<p>Going by rankings, prestige, and recognition alone, I would certainly choose Boston College. But I doubt I am getting in there anyway. I simply applied because it was worth a try, and it took 4 minutes. Second, I would choose USC, because it also has high rankings, prestige, and recognition. In the business recruiting world, this IS important. But if I don't get in there, it would be between BU, Northeastern, Fordham, and Bentley. Pretty much all identical academically. It just comes down to scholarships, location, and school feel.</p>
<p>mrfrizzle, your post was very helpful.
so was yours, Pyar
thanks</p>
<p>one more question.
Is it easy for a Bentley graduate to get a decent job in NYC?
I heard Bentley has no name recognization outside of New England.</p>
<p>Accepted today!</p>
<p>"I heard Bentley has no name recognization outside of New England."</p>
<p>ojin, my friend and I have been reading that a lot too. My friend was accepted at Bentley for business and she is not sure about what she is going to do. She's still waiting for a few more schools. She really liked Bentley but doesn't want to have a degree and not be able to get a job.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^
I'm in that EXACT same position right now...</p>
<p>But they ARE ranked #11 in "Best Job Placement" by Princeton Review so I don't know how difficult it should be to find a job...</p>
<p>Is Bentley stronger than Fordham in business?</p>
<p>/\ good question - i'm deciding between those two</p>
<p>Let me make this clear: Unless you attend a school such as Wharton or Carnegie Mellon business or MIT, your job chances will be about the same. Boston College, GWU and most others do NOT have any great cache over Bentley contrary to what is being said here.</p>
<p>Secondly, schools, for the most part, don't get you jobs. Why people don't know that is bizarre. Most students have to line up their own jobs, get their own interviews etc. If you really want to get a good chance for a good job, do an internship / coop every summer. You should be able to make some good connections, and the experience will prove very beneficial.</p>
<p>Also, getting top notch grades such as 3.5+, will help you greatly in many fields. A high GPA has its own cache if used correctly and mentioned on your resume.</p>
<p>Thirdly, Bentley does have some contacts in certain majors that will make it easier for kids to get jobs. This is particularly true in accounting and finance. You can certainly get jobs with other majors,but you will have to "hassle'" more.</p>
<p>Fourthly, the interview and resume is crucial. I know of many kids from great schools or with top notch GPA who have a hard time getting jobs. It isn't the cache of the school but rather the lack of good interviewing skills or poor resume of the applicant.</p>
<p>Finally, most accounting firms and other employers usually hire locally. This means that they go to local schools for their hiring needs with the exception for MBA candidates from top schools and only for a few select top firms.</p>
<p>By the way, in case you doubt my knowledge on this subject, I was assigned to help recruit for one of the big 4 firms ( Big 6 then) many years ago. I really do understand the process.</p>
<p>Any questions?</p>
<p><em>Waits for krazyk to somehow counter taxguy's post.</em></p>
<p>In response to Ojin, when you say "a decent job in NYC" I assume you are talking about finance. NYC is the financial hub of the United States, and in regards to the coveted career paths such as investment banking, management consulting, hedge funds, and private equity, Bentley is almost disregarded there. Unless you have stellar work experience to set you apart from the Wharton and Stern kids who are applying for the same position as you, or have deep connections in a certain company, you will have a very tough time finding employment. It's not that Bentley kids are underqualified per se, but there are just too many over-qualified people applying for limited slots.</p>
<p>To give you an idea of what type of industry this is, I called up several firms after submitting my online applications to set up an interview. It doesn't work this way, as they will call you first, but I tried to show initiative; something that would give me an edge. One of the said firms was Blackstone. When the HR lady picked up the phone she seemed polite enough, but then asked, "What school do you currently attend?" I think she wanted to retrieve my name from the database. After telling her "Bentley College", she let out what I believe was a chuckle/snort. I did a double-take, wondering if she had really done that, but shortly after the call ended, with her telling me, "If we have a need in the future we'll make sure to get in touch with you. Good luck." This was one of the more upsetting parts of my job search, but it goes to show the amount of "aristocracy" on Wall Street. I'm not sure if I would call it that, but it's a sense of exclusivity.</p>
<p>Because those fields are so competitive, due to the insane amounts of money being thrown around, you have to ask yourself, "If I have a 3.7 at Bentley, what sets me apart from the kid with a 3.7 at NYU?" All other things being equal, the employer will 99.9% of the time choose to interview the NYU kid. Not because they have a thing against Bentley, but because NYU is more renowned and has more alumni networks within the industry. It's akin to, "I have tried this product before. I will stick with it, why downgrade to something that isn't as good?" Some will wonder why Wall Street is such an attractive path in the first place. There aren't many jobs where you can be removed 2 years from college, have only an undergrad degree, and be making $140,000 base with $60,000 in bonuses. The bonus alone is more than what you can make per year at one of the Big 4 accounting firms.</p>
<p>There are, however, very small boutique investment banks who occasionally accept resumes from Bentley. They are located around Boston, not NYC. The pay and prestige aren't as good, but it helps to start at one of these if you really want a shot at going to a bulge bracket firm (one of the majors) in NYC.</p>
<p>This has been a long post. I want to sum it up by saying that for a decent job in NYC, it's possible, but a very long road ahead. Find your competitive advantage. This is usually how the recruiting process works:</p>
<ol>
<li>A prestigious name will get recruiters on your campus.</li>
<li>The strength of your resume will then get recruiters to call you for an interview.</li>
<li>Then, the strength of your interview will land you the job.</li>
