Master

TemTemz

Hey,
Wasn't really sure where to post this really so just took a wild guess..

So a few friends and myself are in the process of waiting to see where we get accepted for a masters programme and one major discussion that keeps popping up is the credibility of the universities. So the main two we're talking about is DIT and UCD.

Taking two perspectives:
1. Within Ireland
2. Internationally

How would each university be seen by an employer? Does the college you receive your qualification really play a role in how your CV is considered?

My main concern would be on the international level. UCD got ranked 24th in FTs Top 65 Business Schools. Does anyone have any sort of experience or knowledge of how much employeers keep up to date with world rankings?

My view has been that they wouldn't be able to know every college out there, or at times wouldn't even bother looking into them. In the end students dont always make their decisions based on the ranking of the college but rather where they would like to go/live. The curriculum of the course itself (example being, I would take DIT international business over UCD simply because of the outline). Am I completely wrong in this view?

cerebus

TemTemz wrote: »

Hey,
Taking two perspectives:
1. Within Ireland
2. Internationally

How would each university be seen by an employer? Does the college you receive your qualification really play a role in how your CV is considered?

Business Schools and their reputations/rankings can be either hugely important or a don't-care, depending on your career plans.

Personally, I think the importance of your chosen school being on whatever ranking/list you decide to use as your metric (and there are lots of different rankings) will depend on a number of factors:

- Where you are planning to work (both company and geographic location)
- Potential classmates
- Academic environment

If you want to work for one of the top-tier strategy consulting firms, or a bulge bracket IB, or make a move into PE/VC/HF/IM, rankings may be very important. Some firms may only actively recruit from a small set of schools, usually at the top end of the various rankings/lists. In this kind of situation, UCD would definitely have an edge. This doesn't mean that someone won't be able to find a job with the likes of McKinsey/GS coming out of a school like DIT, just they might have to work a lot harder to get an interview. Once you have an interview the rest is all up to you.

If you are more interested in a particular location or company in Ireland, time for some research on your part - find out who has degrees from DIT or UCD (for example), or whether companies you are interested in recruit from one Business School over the other. Most likely the rankings won't be that important in this case.

Classmates may be something to consider - if you're looking at MBA degrees for example a lot of people use rankings as a major component in their decision making process, so on average you will have "better" people in your class at a higher ranked school. In this case "better" is a very subjective term of course, but think of it as some kind of measure of academic ability/experience/extra-curricular stuff. Employers sometimes track this as well, and getting in to certain schools could be seen as an indicator/signal of quality of candidate.

I think a lot of the rankings take academics into account, in terms of quality of professors, facilities and student feedback. All other things being equal, a higher ranked school should give you a better academic experience but again this is pretty subjective.

Bit of a rambling answer, so I'll try to sum it up:

If you're planning to work overseas and leverage your masters degree to work in finance, consulting, etc. then rankings should be factored into your decision making process.

If you want to use your degree to further your career in Ireland, then figure out which school has the most graduates working in your chosen field/company. Rankings won't be so important. (I suspect UCD might have an edge here anyway though just based on the number of graduates it has... the Smurfit network is pretty strong in Ireland I think).

Just my 2c.

deisebabe

If you are more interested in a particular location or company in Ireland, time for some research on your part - find out who has degrees from DIT or UCD (for example),

Thats a sound piece of advice. In my last job there was five of us from WIT out of 15 Irish people.

I'm doing a masters in DIT at the moment and have found the college to be really good. But I know people who look as though to say its not as good as the likes of trinity....even though I know people who have come out of there with IT degrees that cant even code basic html...

TemTemz

cerebus wrote: »

Business Schools and their reputations/rankings can be either hugely important or a don't-care, depending on your career plans.

That's what I was afraid of and thinking. I don't really plan to finish off with my Master's and aim for top-tier firms, especially with my lack of experience. Don't really know if I would end up looking for a job within Ireland either.

It hasn't really been a major contributing factor for me when choosing where to go (mainly since I'm still waiting to hear back from any of them), but it has been a subject of discussion amongst my friends or whether or not it would play a big role if it says UCD or DIT on their CV in say Sweden.

Another concern was attaining a business related master from an "Institute of Technology". I guess in the end it'll come down to where you're planning on working (as you said) and whether or not they look into such things.

deisebabe wrote:

I'm doing a masters in DIT at the moment and have found the college to be really good. But I know people who look as though to say its not as good as the likes of trinity....even though I know people who have come out of there with IT degrees that cant even code basic html...

I've witness something very similar regarding peoples "end knowledge". Also seen people go from Trinity and UCD to DBS/DIT because they were unhappy with their courses or whatever.

damnyanks

worked in some of the largest investment banks, met many smurfitt MSc grads (No MBA's)

Never come across any DIT heads. So based on that I say internationally getting a masters from DIT is going to be less known then UCD.

Ireland is so small it may not matter. If both courses are the same area I'd go for UCD