The perception of these b-schools to employers, job prospects, and college decisions

Now that I have heard back from the business schools I applied to for undergrad I am attempting to make a decision on college. I would appreciate input. I'm taking out student loans for undergrad and I was wondering the prospects for me in I-banking and accounting coming out of these schools. And I was wondering what the employer perspective on each of these schools is and if the loans are worth the difference it would make for me in the job market.

Boston University
$50,000 in loans at the end of 4 years.

DePaul Accounting Honors Program
$14,000 in loans at the end of four years.

USC and Notre Dame
$60,000 in loans each,

GWU
Assuming it'll be about $50,000 in loans.

Carnegie Mellon
$120,000 in loans.

Where should I go if I wanted to break into accounting at a big 4 or I-banking?
Feedback appreciated.

My career plans are that I hope to get my CPA, start as a staff accountant for a few years, then transition to being a financial analyst for few years, get my CFA and MBA, and then attempt forensic or managerial accounting.

I'm leaning more towards DePaul. But how much would I regret not going to these other schools? And I'm from Chicago so DePaul is perceived as a not that strong of a school.

Nationally is it perceived as up there with the rest of them? And if I go to DePaul how will employers perceive the degree?

Also, if it makes a difference I'm Asian and middle middle class. I don't know how much that'll affect networking with alumni at a University like Notre Dame.

 
Best Response

You can land a Big4 gig from any of those schools. IB is a different conversation entirely. Your odds will of course be better coming from USC, ND, GWU, and CMU.

Generally, I would encourage someone in your position to choose the school that opens as many doors as possible, without breaking the bank, and also place some emphasis on social experience and setting. Do you want to study downtown in a large city? Or have a more traditional big campus experience? Or do you want a change of scenery that USC would provide? Those are all valid factors / questions to consider.

You might have an idea of what you want to do right now, but that could change 37 times between now and graduation. On average, I think you'll find fewer opportunities coming out of DePaul than you would from those other schools. I'm from Chicago as well, and I can tell you that DePaul is an ok school, but with Northwestern and UChicago both in your back yard, not to mention all of the other highly ranked Midwestern schools that feed Chicago (Michigan, Notre Dame, Illinois, Indiana, etc), you will be at a disadvantage just by sheer volume from those other schools that get more love from the Big4.

I think $120k for CMU is a premium not worth paying. USC and ND, I would say, are worth what you would owe because they both have extremely strong alumni networks, and very strong regional recruiting. GWU at pretty much the same cost as USC / CMU should be crossed off the list in lieu of one of those. DePaul is basically worth what you're paying - you'll get a decent education for a great price, and not as strong recruiting / alumni network. Summary: go with USC or ND.

 
djfiii:
You can land a Big4 gig from any of those schools. IB is a different conversation entirely. Your odds will of course be better coming from USC, ND, GWU, and CMU.

Generally, I would encourage someone in your position to choose the school that opens as many doors as possible, without breaking the bank, and also place some emphasis on social experience and setting. Do you want to study downtown in a large city? Or have a more traditional big campus experience? Or do you want a change of scenery that USC would provide? Those are all valid factors / questions to consider.

You might have an idea of what you want to do right now, but that could change 37 times between now and graduation. On average, I think you'll find fewer opportunities coming out of DePaul than you would from those other schools. I'm from Chicago as well, and I can tell you that DePaul is an ok school, but with Northwestern and UChicago both in your back yard, not to mention all of the other highly ranked Midwestern schools that feed Chicago (Michigan, Notre Dame, Illinois, Indiana, etc), you will be at a disadvantage just by sheer volume from those other schools that get more love from the Big4.

I think $120k for CMU is a premium not worth paying. USC and ND, I would say, are worth what you would owe because they both have extremely strong alumni networks, and very strong regional recruiting. GWU at pretty much the same cost as USC / CMU should be crossed off the list in lieu of one of those. DePaul is basically worth what you're paying - you'll get a decent education for a great price, and not as strong recruiting / alumni network. Summary: go with USC or ND.

You're right. It's between USC and ND academically. But is there anyway that with strong networking a DePaul degree would ever take me as far as a ND or USC degree? I'm trying to avoid heavy loans with the current turbulent economy and the possibility that I may be unemployed after graduation. I do hope to work outside Chicago post graduation. But I heard DePaul degrees don't hold much weight outside of the Midwest. Any thoughts?

 
SusKuang:
djfiii:
You can land a Big4 gig from any of those schools. IB is a different conversation entirely. Your odds will of course be better coming from USC, ND, GWU, and CMU.

Generally, I would encourage someone in your position to choose the school that opens as many doors as possible, without breaking the bank, and also place some emphasis on social experience and setting. Do you want to study downtown in a large city? Or have a more traditional big campus experience? Or do you want a change of scenery that USC would provide? Those are all valid factors / questions to consider.

You might have an idea of what you want to do right now, but that could change 37 times between now and graduation. On average, I think you'll find fewer opportunities coming out of DePaul than you would from those other schools. I'm from Chicago as well, and I can tell you that DePaul is an ok school, but with Northwestern and UChicago both in your back yard, not to mention all of the other highly ranked Midwestern schools that feed Chicago (Michigan, Notre Dame, Illinois, Indiana, etc), you will be at a disadvantage just by sheer volume from those other schools that get more love from the Big4.

