I am far from elitist when it comes to schools. I’ve been victimized by that myself. (Despite my grad program being very highly rated in the field.) I’ve also done battle in admissions meetings trying to get an “A” student from small state school admitted instead of a “C” student from a more famous school.
But UofP is an a whole other class. It really is just a mail order diploma mill. I would definitely throw out any application from a UofP grad. And not just because the standards of the place is low. But also because anyone who doesn’t know enough to get a mail order degree from a regular school is unfit for the position.
What we’re seeing here is the “signal” of a degree from a certain school. The signal of an Ivy League degree often exceeds what’s learned there. I went to Harvard; trust me on that one. People will sometimes assume that I know things that are totally unrelated to my field.
At the same time, nobody’s agnostic about the big name schools. Folks either tend to be in awe of them, or harbor a weird grudge about them, seeking out the dumbest person from School X, or whatever. There were times when I would just not mention where I got my graduate degrees from because I didn’t want to deal with either one. Now, I’m much more at ease with my educational history. I’m proud of all of the schools I attended, from the fancy crimson diploma to the hours in teacher education from a small Catholic school.
Having been on the other end of the hiring process (one interviewer spent the interview trying to figure out if I knew his friend Y who went to Harvard, or if I studied under Professor Z), I can point to neat things about the degree and annoying things about it as well. But it can’t be denied that that it makes an impact. And half the battle is getting noticed, right?
I’ve noticed that internationally people are very impressed with where you went to school. I once got out of a speeding ticket in Malaysia when the cop found out I went to Harvard (???).
It’s unfortunate that people hold prejudices about schools based on nonfactors. The U of Phoenix grad might be very competent, or very poor. But you’d have to interview the person to find out.