smart thinking @YellowSnow.
unless you're doing something specific, yeah, most people don't care where you went to undergrad and those that do often don't know that Whitman has brighter students than Gonzaga. It's just not common information people tend to care about. Sure, Furd, Duke, Ivies, some of the elite LACs, etc. move the needle and can open some doors. But generally it makes sense to make the right economic decision for undergrad. Grad school is a different matter.
I banking is still eluding the schools in the PNW though UW is starting to scratch some turf there, but you're still better off at a feeder, most of which are elite (MIT, Furd, Duke, Ivy, etc.) and some have just worn a nice path by being super Guido (SMU, USC, Boston College and a few others that would surprise you). I say Guido because those schools, while hard to get into, are not in my estimation at the elite admissions line. SMU for example does not get the smartest kids in Texas - they go to Rice and UT Austin - but they are connected kids. Kind of like the old USC of Texas.
If you want hedge fund they want elite quant skills and often only hire at the grad school level. Those places don't play around. Unlike the I banks, which still maintain kind of a country club atmosphere, these places are mercenary and only want people with the right math skills to help them do what they do, which is use math to fuck around with the market. Fuckers.
PE is somewhere between I banking and hedge … hard to break in.
If your kid wants to end up in Finance in industry and goes the accounting route, which is accessible and doable for the average kid willing to work, then the Big 4 give zero fucks where you went. Totally different culture from the above. Having said that, the Seattle offices of the Big 4 view UW Foster as a very important source of recruiting. Still, you work at those places and you are going to be surrounded by Kewgs, Ducks, Beaves, WW Vikings and CWU Wildcats.
I still maintain that the elite LAC - in the PNW that's Whitman and Reed - is the gold standard for the best substantive undergrad prep. They are not trade schools. They educate in the classical sense and it's not possible to hide at those places. Your professors are going to know you on a first name basis and will know if you're not in class. No scantron multiple choice tests. You have to know your shit or your grades will suffer. My kid attended one in New England and is now a maff PhD student at an Ivy. Ask and she'll tell you majoring in physics at her LAC is still the hardest academic shit she's done. Worth the money? Depends on your priorities, but probably not.
