Undergrad Vanderbilt vs. Rice vs. Kelley vs. UIUC

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for a long time but now I'm facing this decision for colleges and would like some help in deciding.

What path and at which school would offer the best chance for IB placement?
I was a direct admit at Kelley if that matters.

One thing that I feel might be an influencing factor is that I am an Asian-Chinese American. While it's not stated anywhere, I generally felt that we have a tougher time in IB and especially for Kelley's IBW if that is at a comparable level. Would this affect my chances at any of these schools?

Thanks everyone

 

my personal opinion is take out IU Kelley and UIUC unless you take some special non-business major.

Rice is a strong UG school among your list... it may not have a BBA program but it has a Business minor. you'd probably be looking at Texas for jobs though---but rice is only second to UT Austin.

Vanderbilt is a semi-target, very strong as well. it's probably a good one around the South.

UIUC is a big school--its b-school isn't its strength. It's an engineering school. if you want to do engineering, possibly ok.

IU Kelley is a big accounting school. you probably know that if you don't get into that small group, you'll be bust.

 
Best Response

shuang's a bit off with Kelley.

I visited recently(will be discussing that) and they placed 60 kids into IBD's in various firms last year.

There's one big "if" involved which is that you absolutely MUST get into the investment banking workshop to pull that off. What I'm getting at is that it's going to test your personal discipline and committment big time to do that. You'll be at a major university with countless clubs, a large greek life, and a nationally known athletic team.

It is entirely incumbent on YOU to control your involvement in those distractions and get the 3.5 minimum GPA(3.7 with no C's or D's in most cases) with relevant extracurricular involvement that you need for Dr. Haeberle(The IBW director) to work with you in the program.

IF AND ONLY IF you are willing to buckle down make that happen, you're more likely than not to succeed with investment banking from Kelley. If you let yourself get distracted and don't get into that you will find your options handicapped.

 
shuang19:

IU Kelley is a big accounting school. you probably know that if you don't get into that small group, you'll be bust.

You sure I'm off about IU Kelley? read that first..

@Xaerohl" I don't think whatever program will be emphasized on White male. I'm Asian and I don't care much about it, unless it's for some college admission programs (where Asians including Indians are overrepresented and Native American or African American are underrepresented.)

That's always going to be a norm, because the demographics of USA has a large percentage of male. I doubt some college little program will discriminate you racially to make themselves available for discrimination lawsuits.

plus Vanderbilt and Rice are definitely harder to receive admission that IU-Bloomington. with a Econ/Quantitative degree and relevant networking, it won't hurt your chances for anything. It's hard to dispute this...

 

Well I was looking at the resumes for current students in Dr. Haeberle's program and both the class of 2016 and 2017 is vastly, vastly white males. I'm not sure if there's any actual basis to this but this discourages me about my chances since I'm a 100% Asian male, though born and raised in Illinois. Is it possibly reflective only of the fact that IU has around 7-9% Asians or does it mean something more significant?

In the meantime I'll hope to get off Duke, Northwestern, or Penn SEAS (or M&t haha) waitlists.

 

A.) Yes, the % make-up of students has an impact. B.) The IBW relies heavily on networking. Not your race. It won't hurt nor aid your application. Biggest +1 is word of mouth from current members that think you're a superstar.

 

I doubt he's going to give two shits either way what your race is for the program, although black or hispanic will make it easier come time for job recruiting.

Also I hate to put it this way but "IU" doesn't concern you. All that matters is Kelley Business. It's the same way at some other schools such as Penn. What matters for "wall street" jobs is the "Wharton" part, not the Penn part.

If you can get into NorthWestern or Duke I'd take them as it will be easier to get into IB due to OCR, but Kelley is still going to get you there if you put in the work.

 
Bigass_Spider:

It's the same way at Penn State. What matters is the "Wharton" part, not the Penn state part.

lol. dude, I'm trying hard to not insult you for this.

but seriously, Penn State only has Smeal College of Business... If you really think IU Kelley is that big of a deal like UPENN's Wharton, Cornell Dyson, Berkeley Haas or Michigan Ross, NYU Stern, etc. then you might as well go there and try that..... until you feel uninformed.

 

In your rush to be a snob and show how much better you are than the rest of us, you ENTIRELY missed the point.....and that point had absolutely jack shit to do with ranking the "prestige" of each business program.

The point is that there are a number of schools out there where being in a certain department matters.

If you look around the boards you can find posters who had a hard time even getting the time of day because they were part of Upenn but not Wharton.

Similarly you can also find posters who were at IU and part of the IB Workshop, but still couldn't any interviewers because they were "IU" and not Kelley students.

For all those schools it's important for potential applicants to know because it impacts their matriculation decisions. You'd be a fool to go to any such institution that didn't offer you a direct admit to the business school, if another comparable school is giving you a direct admit.