</ol>
<p>Since Bentley doesn't have a name, you have to find some way of making yourself stick out head and shoulders above the crowd. The "brand name equity" is seen as nothing more than getting your foot in the door, but it is quite an important foot if you ever want a realistic shot of getting your resume seen. Hope this helps, please PM me with any questions, I will be as objective as I can. Oh, and in regards to Boston College, many i-bank recruiters go there to hire. So yes, BC does carry more weight on Wall Street.</p>
<p>YouTube</a> - unofficial guide to investment banking</p>
<p>One thing that I've found interesting in my search for the right college was the stats of Bentley vs. UMass Amherst. After looking over all the stats and info I could find I've come to realize that UMass Amherst is a better fit for me and shockingly a better school in general. Let's look at the facts from BusinessWeek;</p>
<p>Students-
Amherst: 3073 Bentley: 3810
conclusion: Amherst has a smaller student body at their business school</p>
<p>Career-
number who reported info to BusinessWeek
Amherst: 55% Bentley: 64%</p>
<p>Salary-
mean
Amherst: 47,065 Bentley: 47,982
median
Amherst: 50,000 Bentley: 47,500</p>
<p>As an accounting major I am strictly looking at Big 4 stats. And since Bentley has a main focus of accounting it seems fit to focus on those stats.</p>
<p>Total number hired at Big 4-
Amherst: 86 Bentley: 79</p>
<p>Important things to consider-
1. Actual student size of Amherst and Bentley may be larger or smaller as both schools sites have differing stats on total enrollment for business than that reported from BusinessWeek. Regardless, stats on student enrollment are fairly accurate from BW.
2. Percent of students who reported to BW was smaller at Amherst, yet they had more recruits to the Big 4.
3. Student size as ISOM at Amherst is smaller than that of the student size at Bentley pursuing business. Which also shows that despite the smaller size and smaller amount of students reporting their stats, Amherst sent more students to the big 4.</p>
<p>Conclusion-
Amherst on paper sends more to Big 4 with hire salaries than that of Bentley. Amherst actually has a smaller business student body than that of Bentley. Amherst has a larger total student body for the University giving it more diversity and different activities on campus.
The key factor-
Amherst: 19k/year (roughly)
Bentley: 43k/year (roughly)</p>
<p>I'm not saying Bentley is a bad school. I may probably still apply. But I found it interesting that a school that costs nearly double the price of a public school is outperformed by that public school in the accounting field. Another important thing to consider is that Amherst has an alumni base much larger than Bentley.</p>
<p>Something I found interesting on another site about accounting was this.
Bentley had 442 students in accounting, which consisted of accounting, accounting and related services, and taxation. Amherst had 186 in total for accounting, no category for taxation or accounting and related services.</p>
<p>So if both data is accurate we can compare that out off 442 students at Bentley only 79 get Big 4 accounting jobs. Amherst had 86 our of 186 students get in.</p>
<p>Just something I considered when deciding where to apply.</p>
<p>"to Big 4 with hire salaries"
-higher</p>
<p>" Amherst had 86 our of 186 students "
-out of</p>
<p>i wonder where you got your stats</p>
<p>BusinessWeek, stateuniversity.com, and the school's websites themselves. Stateuniversity figures seem fairly accurate because the totals for all graduating seniors in all majors are equal to what they should be vs. the total school population for both schools. Amherst was at a little over 5k and Bentley was at around 1,500. I've been looking at colleges for a year and a half now. Amherst had never crossed my mind for the entire time I had been searching and I had ruled it out from the start. Not til last week did I thoroughly research the school. The results I found were shocking as you can see. I don't have any intentions to slam Bentley or anything like that because it's a good school but the stats speak for themselves. </p>
<p>The one figure I have a hard time forming a conclusion from is the percentage of students who did not report their info upon graduation to BW. Either they got job offers they were embarrassed about or just didn't bother giving the results. Regardless, more reported to BW from Bentley but had fewer kids at the B4 along with a larger student body. For all the talk and rankings Bentley puts up, the numbers should simply be higher but they aren't and those are facts. Now the percentage of students that don't report could very well have landed jobs at the B4 also. This would only increase Amherts number of students sent there figuring in the ratio of more students sent vs. Bentley and make the numbers even more staggering. Even if we went with this conclusion that those who didn't report to BW sent students to B4 Amherst and Bentley would have larger numbers but due to the higher ratio from Amherst it would stagger those of Bentley. Frankly, at this point ISOM is at the top of my list. It's also a fairly hard school to get into. Freshmen admitted to ISOM need a 3.5 in high school and also need to do well in predictor courses at Amherst.</p>
<p>If you want to test my results go right ahead. BW just updated their rankings for 2008 about a month ago so those should be dead on. And stateuniversities numbers are in line with the total number of graduating seniors vs. total school size.</p>
<p>Those numbers at the bottom of my post; Bentley 442 for accounting and Amherst 186 are the totals of graduating seniors.</p>
<p>Sorry if you are having a hard time following, I have the thoughts and ideas in my head just a hard time conveying them in writing.</p>
<p>If what found is factually true, then go for UMASS-Amherst! I believe you were accepted to both schools,right? IMO,it is unfair to compare a liberal arts college or a business college in this case with a national public comprehensive university. Both schools have something special to offer and each school has its pros and cons. If im remembering correctly, Bentley ranks 11th in the category called "best job placement". What I'm trying to say is that Bentley is still a great school despite what you have said about Bentley in your previous posts. We should not be discouraged to attend Bentley. There are more factors that carry weights on the college selection process than solely looking at a college' academics and job placement prospects.