I think $120k for CMU is a premium not worth paying. USC and ND, I would say, are worth what you would owe because they both have extremely strong alumni networks, and very strong regional recruiting. GWU at pretty much the same cost as USC / CMU should be crossed off the list in lieu of one of those. DePaul is basically worth what you're paying - you'll get a decent education for a great price, and not as strong recruiting / alumni network. Summary: go with USC or ND.

You're right. It's between USC and ND academically. But is there anyway that with strong networking a DePaul degree would ever take me as far as a ND or USC degree? I'm trying to avoid heavy loans with the current turbulent economy and the possibility that I may be unemployed after graduation. I do hope to work outside Chicago post graduation. But I heard DePaul degrees don't hold much weight outside of the Midwest. Any thoughts?

No. Cross DePaul off your list. $50k for USC or ND is a perfectly reasonable price to pay. Would you like to pay $50k for a degree and have a job making $60k right out of school, or $14k for a degree and have no job?

The extra that you pay for either of those is more than offset by the opportunities you'll have, the alumni network, and portability to great grad schools later, if that's what you choose. I'll be a little more direct than my previous post - given the numbers you provided, it would be retarded to choose DePaul.

 

Depaul only makes sense b.c of the money. CMU/ BU don't make sense b.c of the money (120 for marginally better than USC/ND at best, same 50k as USC/ND for BU but no where near same level). This discussion should really be about USC vs. Notre Dame unless you just neeeeed to save money.

 
BigBucks:
Depaul only makes sense b.c of the money. CMU/ BU don't make sense b.c of the money (120 for marginally better than USC/ND at best, same 50k as USC/ND for BU but no where near same level). This discussion should really be about USC vs. Notre Dame unless you just neeeeed to save money.

Thank you! You just definitely knocked out BU for me. That just made my decision a bit easier.

 

120k at CMU is the biggest waste of money. It's an okay school but not worth that price.

In my opinion, your decision should really be between Depaul (for the cheapest) or USC (better than the other schools on your list around the same debt load).

 
Raptor.45:
I'm a junior at ND and can verify that all of the major banks take 2-3+ IBD SAs per year. Also everyone I know that wanted a big 4 accounting summer internship got one, they recruit like fucking crazy.

That sounds amazing. I'm figuring it'd probably be harder elsewhere. What's the Notre Dame culture like from the standpoint of a student? And how challenging are academics?

 

Notre Dame was just ranked the best business under graduate program by business week for the second year in a row.

I know that BU suffers from massive grade deflation and recruiting is extremely tough in such a large private school.

As noted before, 120K for an undergrad at CMU is a little ridiculous. I know the cheap sticker price of DePaul is tempting but you honestly might even decide to do something besides accounting a couple years in. I would look at overall business programs as a better measure.

It also never hurts to get a summer job back in chicago to help pay down those loans. Then again, summer school may also be cheaper.

For what it's worth, I vote ND

 
M Friedman:
Notre Dame was just ranked the best business under graduate program by business week for the second year in a row.

I know that BU suffers from massive grade deflation and recruiting is extremely tough in such a large private school.

As noted before, 120K for an undergrad at CMU is a little ridiculous. I know the cheap sticker price of DePaul is tempting but you honestly might even decide to do something besides accounting a couple years in. I would look at overall business programs as a better measure.

It also never hurts to get a summer job back in chicago to help pay down those loans. Then again, summer school may also be cheaper.

For what it's worth, I vote ND

I wanted to double major in accounting and finance. However you can't double major within Mendoza. So as far as a business program goes, I can easily double major at DePaul. Is it possible to break into IB without a heavy finance background? And would it be worth going to Mendoza for the sacrifice?

 
SusKuang:
M Friedman:
Notre Dame was just ranked the best business under graduate program by business week for the second year in a row.

I know that BU suffers from massive grade deflation and recruiting is extremely tough in such a large private school.

As noted before, 120K for an undergrad at CMU is a little ridiculous. I know the cheap sticker price of DePaul is tempting but you honestly might even decide to do something besides accounting a couple years in. I would look at overall business programs as a better measure.

It also never hurts to get a summer job back in chicago to help pay down those loans. Then again, summer school may also be cheaper.

For what it's worth, I vote ND

I wanted to double major in accounting and finance. However you can't double major within Mendoza. So as far as a business program goes, I can easily double major at DePaul. Is it possible to break into IB without a heavy finance background? And would it be worth going to Mendoza for the sacrifice?

I'm a double major in accounting and finance at USC and I can tell you that even though I had somewhat of a shitty gpa (3.3), I landed first and second round interviews with pretty much all of the banks I applied to through OCR (and all of the major banks recruit at USC) and was easily able to land a MM FT gig in LA with no prior IB experience. Leventhal is a highly respected name in LA and the West Coast, and the USC name can get you in the door pretty much anywhere west of Colorado. That said, Notre Dame is a much bigger feeder to the East Coast / Chicago, so if you want to stay East, then go with ND; if you want to work out west, go with USC. Both are far better choices than DePaul (and my family has a long history with DePaul).

 

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