Mcgill vs. Umich vs. IU Kelley vs. UIUC vs. Notre Dame vs. Western Ontario

I'm currently an International student going to high school in the US. I have Bangladeshi citizenship. I don't care about where I work as long as it is in either US or Canada. I have been admitted to:

Mcgill (Economics) (no debt) Western Ontario (not Ivey AEO) (no debt) UMich (Ross) ($100,000 debt) IU Kelley ($60,000 debt) UIUC College of Business ($60,000 debt) Notre Dame (Economics) ($145,000 debt)

What would be the best choice for me? Is Ross worth the extra debt? Should I spend two years at a Canadian school and then transfer?

23 Comments
 
Best Response

Congrats on the acceptances. Honestly it really depends on what your career ambitions are. Michigan and Notre Dame are probably the best on the list from an academic and social perspective.

My opinion, I'd go for Michigan, I'd say the 40k extra compared to Indiana and UIUC is worth it. Ross students place well in IB and S&T if those are career paths you are interested in.

Others might have another perspective, so take mine with a grain of salt. Also I don't know much about Canadian schooling beyond a study abroad where students from the schools you mentioned went.

 

Before you are determined to go to UMICH for banking, you should know that NOTRE DAME and UIUC should be out of the picture. They are great schools, but not good enough OCR or alumni base when you compare it to UMICH. However, when it comes to Kelly, it is worse than both of the schools if you will not be joining the IB Workshop. If you do get into the IB workshop, it's recruiting is better than Kenan Flagler, UMCP, SMU. But, it is still not anywhere near MICHIGAN. The way I see it you have 2 great options one at 60k debt the other 100k debt. Be absolutely sure that you will get into the workshop if you do pick kelly, but if I were you I'd take Ross. Best case scenario: you land summer ib internships sophomore and junior year at both schools

Worst Case Scenario: You will only get one summer internship at both schools.

Other than this, ignore ND and UIUC. Not so sure about the rigor of the Canadisn schools.

 

I know plenty of people at BB firms who went to ND. Can't speak to UIUC, but ND places really well in Chicago and sends people to NYC (I worked in NYC). To the OP, I'd recommend Michigan or IU given the amount of debt and the fact you would be in their business school. Sounds like you would do Econ at ND and not business (Mendoza) so would likely pursue Ross.

 

Then you have your answer. From a careers perspective, if can go to Ivey, you have to be a fool to take out an extra 100k in debt for UMIch.

EDIT: put it this way. even if you could go to UMich with no debt as well, it STILL wouldn't be a clear call for UMich.

 

Ok well in this case you should DEFINITELY be attending Ivey. Because it's not 100% certain you will get into Ross either. You probably have the same chance from either school to get into the business program.

 

Ross and Kelley are both good schools, but why take on debt equivalent to more than your first year salary for the same education you can get elsewhere? Once you get your first job it's all about experience at that point. If you don't care whether you go to Canada or the US I'd go to one of the Canadian schools. Having a ton of debt is not helpful for starting off your career, especially in the six figures.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
 

Honestly your Canadian offers suck, Non-AEO for UWO and non-commerce for McGill are both non-targets for Canadian and US recruiting. I will leave it to people more familiar with US recruiting to comment on that but I would choose those offers instead despite the debt

 

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