This is just my own opinion.
rand0m87, Wherever you wind up, Im sure you will do well.</p>
<p>Thank you for your kind words. </p>
<p>Like I said before I'm not trying to rag on Bentley. In fact, I was never trying to get these results. But this is what happens after a week of researching two schools side by side. Bentley and UMass were my two final schools to decide on. I do agree that comparing a business college to a larger liberal arts college is like two boxers fighting from different weight classes but regardless when you single out Amhersts ISOM and compare it to Bentley you can get fairly accurate results. What makes me mad is that BusinessWeek ranks Amhersts ISOM at 80 and Bentley at 30! Who is writing their rankings?! I pretty much disproved their ranking system with my posts. So my posts were never intended to show one school is better than the other just a slight flaw I found on BusinessWeek.</p>
<p>I deffinitely understand that "there are more factors that carry weights on the college selection process". My final two colleges came down to Bentley and Amherst from looking at other figures not based on job placement prospects. I was intimidated by Amherst's large size but also uncomfortable with the lack of diversity with Bentley's student body, i.e. mainly upper-class white students. I was leaning more towards Amherst yet liked the smaller class sizes at Bentley. But then there was the constant thought in the back of my mind of the lack of diversity that kept pulling me away from Bentley. So after leaning completely towards Amherst I researched the job stats and I was thrown back.</p>
<p>I haven't applied yet to either schools but I will be sending my transfer applications out probably early next week. 3.5 at community and hoping to raise my gpa to a high 3.6 or possibly a 3.7 after this semester. Are you at Bentley?</p>
<p>Krazyk, I can't say that you are wrong,but frankly, attending a decent college in new york will get more interviews in new york than attending a decent college in new england, all things being equal. Bentley would probably have an edge in new england over new york schools. Most companies like to hire from local talent. It is just the way it is unless kids attend a top notch , named schools such as Wharton or Harvard.</p>
<p>As for Boston College having an edge with I bank recruiters, I am surprised that you said that. We have a friend who graduated from Boston College with a 3.6+ and just recently complained about the same things you were mentioning about Bentley: He couldn't get his foot in the door at any of the IBanks.</p>
<p>We also have a friend whose son graduated from Brandeis with a 3.7 and took one year of hussling to get a job. He finally got a good one with a corporation ( not Ibank), but it took a year. By the way, he had fabulous credentials, and had a double major at Brandies in both math and computer science.</p>
<p>All I can say is that Ibank jobs are VERY, VERY hard to get. This is true for just about any school even grads from Wharton and NYU, although I would think that geting a top notch GPA from schools like that will make it a bit easier.....not easy,...just easier.</p>
<p>Well said taxguy. I said in a post on another part of the Bentley forum that if Bentley was located in New York, specifically where Stern is located then it would have a better reputation. Sometimes it is all about location. You could put any school where Stern is and it would have the same ranking and number of students hired to I-banks. Just watch the youtube video I posted about Deutsche Bank. The directors there even say it's not as important where you went but that you can display the right tools to succeed in I-Banking. You need to connect the dots through college even before submitting your resume. Joining the right EC's and making a good network. Learning to write a good resume and nailing the interview. It's really not all it's cracked up to be if you asking me. You really won't retire at 35, only a small percentage make a ton...just with everything else. You need to be good at what you do. You don't just land the job and instantly get rewarded with a huge check.</p>
<p>I don't understand why so many Bentley students get discouraged about not getting into an I-bank. Just major in accounting and try to get in at the Big 4 in Boston. After a couple years experience you can easily make the transition into I-banking.</p>
<p>Rand0m87, I agree with most of your post. I am not sure, however, that it is easy to transition into Ibanking. However, I certainly agree with the rest of your post.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think that picking a school for a specific type of job ( Ibank) where there are such few opportunities is ludicrous. Just pick a school and work your butt off in order to obtain a top notch GPA. Good jobs will eventually come your way unless you are a dork and can't interview. </p>
<p>Again, I graduated from Baruch many years ago with a strong GPA. I had more than enough job choices. Some of the opportunities I had to make myself by applying for these jobs or using networked relationships. However, I certainly had a plethora of fine job opportunities and this was from Baruch College NOT Stern, Wharton, Fordham etc.</p>