Undergraduate Business School or Great College?

I'm starting the college application process and I'm very interested in pursuing finance. Is it better to apply to undergraduate business schools like Wharton, McIntyre, Stern, Lehigh CBE, RBS, Lerner, Kenan-Flagler, OR are top universities just as relevant, like Duke or Columbia? I realize that Ivy League is Ivy League and means so much, but I'm questioning whether it's better to attend an undergraduate business school versus a great university. When you look at undergraduate business school rankings, Duke and Columbia don't show up. Thanks for your help!

 

This is because Fuqua and CBS do not have undergraduate programs. No one, NO ONE, Will question your logic of going to Duke or Columbia vs an undergraduate b-school. My advice would be: 1) ignore rankings. Look at undergrad placement prospects. 2) go where you fit. If you do not enjoy undergrad, you will not be as successful than if you do. It's really the truth. Each system has its perks and downsides. Like an undergrad b school will have lots of resources and channels, but lots of competition. Or an Ivy will have the name and regular reputation, but won't have the clear cut programs a b school would. You can be extremely successful in both, so you need to figure out what works best for you.

 

Thank you for sharing your professional opinion! Any advice on taking substantial loans in order to go to these top schools vs going to a state school in NJ like Rutgers Business School or The College of NJ?

 

Thank you for responding! I applied Early Decision to Wharton and will know mid-December. I'm working on my fallback plan and the schools I was considering applying to are, in no particular order, NYU Stern, Columbia, Lehigh, UVA McIntire, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Duke, U Del Lerner, Rutgers Business School, and The College of NJ.

 

This list makes no sense at all, usually if you're applying ED to Wharton you should have a profile that would get you in at a top 15-50 school, so I'm confused why Delaware and TCNJ are on your list. Add some decent, but not hyper competitive schools with undergraduate business programs, perhaps, BU, BC, Emory, Notre Dame, WUSTL, Cornell, Michigan, Indiana, Wake Forest and Georgetown. All have top notch undergrad programs and are all targets (Ross, Cornell) or semi targets. On the state school front Ohio State, Penn State, UF and Illinois are all much better than Rutgers or Delaware if you need safety schools.

 
  1. check MBA rankings than "undergraduate b-school" rankings. Harvard and Stanford don't have undergraduate b-schools, wouldn't it be stupid to not attend those?

except LACs, top-25 in P&Q MBA rankings carries the best schools in any field.

  1. also do some early action to protect your downside if Early decision doesn't fly.
 

Top undergrad business schools are miserable and super cutthroat since everyone is gunning for banking... Do liberal arts at a top school and you'll get a dope job AND have a chill time in college.

I'm a liberal arts major at a target with a business school and have never felt disadvantaged in recruiting - scored FT offers from 2 BBs (MS/Citi/BAML/CS/etc.), 2 EBs (Evercore/Moelis/Lazard/Greenhill/etc.), and 2 MMs (Rothschild/Guggenheim/RBC/etc.).

 
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Top undergrad business schools are miserable and super cutthroat since everyone is gunning for banking... Do liberal arts at a top school and you'll get a dope job AND have a chill time in college.

I'm a liberal arts major at a target with a business school and have never felt disadvantaged in recruiting - scored FT offers from 2 BBs (MS/Citi/BAML/CS/etc.), 2 EBs (Evercore/Moelis/Lazard/Greenhill/etc.), and 2 MMs (Rothschild/Guggenheim/RBC/etc.).

Respectively disagree. I went to top undergrad business school and it wasn't like that at all. I was able to be an athlete, be in a fraternity, and do other clubs and such and had a great time in undergrad.

OP, the advice to go where you fit is accurate. I got into some of the great programs mentioned that don't have a b-school, and I decided to attend a school that had undergraduate business instead. The reason for my choice: I had NO idea what I would have majored in. For better or worse, I had a very narrow focus of interests when I was looking at colleges, and I couldn't see myself happy studying anything not related to business. The only other topics I could see myself studying would have been political science or econ, and given the current political climate on college campuses, that would have been a HUGE mistake for me.

 

Great advice. I'm focused on Finance and had a summer internship. But once matriculated, I will then be able to figure out exactly what I want to do. I may major in Economics instead with a concentration or minor in Finance, but I just don't know at this time. I've had so many liberal arts courses in high school, that I can't wait to study what I really want, though even the business schools have a core course requirement in liberal arts. Thanks!

 

What is your advice regarding the amount of debt I should be willing to undertake for the 4 years? My parents can only give me so much since my sister is in college right now and there will be a 2 year overlap. Some of these schools are $65K to $75K a year. My parents look good on paper, but they are older, in their early/mid 60's, and both their jobs are tentative. They may be retiring soon and will need to be able to support themselves. Thanks in advance for your input!

 

It really depends on your options. If it's $70k of debt to go to Wharton or you can graduate debt-free from Rutgers, I'd still probably recommend Wharton. Same scenario, but you're looking at UVA, Duke, Columbia or Stern instead of Rutgers, then I'd take any of those schools instead. Regardless, I think anything around $100k+ is too much. If you're competitive at these types of schools, then you can probably break in from somewhere like Rutgers. It'll be harder and you might not enjoy it as much, but $100k of debt at 22 is no joke.

 

Thank you for the advice. It will be a big decision, regardless. Will know from Wharton "mid-December" and have my interview with an alumni next week. I'm hoping I don't have to look any further!

 
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What is your advice regarding the amount of debt I should be willing to undertake for the 4 years? My parents can only give me so much since my sister is in college right now and there will be a 2 year overlap. Some of these schools are $65K to $75K a year. My parents look good on paper, but they are older, in their early/mid 60's, and both their jobs are tentative. They may be retiring soon and will need to be able to support themselves. Thanks in advance for your input!

just remember that you will have living expenses and all. so really widen your choices by tiers... you could also risk a little by going to a lightly-ranked school, kill it for the first 1, 1.5 or 2 years and then transfer.

 
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What is your advice regarding the amount of debt I should be willing to undertake for the 4 years? My parents can only give me so much since my sister is in college right now and there will be a 2 year overlap. Some of these schools are $65K to $75K a year. My parents look good on paper, but they are older, in their early/mid 60's, and both their jobs are tentative. They may be retiring soon and will need to be able to support themselves. Thanks in advance for your input!

Like others have said, you can get pretty much any job you could want if you are in the top ~30 or so, and don't forget the liberal arts colleges. If you think an MBA is in your future, you may want to put more weight on going to a school in the 10 range. If you want a hard number to shoot for over 4 years, look at capping out at $50k; if you are competitive for Wharton you should be able to hit that at something in the WUSTL/Notre Dame range (#15 and #18 respectively). Don't forget to take internship pay or working during school into account.

 

With the cost of applications, it's really beneficial to gain insight from the pros ahead of time. Plus, I'm not worrying. Just gathering intelligence to make the best decisions.

 
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With the cost of applications, it's really beneficial to gain insight from the pros ahead of time. Plus, I'm not worrying. Just gathering intelligence to make the best decisions.

You are going to take on a rather large amount of debt in the very near future, what is the point of saving $50-100 now? Secondly, top LACs (Williams, Amherst, Middlebury etc.) are SUPER expensive without financial aid. If you don't mind West Coast, you can always do the Junior College in CA for 2 years, get residency then pay in-state rates of UC Berkeley or UCLA.
 

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