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Totally agree w/the name dropping your school being a bad thing. However, just being a member of the club of people from those schools just keeps paying dividen

Totally agree w/the name dropping your school being a bad thing. However, just being a member of the club of people from those schools just keeps paying dividends as your career moves on. My friend quoted above went to Penn (Ivy League), I went to Auburn University (State School in Alabama). Both of us moved from the US to Argentina. I'm 36, he's about the same age. Penn alumni in Buenos Aires? DOZENS, NEY HUNDREDS. They're CEO's of major startups here, Argentines who had good grades, wealthy families, and went the US for school and came back. Auburn Alumni in Buenos Aires? i'm sure there are a few. Most will be with me at the sports bar on saturday watching Auburn-LSU. None are Argentines who went to school in the states and came back to run startups... He has a huge networking advantage here I don't. I tried to get Auburn to even start an alumni club here and they ignored my mails, for instance, whereas the Penn, Harvard, etc. clubs are an ongoing valuable source of connections and relationships for their members. I have plenty of connections at this point but it's a natural advantage I often find myself having to work harder to make up for.

Nrsolis 16y ago
Keep this in mind: networking opportunities come in many forms. Alumni clubs are just one avenue available to someone who is trying to connect with others. BTW, Auburn is a very good school. Excellent academics and a good reputation almost everywhere in the world. Of course, one of the afflictions of state schools is an overemphasis on sports. My feeling is that there is an attraction affect happening with certain schools that depends on their "brand." It may be the case that people who want to enter the corridors of power seek Ivy League degrees while others want to tap into more localized fraternities focused on something other than wealth/power/prestige.

Nrsolis 16y ago

Keep this in mind: networking opportunities come in many forms. Alumni clubs are just one avenue available to someone who is trying to connect with others. BTW, Auburn is a very good school. Excellent academics and a good reputation almost everywhere in the world. Of course, one of the afflictions of state schools is an overemphasis on sports. My feeling is that there is an attraction affect happening with certain schools that depends on their "brand." It may be the case that people who want to enter the corridors of power seek Ivy League degrees while others want to tap into more localized fraternities focused on something other than wealth/power/prestige.