BU Vs Northeastern Vs Babson Vs UIUC for business undergrad

Hey, I'm from India. I've been admitted to all these places in the respective business schools and I'm having a tough time deciding between these for business and for a prospective career in banking/consulting. What is important for me is the career opportunities, campus life, the crowd and social life.

At BU, I was impressed by the reputation of the Questrom School of Business and their amazing career development services. They have also been ranked #6 for employment by Times Higher Education. However, I've read that the campus is not very good and there is not much of a traditional college feel.

For Northeastern, they have a nice campus and CO-OP which I've heard is pretty amazing and helps in employment to a extent. Also, they've been coming up a lot in the recent years and constantly boosting up.

For Babson, I love the close knit business environment. Babson has an amazing reputation for business, specially internationally. However, I've been told it's not very good for finance and for employment. I see myself fit at Babson, but the employment factor is kind of worrying.

At UIUC, the accounting program is very reputed and I can double major in finance and accounting. The Gies School of Business just received a $150M reputation and they're increasing the focus on business. However, it's mostly known as an engineering school and the location isn't as great as Boston.

Cost is not much of an issue for me. Please help me decide.

 

Hi Akshat-Jain, the silence is deafening, sorry about that.... Any of the threads below helpful?

  • BU Vs Northeastern Vs Babson Vs UIUC for business undergrad constantly boosting up. For Babson, I love the close knit business environment. Babson has an amazing ... finance and for employment. I see myself fit at Babson, but the employment factor is kind of worrying. At ... schools and I'm having a tough time deciding between these for business and for a prospective career ...
  • UIUC Vs Babson Vs Northeastern Vs BU for undergrad Thank you. UIUC BU Babson Northeastern Undergrad undergraduate <p class="h4 ... choice for me if I'm looking for a career in banking/consulting. At UIUC, I plan to double major in ... finance and accounting, a double major in finance and mathematical finance at Babson, and pure finance
  • Villanova vs Indiana Kelley vs Northeastern vs BU vs Bentley for undergrad finance I narrowed my options down to these 5 schools. Prices: Northeastern-68k BU- 68k Villanova- 62k ... Indiana Kelley- 43k Bentley 40k I'm not sure exactly what I want to do in finance yet but I'd ...
  • Northeastern CBA vs BU SMG months back and just recently got off the wait list for Northeastern CBA. FInances are comparable at ... Northeastern has a pretty strong alumni network and has a better business school but BU is also ranked higher ... but i figured you guys can help add some valuable information. I was excepted to BU SMG a couple ...
  • UNC Chapel Hill vs. UGA vs. Vanderbilt vs. Boston University vs. Boston College vs. Northwestern vs. Northeastern from Baylor. I wanted to know which of these schools would prepare me best for a good finance career in ... and USC Marshall. UNC- I would be able to study at least econ, but ideally would want Business ... Administration (B.A.)major with concentration in finance. Will try to get into K-F, but at worst case, will apply ...
  • UT Austin Econ vs BU vs Others I was also accepted into Boston U, Northeastern, Fordham, UIUC, and Texas A&M as a finance/business ... Fordham university Texas A&M UIUC College of Business uiuc UT ut austin Economics ... . I was planning on doing finance, but UT, where I was rejected by McCombs, is cheaper than most of my ...
  • Boston U vs Northeastern U vs UIUC on which school I should attend would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Boston vs Northeastern vs UIUC ... Hi, I've been accepted to Boston University, Northeastern University, and University of ... Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an Economics major for my undergrad. I know these schools aren't the best ...
  • More suggestions...

Who will rescue this thread? MBAhopeful2013 Violetta-Vrublevskaya CNB90

Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

I went to Babson and can provide feedback.

I would go to BU or Babson depending on whether you feel you would be a better fit at a larger, less close-knit, urban, diverse school (BU) versus a smaller, suburban, business-oriented school (Babson).

There is a heavy international contingent at Babson and a lot of the professors are practitioners. If you excel there you can get into the BBs and McK/BCG/Bain. I was able to come out of there on the investment side for a mutual fund. However, these jobs are few, and you really have to be one of the top students in the class and network hard.

I would assume BU would have more opportunities, but not materially more and you’d also have to excel there and network hard.

I think this just comes down to fit and what you want, and wherever you are happier will lead to better outcomes.

 

That's false, there is a lot of OCR. Take a look at the employment reports...they should be on the career center website. Students generally do very well in terms of job placement.

 

Hey Akshat, I’m from India as well! Mumbai. The only college I have in common with you is UIUC, I’m considering a few others but those are other public ones like: IU and OSU, I did get a presidential scholarship at the University of Richmond so I am considering that. My main advice is, primarily because your choices are so vast, first figure out where would you thrive the most: in a smaller university with smaller class sizes or would big class sizes not hamper your academic progress. If it won’t, I’d recommend UIUC as they’re one of the few best undergrad business schools in Illinois and around Chicago making it easier to get jobs in Chicago, while in Boston and Massachusetts so many schools would make competition for jobs harder.

 

Not sure if you have made your decision yet but I went to BU and my best friend went to UIUC - both of us for business - so here's my two cent's worth:

You mentioned the amazing career development service - sorry to disappoint you, although the career development office has great folks, like most career service development offices, they're not the most useful in helping you get job placements. Not many of us gets placed into BBs (i'm assuming you're here because you're interested in wallstreet/corp finance/cap markets) but those who did worked their asses off and understand how difficult it is. And most of the time they're very willing to give back to the undergrad community to help the current batch get a leg up. I would say find a good club to join and tap on alumni from those clubs - almost no one will turn you down for an informational interview if you're sufficiently ernest.

I got into UIUC as well and similarly was very attracted by their strong accounting program. And because Urbana/Champagne is located in the suburbs with less people/things around, the kids tend to be closer knitted than in a city campus like BU. But being in Boston taught me the importance of being geographically strategic - many firms come down to Boston to recruit because of the high concentration of great colleges here (Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, Tufts, Babson, BC etc.) so you wouldn't need to haul yourself to Chicago for coffee sessions or informational interviews. Don't underestimate how time consuming this is when you're doing this multiple times a semester on top of classes, case competitions and club commitments.

Being in a city with a high concentration of good colleges also means great faculty. Most of my professors had taught in another top college in the vicinity or graduated from there, worked in Boston and simply decided to become an academic there.

What I truely appreciated about Questrom was that, despite the large student population, most professors are genuinely interested in helping you excel as long as you take the initiative. We had to take liberal arts classes at the other colleges, and I can't say the same for the other course faculties.

I'd say come up with a list of priorities and see which college comes closest to what you're looking for. Good Luck.

 

Et qui voluptatem ullam ut quia sed iste. Dolores consequuntur nihil architecto.

Ut velit sed qui quos. Possimus adipisci qui reprehenderit dolorum voluptates. Quam voluptatem aut dolores. Dolore ut ducimus aspernatur quasi animi.

Quos voluptas neque facilis eum maiores est. Non rem rerum magni recusandae exercitationem quas accusantium. Nam voluptates et cupiditate voluptatibus commodi hic in est.

Odio nam consequuntur explicabo. Molestiae possimus accusamus illo nemo ex magnam. Est eligendi doloribus rerum ut impedit est. Ut cum unde doloremque ipsa perspiciatis necessitatibus. Quam id enim nobis minima impedit expedita aut. Eaque necessitatibus porro laboriosam velit totam perferendis.

Career Advancement Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. New 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (87) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (146) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
numi's picture
numi
98.8
10
Kenny_Powers_CFA's picture
Kenny_Powers_CFA
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”