For other schools it doesn't matter quite so much. It's well established that Wall Street prefers Ivy League institutions. They differ from the state schools in that most of them do not have undergraduate business majors. For schools like there isn't any department that you want to be a direct admit to.

 

seriously, your skepticism make no sense. If you have a brain freeze, bud, just take a break. also there is something called "Decentralized Networking", which doesn't hurt if a school doesn't have Undergrad b-school major, because ECON will be in Arts & Sciences as always.

OP has Rice and Vanderbilt offers. Either one would be strong enough for IB. Why do you have to squeeze him into a Undergrad Business School to have more risks towards IB? You think IU, or IU Kelley is harder to get in than Rice or Vanderbilt, both fine target schools?

 
shuang19:

seriously, your skepticism make no sense. If you have a brain freeze, bud, just take a break.
also there is something called "Decentralized Networking", which doesn't hurt if a school doesn't have Undergrad b-school major, because ECON will be in Arts & Sciences as always.

OP has Rice and Vanderbilt offers. Either one would be strong enough for IB.
Why do you have to squeeze him into a Undergrad Business School to have more risks towards IB? You think IU, or IU Kelley is harder to get in than Rice or Vanderbilt, both fine target schools?

What you're doing is called a strawman fallac y.

Nobody in here said that he needs to go to a "business school". As basic reading comprehension would have allowed you to realize my point was that if he does go to IU he's gambling on getting into both Kelley and the IBW....and that if he does he's probably set, if he doesn't he's probably fucked.

I've also already addressed your point about Rice and Vanderbilt. I was quite clear that at some schools you don't have the concern I mentioned earlier. Rice and Vanderbilt fall into those categories.

 

I think at this point I'm realistically considering Vanderbilt vs Rice mainly because IU is too much of a gamble with getting into the IBW. Parents agree with that.

How would getting internships in the field happen at Vanderbilt? It's out in Nashville and I don't know if it's enough of a target to easily find internships. I personally prefer the other aspects of the school more than Rice but this is obviously a very important consideration.

Does Houston provide Rice many benefits over Vanderbilt? I have the impression that somehow Houston is not very connected to NYC and that it's not too easy to move into New York from there.

 

Sure that matters. It's a tradeoff anyways. But if you do the work including networking, you still stand a chance.

sure that nearby firms will look for you more (houston). but since you're a target, you will have more ability to navigate around, unless a school of equal strength is nearby your target region..... I think that'd be all I can help with

 
Xaerohl:

I think at this point I'm realistically considering Vanderbilt vs Rice mainly because IU is too much of a gamble with getting into the IBW. Parents agree with that.

How would getting internships in the field happen at Vanderbilt? It's out in Nashville and I don't know if it's enough of a target to easily find internships. I personally prefer the other aspects of the school more than Rice but this is obviously a very important consideration.

Does Houston provide Rice many benefits over Vanderbilt? I have the impression that somehow Houston is not very connected to NYC and that it's not too easy to move into New York from there.

Don't know Texas personally, but from what I hear that's correct. I've never heard anything other than that it's very doable to get into Houston offices from there. Everything I've been able to find out is that all three schools are very regional. All the Vanderbilt people I've talked to placed in Atlanta area firms(although they said a few made it to NYC) on the MSF side, whereas posters from Vanderbilt classify it as a semi-target (BAML has historically shown up on campus). For IU, their graduates seem to be split evenly between Chicago and NYC. They're a clear non-target but their networking strength mitigates that with a total of 60 undergrads getting ibd jobs last year.

 

Well I have until tonight to make a decision. My thoughts right now are: I am indeed in Kelley as a direct admit. My biggest concern with them is getting into the workshop, and it seems like a large gamble that I'm not confident in.

For Rice vs Vanderbilt, there's not too much persuading me in either direction. My personal preference is Vanderbilt for the social scene and general atmosphere.

My goal is very much to get into NYC branches, not the more regional ones. I also have UCSD engineering though I'm pretty sure that's not a consideration.

 

I just can't see Kelley as useful, if you only can find 60 alums in the IBD...even with that, are those Chicago IBD or NYC kids?

Vandy and Rice will serve you well even if you want to transfer to a better target school. If you have a C grade in Kelley, you could be kicked out as I heard.

You want to make sure that your UG school boosts your career---with TOP faculty, Smart peers, and Strong career resources, so that you can reach to alums for referrals instead of dropping resumes all over the world. IU Kelley is good at finding jobs but obviously less navigate-able than other schools nearby.

If you're unsure between Rice and Vandy, just take a school that saves you more money, or for a closer location to NYC if you want~~~

heading to bed~ Good luck friend.

 

that's not even funny. this isn't my job and I dont have much attention to details. only a fool would think that IU Kelley only has 60 IBD alums total from these many years. lol.

What I meant is that, with 60 IBD alums last year, IU Kelley can still lose to target school placements by a mile. Are we clear?

 

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