies and fields like business or liberal arts I don't think the school makes much difference.

Those schools have very different atmospheres. LSU has the SEC advantage with sports (IMO), it's a very large school in a city, tends to have a party vibe, and the Louisiana culture/life is going to be very different from what he has grown up with. It's also very close to New Orleans. Then there is the weather! But it is an excellent school (we have many, many friends who went there as DH is an engineer).

Wake Forest is also excellent, but is a smaller school in a smaller town with a very different climate.

Is there anyway he can do a campus visit to both schools? That would be the best way to get a feel for where he fits in better.




You'd be surprised at the number of biracial families/children there are in the South.  I don't think LSU would be an issue with this.  They also have a very large international student population.  He would not stand out like a sore thumb there.  

My opinion:
As others have stated, it makes a big difference in certain fields/areas of study.
Those things open the doors for you. Example:
My oldest step son majored in geology in Texas, but not at the "highly thought of university" for geology in Texas. He had excellent grades but could not even get interviews because those jobs went to the men/women who had degrees from the "right" university. 30 years later and he has never been able to get a job in that field.

I do think it depends on the field and maybe the culture of the city where you want to practice. I live in a big city and the concept of legacy is not significant. In the school I taught there were teachers who went to private university and those who went to city or state schools. Their salary was the same but some had a lot of student debt, and others did not.

Unless you are going Ivy League, or some other really big name school, I don't think it matters. And I think that mainly gives you bragging rights.

I don't think anyone has looked at where I graduated from beyond my first job.

Ivy league might open a door or two, but they sure do produce a bunch of morons sitting in Congress..

Go to a school with good honorable people, some of whom will become your best friends for life. Stay away from dog eat dog atmospheres.

Fresh out of high school, I went to college and flunked out my first year. I then slowly went back, got my associates, then bachelors then masters. I sit in a room with 7 other people who all do the same job I do, and are all equally respected. Even though I’m the only one who ever flunked out of a school. I can’t tell you where we all graduated from. We briefly discuss it when our kids are trying to pick their schools but we are all in agreement that finding the school that makes you feel welcome and inspired and supports your learning is the most important. I do agree that there are opportunities for networking in college but that isn’t limited to Ivy League or big name schools. He should pick the one he feels the best connection to.

Where in NC did you live? 

I have degrees from a couple universities. And quite frankly, the one from Purdue doesn’t matter in my career anymore than the one from Fayetteville State in North Carolina. I agree with other peers, unless Hill is going into law, or even planning to go onto medical school, or into some other very very very competitive grad program, it does not matter one iota.

As far as being biracial, I’ve never lived in Louisiana, but have visited. I won’t comment on that because I don’t know.

I will comment on Winston Salem though. I lived in the Chapel Hill, Durham area for nearly 10 years. I also lived in the Fayetteville area for three. Winston Salem, is about a 35 minute drive from where I lived for those 10 years. I currently live in Massachusetts, but I’ve also lived in Colorado, Florida, Oklahoma, and Indiana. My children are both white, but my nephew is biracial. His father was black. My nephew spent several summers at various homes where I lived. He also visited for some holidays. Racism is very real, everywhere. I would say, though that his experience is likely to be the same just about everywhere he goes. Racism isn’t part of my every day life, so I can say only that I was never more acutely aware of it than when I had my nephew with me and observed the difference in how I was treated, or he was treated. At times it could be subtle, at other times it was blatant. Absolutely disgusting either way. But I have to say the worst that I saw was actually in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

I wish your son the best with whatever he chooses, I do think he could be very happy in Winston-Salem if the general area and school is a fit for him. University towns tend to be more progressive and diverse as a general rule than the surrounding area and even as such, Winston Salem is an average city for better or for worse.

All that said, I found Winston-Salem to be very boring. Not many reasons to go there, most of the time, I would go to Raleigh for any arts, museums, fun or shopping. If your son is still open to school suggestions, I can’t recommend NC State enough. It’s where I’d hoped my son would go lol

There are some careers where it matters, finance and management consulting are the main ones. Otherwise, fit means way more than name. A robust, engaged alumni network can also really matter - and that is not dependent on school size or private vs public. As you're out of state, I would consider travel logistics as well. I underestimated those when my kids were choosing. Small regional airports can be such a pain. Good luck!

Charlotte. We were about 1.5 hours from Winston-Salem and went there often for soccer & baseball.

Bless his heart. My favorite was, "What church, j'all join?" Then if you say, "Catholic" they say, "Oh, that's alright."

In my experience, no. I am sure it can make a difference in some fields though.