Top 25 Universities for Corporate Job Search

Think graduating from an Ivy League school will generate great corporate job offers? Now could be the time to rethink this job search strategy.

Job recruiters from major corporations such as Google, General Electric, Campbell Soup and others from nearly 30 industries are reporting that large state universities have become their favorite places to find new college grad hires.

Penn State, Texas A&M and the University of Illinois are among the hot spots for job recruiters, whose companies recently hired 43,000 new college graduates.

A Wall Street Journal survey, which was conducted along with PayScale and Cambria Consulting, a human resource firm, uncovered the job search favoritism of corporate job recruiters.

Here are corporate recruiters' favorite recruiting spots:

1. Penn State
2. Texas A&M University
3. University of Illinois
4. Purdue University
5. Arizona State University
6. University of Michigan
7. Georgia Institute of Technology
8. University of Maryland
9. University of Florida
10. Carnegie Mellon University
11. Brigham Young University
12. Ohio State University
13. Virginia Polytechnic Institute
14. Cornell University
15. University of California, Berkeley
16. University of Wisconsin
17. UCLA
18. Texas Tech
19. North Carolina State, Raleigh
20. University of Virginia
21. Rutgers University, New Brunswick
22. University of Notre Dame
23. MIT
24. University of Southern California
25. Washington State University

Why Job Recruiters Love Big Universities

1. Corporate budget cutbacks have reduced the travel of job recruiters making it more practical to focus on larger schools.
2. Graduates of top state universities are often better prepared academically.
3. State schools are more likely to provide college students with practical work skills.
4. Corporations have formed partnerships with some state schools giving them access to professors and students.

Lynn O'Shaughnessy

View all articles by Lynn O'Shaughnessy on CBS MoneyWatch»
Lynn O'Shaughnessy is a best-selling author, consultant and speaker on issues that parents with college-bound teenagers face. She explains how families can make college more affordable through her website TheCollegeSolution.com; her financial workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College; and the new second edition of her Amazon best-selling book, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price.

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