Has there been a study to quantify the value of a schools network

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Ependytis
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Has there been a study to quantify the value of a schools network

Post by Ependytis »

My nephew is considering going to a well known business school on the West Coast. He’s asked for my input. It’s not necessarily highly ranked, but as he says, there’s a lot of networking opportunities. I believe in using data for decisions. This is a private school charging -$60,000 per year so it’s not a trivial amount. He would not get a scholarship based on his grades. So the bottom line, is there a way to quantify the value of a schools network? If there isn’t, the costs are clearly high, so I don’t know that I can recommend that he goes in debt to go to this school.
BogleFan510
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Re: Has there been a study to quantify the value of a schools network

Post by BogleFan510 »

I have heard of some studies, but I personally wouldn't rely on a study to evaluate a school for a specific person's decision. It is a missunderstanding of data to assume a collection of results for thousands of people will necessarily pay off as an asset for one specific individual. The mechanisms of how networking create value are understood and can be studied (Dale Carnegies `How to Win Friends and Influence People' being a classic example. Buy him a copy of that book).

However, whether a person takes advantage of them and whether that is worth something is very different.

A person can only hold one job at a time (usually) and there are many ways to network and find a good job. It is later in a career when socual connections bear fruit too, other than a job. At that point, social clubs can matter, parental connections can matter, job connections can matter if working for a prestige firm, and a good golf game can matter in certain circles. Gender can influence how and when social connections can be used. For example, I was a male supporter of a womans network at a big 4 accounting firm that was very powerful. The firm's network helped many women break barriers and a job at that firm was a better door opener than the school attended, though a combination of both could really help one find a strong mentor. I would not put a University network at the top of a list, though they are powerful and their social organizations, if 'mined,' can be a source of opportunities. The value is also focus area dependent. Are they looking for investors? Are they doing real estate deals, social media startups? It can be a very asymetrical source of value, so a study likely might miss inform, depending on whether the kid hustles or not.

A good proxy though, is to look up the average salary by year of graduation for the school. One could assume that is a proxy of relative value for degrees from various schools, 'on average.'

One note, is that this can be geographic too. If one goes to Wharton and wants to work in NYC or Philly, the network is pretty powerful, less so in SF, but they have a campus there too. If someone wants to work in LA, USC has a strong and valuable network. But less so in Tokyo, for both, where Harvard's name might hold more sway, but also the network will be tighter and smaller circles. Better to study at Todai or maybe even LSE or INSEAD, for european connections.

So knowing the industry and areas that industry is strong for a school is also important versus a generic assessment by a study that assigns a value score.
For example, UCLA or USC likely beat Harvard, if one is interested in networking into the entertainment industry. Find what companies recruit and hire from where, and whether the industry of area of interest of the student is aligned well with the school. If that kind of focus is lacking in the kid at this point, I expect that the network is likely to be an unknown quantity, sort of like univested money...unlikely to generate returns, but maybe in the future if effort is applied to allocate time wisely, with a direction behind it.
Last edited by BogleFan510 on Sun Jul 25, 2021 3:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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RickBoglehead
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Re: Has there been a study to quantify the value of a schools network

Post by RickBoglehead »

Good answer.
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Re: Has there been a study to quantify the value of a schools network

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Personal Finance (Not Investing) forum (career guidance).
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qwertyjazz
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Re: Has there been a study to quantify the value of a schools network

Post by qwertyjazz »

If the outcome is money, then get data on alumni of that particular school’s salary at 2,5 and 10 years. There may be some surveys.
Who cares what happens at other schools?
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