It makes sense when it comes to bussiness and law school. But what about topics like physics, chemistry, etc... I thought the top universities were ranked by their investigations, etc. I think people from UC Berkeley have won like 72 nobel prizes.
I guess it would still matter...the network, that is.
After all, in the world of science (my undergrad), it`s publish or perish. And if you had to publish, all the better to have your name trailing a leader in your field. As you point out, there are schools with top tier professors whose names we`d all love to be associated with.
Then there are those schools who still have PhD`s, yet neither the laboratories, the funding, or the talent to truly make any noteworthy discoveries that can make a career.
So I think we agree - the network is incredibly important. Top ranked universities in the physical and applied sciences will attract top tier talent, to whom one wishes to work with, in the hopes that future employers will recognize the achievement. After all, if you keep up on the recent discoveries in bio-physics as an employer in that field, you`re more likely to read about what the superstars in the field are up to at MIT or Berkely, rather than that one lonely PhD at Chesapeake College.
That`s why it`s so hard to get into, and once you`re there, even harder to get into those labs. But if you do, you`re part of the way there to writing your ticket.
I was never great at science. Good enough, but never great. It also didn`t help that I wasn`t a girl. Most of the profs in my undergrad field of study were looking for tight little girls to be their grad students. Who could blame them. When they saw me coming, they probably thought `oh great, here comes another bodybuilder hoping to use some of the experimental hormones on himself instead of the rats`.
Oh, and yes; I graduated with honors from Uganda University with an MBA, majoring in business, minoring in economic theory; my thesis was on the activities of longshoremen on the piers, and the underground economies and exchanges of goods for services thereabouts. Quite fascinating. I threw myself into my work.
