<p>I have no clue about what program should I apply to.
The following is my plan:
(1) Getting into some of the top consulting groups or the investment banks
(ex: McKinsey, Monitor, BCG, Goldman Sachs, Bains, Credit Suisse...)
(2) Learning foreign languages out of class (I hope I can study Chinese out<br>
of class room with some mentors or something through out four years)
(3) Have much time to study...I will take two yrs of Russian and German
-Russian(freshman+soph), German(junior+senior) in class. But I want to<br>
study each language deeper by myself after I get some basic idea in
class. So I would need some time to stuy those and ask Qs about those
to mentors
(4) Get some really really comprehensive view about international relations &
politics. </p>
<p>What college should I look for?
College of Arts & Science (CAS) or Biz?
I'm now looking for a early decision school, and I'm not HYP level guy.
Please pick help me with my selection:</p>
<p>*If Biz, I will only apply to two schools...
UPenn-Wharton</p>
<p>*If CAS, I'm considering
Stanford
UPenn CAS
Duke
Columbia
Dartmouth
Chicago
Cornell
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore
Northwestern
Brown
Georgetown</p>
<p>What should be my 1st choice to achieve my goals?</p>
<p>why not try NYU Stern for Business?
I can see your area of interest is mainly the Finance, and NYC is the CAPITAL of WORLD FINANCE. For Business, Location > Prestige.</p>
<p>Then how can you expect to get into Wharton or Stanford. Both may be harder than HYP if not just as hard. Same with Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore. All the colleges you look at are either at HYP level, or just bellow. According to your quote, you probably wont get into any of these. USoCal has solid buisness. So does Michigan (very good job placement), Emory, NYU, CMU, and other top schools</p>
<p>To answer your question go to CAS and major in econ. Apply to Penn Huntsman (language/international relations + business) but it is very cometitive.</p>
<p>No I mean I have personal reason not to apply for those schools-which doesn't mean that I'm wicked smart or stupid, it's not the matter of "how strong candidate I am"</p>
<p>Is there any particular reason you aren't applying to Michigan-Ann Arbor? It pretty much meets all your criteria. </p>
<p>1) Both the college of Literature, Science and the Arts and the college of Business (Ross) are considered "strategic" hunting grounds for major IBs and MCs. Literally hundreds of Michigan students join top 10 IBs (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and CS being the most popular) and top 6 MCs (mainly McKinsey, BCG and Bain) annually. Obviously, having a B-School the calibre of Ross, most Michigan students interested in a carrer in MC or IB will chose to major in Business, but like I said, all the major companies recruit heavily at the college of LS&A.</p>
<p>That's just for the B-School, which has a class of roughly 300 students. LS&A does not keep track of employment statistics.</p>
<p>2) Michigan's Language programs are hard to match. </p>
<p>3) Although Michigan does not have an IR program, it does have top notch International Studies programs and one of the top 3 Political Science departments in the nation.</p>
<p>Unless you have personal reasons for not applying to Michigan, I think you should.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor is neither small (120,000 population in downtown, 5,000,000 population in surounding 40 mile radius) nor rural (5th largest international airport in the US is located 20 miles East of Ann Arbor). Besides, Ann Arbor is rated one of the top 10 cities in the US in terms of quality of life.</p>
<p>Anyway, the OP doesn't seem to mind cold weather or rural areas. In case you did not notice, Dartmouth and Williams are on his list. Those two colleges are located in far smaller towns that are indeed rural.</p>
<p>some of Western univs have high repuation for business and economics. PLUS the BEST weather perhaps in the world (especially the So.Cal).</p>
<p>USC, Berkeley, and Stanford's business program all rank in top 10 and they all have excellent reputation with international business. Also, if you want to add some Finance aspect to it, you have UCLA's Business Econ program to satisfy your needs.</p>
<p>Forget Ann Arbor.. pfft. Before prestige, you need life first. If you want to experience a true college life, come to the west. Party, Girls, strong Academics. All in the West. :)</p>
<p>The climate sucks! LOL! I mean, Michigan winters (like those in Illinois, Massachuetts, New Hampshire and Upstate NY) start early and end late...and Michigan's academic year starts late (early September compared to mid-late August at most universities) and ends early (late April instead of mid-late May at most universities). In short, most of the Michigan academic year is cold. But most of the Northeast is just as cold. Unfortunately, with the exception of California, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, most good universities are located in the Northern US, where winters tend to be cold. Case in point, of the OP's list of 13 universities, only 3 (Stanford, Duke, Georgetown) have significantly warmer winters than Michigan.</p>
<p>Your list includes pretty much the best feeders into consulting firms and top banks. You can major in econ (or many other majors to be honest), study abroad, get a great education AND be competitive at the best jobs. Why go to a business school? There are only a few business schools in the country that do as well as these at placing grads into the elite companies. I worked at an elite consulting firm and was an anthro major (Dartmouth)!</p>