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Do employers get turned off by college degrees from the South? How much does your alma mater affect your promotion chances? The White Guy says southern alma maters may create a "guilty-by-association" mindset among employers, who may connect the South with historic intolerance.

Today's Question: Is an HBCU or all-women's school best for your child?

Here's what you said about Southern alma maters:

After reading your column on Southern alma maters, I am concerned about my daughter attending [a] historically black college. She is applying to Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and the University of North Texas State in Denton, Texas. We are from Fort Worth, Texas. My daughter attended Spelman's early college program for high-school seniors. She plans to major in pre-law or political science and minor in music. She plans to attend law school. What are possible impacts of her attending an HBCU from an employment perspective?

--Cynthia Joseph-Keller

Are you saying that universities such as Tulane, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt and Rice fall into the University of Mississippi "regional" category? Funny that many people from all over the country and outside of the country attend these schools.

--Pat Spear

The White Guy responds: No. What I did say is that a person who wants to work in international relations is not well served to get TWO degrees from schools that have no reputation for a broad mindset or worldly sophistication.

You make strong points regarding perception of intolerance. However, I think you've missed a key point. New York is as much a "region" as any other region of the country--sometimes privileging its own point of view as correct and holding blind, silent or not-so-silent prejudices against others. I've heard many people say they can't break into the New York job market because New Yorkers believe that non-New Yorkers just can succeed in their rarefied environment.

--Keith Hayes

I take minor issue with your response to the reader who acquired degrees from Mississippi and Alabama universities. Are we assuming the reader is white (We must be ...if he/she were a minority, I don't think education at a Southern school would be a problem for an employer). Why would a white job candidate educated at one of these schools be different than a minority candidate--because someone assumes that the white candidate "chose to associate" with "Colonel Reb?" What if a Mississippi or Alabama school was an in-state, relatively affordable alternative for your reader?

You say that "association almost always means acceptance ..." With regard to attendance at a Southern university; what does this mean to a minority student? We can't say that a minority student "agrees with" an institution's history of racial prejudice because he or she is educated there. So why must we assume that a white person educated there is giving tacit assent to racial prejudice, just by the fact of their presence?  

Do we have any idea how minority students regard the quality of their experience at Mississippi and Alabama universities? Might they not take issue with the broadbrush conclusion that they've been educated at "tainted" schools? Might they say that their experience depended more on what they put into it and the quality of their education?    

Finally, is attending college in the South (or in Jersey) really "too much" of something "provincial" and "limiting"? Few of us can afford school in New York City. Cultivating diversity is very important. But so is maintaining the positive aspects of regional character. If there weren't widely different geographies, cultures and peoples, there wouldn't be any diversity to enjoy or cultivate! And the world would be pretty boring. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater as we seek better diversity management.

--Anonymous

The White Guy responds: The race of the person asking the question is completely immaterial. If you want to have a career in international relations, in my opinion, it is a definate negative to have TWO degrees from schools with the reputation of having a limited worldview.

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