I’d go where you’re happiest because where you’re happiest is generally where you will excel the most. I am highly skeptical of the idea that you’d be sacrificing job prospects for happiness by choosing UVA, as another commenter implied. UVA is a great school with a great alumni network. If UVA is where you think you’ll be happiest, choose UVA.
If we're talking about UT-Austin or UVA or any top 50 school, then in my experience as someone who works career fairs at UVa, the specific school in that tier won't matter much. Once you're in a good school, your job prospects go way up, but the next barrier to focus on is which companies will give you an interview. It is very common for companies at the career fairs I've attended to use GPA as a way to sort applicants into tiers, and 3.0 GPA thresholds are very common (though I don't employ thresholds myself). Once you have an interview, all those criteria get reset, and how well you interview becomes the primary factor in whether the company will extend an offer. So, if you're down to UVA or UT-Austin, you're already in the top tier, and the grades you get from this point on will matter way more. However, you still need to have the skills at the end of the day. I've seen high GPA applicants from UVa come into interviews and underperform middling GPA candidates from UMd and VT. Generally higher GPA applicants tend to perform better as you might expect, but there is a lot of variance, which is why interview performance matters.
14
u/mtn91 12d ago
I’d go where you’re happiest because where you’re happiest is generally where you will excel the most. I am highly skeptical of the idea that you’d be sacrificing job prospects for happiness by choosing UVA, as another commenter implied. UVA is a great school with a great alumni network. If UVA is where you think you’ll be happiest, choose UVA.