The 20 Best Universities For Early-Career Talent, According to Recruiters
Kate Beckman
November 26, 2018
#3 might surprise you.
Ivy League universities are often thought of as the crown jewel of early-career and entry-level recruitment, drawing prestigious companies to campus year after year. But despite the reputation Ivy Leagues have for top talent, they aren’t the only place to find qualified entry-level and early-career candidates.
RippleMatch automatically matches qualified candidates with entry-level positions and internships and screens candidates for initial interest. After reviewing candidates` profiles, recruiters that use our platform are able to reject or accept matched candidates into their interview process. We analyzed data across tens of thousands of interactions and found that students from certain universities were much more likely to to receive a first round interview than students from other universities.
Examining the composite data from the university recruiters that use our platform, we’ve identified the top 20 universities for early-career talent. We identified the top schools as those with the highest percentage of candidates "accepted" into a company`s interview process by recruiters from all industries, ranging from finance to consulting to manufacturing to technology.
The results reveal a preference for Ivy Leagues and colleges with low acceptance rates, but schools such as the University of Virginia and Howard University also cracked the top 10. Read on for the full results.
1. Stanford University – 72.4% of Stanford Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Stanford, CA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,062
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 4% (Stanford University has since announced it will no longer publicize its acceptance rate)
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – 70.4% of MIT Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Cambridge, MA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 4,547
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 6.7%
3. University of Virginia – 70.1% of UVA Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 16,655
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 29.8%
2019 US News Ranking: #25
4. Harvard University – 69.8% of Harvard Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Cambridge, MA
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,766
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 4.59%
5. Duke University – 67% of Duke Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Durham, NC
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,692
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 8.3%
6. Dartmouth College – 66.8% of Dartmouth Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Hanover, NH
Undergraduate Enrollment: 4,410
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 8.7%
2019 US News Ranking: #12
7. Northwestern University – 66.5% of Northwestern Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Evanston, IL
Undergraduate Enrollment: 8,278
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 8.4%
2019 US News Ranking: #10
8. Princeton University – 65.2% of Princeton Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Princeton, NJ
Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,394
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 5.5%
9. Yale University – 64.9% of Yale Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: New Haven, CT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,746
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 6.3%
10. Howard University – 64.8% of Howard Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
Location: Washington, DC
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,354
Admissions Acceptance Rate: 31.6%
2019 US News Ranking: #89
From Stanford University to Howard University, these are the top 10 universities for early-career talent according to our data collected from the recruiters that use our platform. The list below rounds out the top 20 universities for early-career talent.
11. Columbia University – 64.8% of Columbia Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
12. University of California, Berkeley – 63.8% of UC Berkeley Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
12. University of Pennsylvania – 63.8% of UPenn Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
12. Washington University in St. Louis – 63.8% of Wash U Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
15. University of California, Los Angeles – 63.7% of UCLA Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
16. University of Texas at Austin – 63.6% of UT Austin Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
17. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor – 63.5% of University of Michigan Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
18. Syracuse University – 63.1% of Syracuse University Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
19. University of Connecticut – 62.4% of UConn Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
20. Brown University – 61.9% of Brown University Candidates Accepted by Recruiters
[Original source]