But I do think there is stigma against doing the easy/convenient/inexpensive thing when you are more than capable of doing something different. If I was the parent of a college student and they told me they’d rather continue living at home rather than deal with the challenges of living on their own and I had already told them that I was eager to pick up the tab for room and board, I’m not gonna lie. I’d probably think there’s something wrong with them. There’s a difference between staying at home because you can’t afford to move out and staying at home because you are too afraid to fly the nest.
And it would seriously concern me if they were only interested in applying to schools within short driving distance of home, especially if they were a smart cookie and the schools near us were sub-par. Even if we didn’t have a lot of money, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given the existence of scholarships.
I think you’re underestimating the income universities with residential facilities get from those. See also: book prices when the bookstore is owned by the university vs not.
That’s part of the advantage of having a residential college on your resume. It says the same things to employers - “I’ll take a risk, I have some courage.” It also says “I come from a socio economic background that a residential college is not out of reach - or alternatively, I’m exceptional enough within my socio-economic background to put a residential college in reach” - and that will always count for something - because people are tribal snobs and the world is still run from people who think that sort of shit is important.
When I was in college in the mid-80s we did labs at specific times. This was a wonderful thing in Vascular Flora of Wisconsin because we talked to each other while keying out plants and conferred with each other when we got stuck.
I’ll also point out that when you are in an upper level class, even at big universities, you kind of have to do your work because there might only be 10 or so in that class. I was 50% of fourth semester Turkish.
Wow. I’ve never even considered this when looking at resumes. I just looked at the quality of the college, the GPA, and the work done.
MIT has a facility for non-resident students, coming from the Cambridge area, like the Car Talk brothers. I doubt that someone is non-resident ever makes a difference in looking at MIT resumes, even if it was obvious.
MIT would be a resident college - even if you choose not to be a resident. Whether you consider it or not, when you look at resumes if you are weighting the college, you are weighting whether or not they are resident colleges.
My degree is from Metropolitan State University - a school set up for commuters and working adults. Most classes are nights. Its part of the Minnesota State University system - on par with Winona State University. When I graduated, Metro State accounting grads (my degree) outscored every other school in the state on CPA exams. But I’ve been told straight out by recruiters that my school is disqualifying, because its a “commuter school.”
To be fair, though, people don’t always know what a commuter school is if the school is branded a certain way.
I attended Rutgers University-Newark, which is mainly a commuter school (as opposed to the main campus in New Brunswick). But most people outside of NJ don’t know that Rutgers has two commuter campuses. All they see is “Rutgers”.
Also, not all commuter schools are the same. Until recently, Virginia Commonwealth University was classified as a commuter school. But my agency has no problem bringing VCU students in as interns and hiring them for full-time positions. VCU alums are all over the place. But you don’t see nearly as many other local commuter schools represented.
I bet that’s an excuse. Cooper Union in New York is a commuter school. I visited a community college in Wyoming that is a residence school. I have a hard time believing someone would pick Wyoming over Cooper Union. (Not to knock Wyoming - the place looked fantastic.)
At Bell Labs we hired tons of people from non-residence community colleges nearby.
I’m not doubting you, but I’d think a recruiter might find it easier to reject the school on a criterion which was black and white rather than some evaluation of “quality” which could be argued. I’ve learned that you never give a candidate you’re not hiring a reason, because that starts a conversation which can’t go anywhere good.
I suspect it has to do with type of student. Because of the way its set up, Metro State has a lot of students from lower socio-economic classes - which also means lots of brown students. That isn’t uncommon for commuter campuses, they are set up for budgets, but it also gives clues - right or wrong - for a recruiter to stereotype a candidate. There is a reason some recruiters are recruiting out of specific colleges - and I think it has as much to do with the type of student that goes there than it does with the program reputation But as Monstro said, if you go to Rutgers at a secondary campus - it doesn’t matter if you parked your car every day, it still says Rutgers on your resume.
I’m seeing stats on commuting, dorms, etc., but I’m having trouble finding any trends, which is what the OP is getting at. I want to include online-only too.
That sounds pretty plausible. One of the Rutgers Law Schools is in Newark, however. My son-in-law graduated from there, so did the son of a NJ senator and so did Elizabeth Warren, who spoke at his graduation. So that campus isn’t all bad. A lot better than the Camden one.
NYU alum here. When I started, NYU was undergoing a drastic change from being mostly a commuter school for people from the tri-state area to one with a global draw (I started in 1986.) They were so short on dorm space that they were housing students in fleabag motels. If you were from less than 50 miles away, you weren’t guaranteed a dorm slot, and if you moved out into an apartment you weren’t guaranteed to get back into the dorms later if you changed your mind.
And that was when there were crack dealers trying to recruit me as a customer half a dozen times a day on my walk to class. Greenwich Village sure has gentrified like mad since then, but NYU also bought a ton of real estate and built more dorms.
When my daughter was acting she acted in 3 NYU student films, and we went in a dorm (grad student dorm) to meet the filmmakers. None were living in fleabag hotels, though. Or the deal might have been off.
My hometown has very few places to apply any learning. It’s a seasonal service-based economy for the most part. Unless your “family home” is one that inherited significant capital it’s a place to escape for a better life. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of other people spend significant money visiting there every year. The “learners” who stay are mostly working class.
So, you go somewhere else to learn how to live on your own and see that there are other places in the world that value your abilities.
