<p>Yeah just look at any consulting or finance recruiting list. Top undergrad schools, i.e. Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia, etc blow any business school outside the top couple of schools out of the water. I'll see if I can find the lists...</p>
<p>This is from the vault guide to consulting. It lists core schools for consulting firms, but should give you some idea where the most elite firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Mercer, Monitor) recruit. The biggest lesson isn't looking at the exact numbers, but rather that the liberal arts schools do just as well or better than the business schools for the most elite firms.</p>
<p>In order of # of the top 5 that directly recruit on campus:</p>
<p>All 5
Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Penn (Wharton and College)</p>
<p>4/5
Dartmouth
Princeton
Northwestern</p>
<p>3/5
MIT
Michigan</p>
<p>2/5
Duke
UVA
CAL
Amherst
Williams
Columbia</p>
<p>1/5
Brown
Cornell
Chicago
Emory
Rice
UNC
UIUC
Notre Dame
UT- Austin
BYU
Georgetown
SMU
Claremont college system (Pomona and Harvey Mudd)</p>
<p>That assumes everyone wants to work at consulting or Ibanking. There are thousands of good jobs in business that are open to many more schools and don't require the 80-100 hours a week and super competitive environment of those jobs. Our firm had several dropouts from those types of companies and they were so happy to have their lives back.</p>
<p>^^ yeah but all jobs in the business world follow consulting and ibanking, and the majority of people who are ambitious about banking want to work in these two fields.</p>
<p>What you just said is the equivalent of "there are thousands of careers out there... who cares that harvard gets you a better job, not everyone wants to work somewhere outside of fast food"</p>
<p>True. The most highly coveted jobs unequivocally out of undergrad are in finance and consulting, whether one chooses to enter these fields or not. Post MBA I personally feel the most compelling business jobs then become more entrepreneurial in nature (i.e. small but powerful firms). Examples are Private Equity and VC, Hedge Funds, or high level executive corporate jobs in industries such as media or technology. Also being an entrepreneur with finance or consulting experience is a terrific background to launch a company post MBA.</p>
<p>Better is a relative term. To me a job is better is I get to work 8-5 and have time off to enjoy life. It does not take $1,000,000/year to have a comfortable life. Most studies indicate that people with a middle-class income are just as happy and satisfied with life as anyone--even the rich. One Ferrari is pretty much as good as having 20. There are still only 24 hours in the day and you still only get about 80 years on this earth--rich or otherwise. There are many people who feel working with and helping others is far more rewarding than cash.</p>
<p>i understand exactly what you mean, the only thing i would maybe try and assert is that going to a more renowned school leaves all options open, as you don't want to necessarily close any doors.</p>
<p>I would say - your location says lynchburg so maybe you went to UVA? - your going to UVA, for example, leaves open both the options of working at a high-powered, high-intensity firm as well as the 8-5 firm, and would even give you an advantage in getting a job at an 8-5 firm over someone who came from a school less renowned than UVA.</p>
<p>I wasn't saying everyone has to go into consulting, or that that is the best way to go, just that when you're looking for the "best business school" you should consider the very top business programs and then also look at top economics programs, whatever your life ambitions are, if you are specifically looking for the best preparation for a business career, wherever that business career%2</p>
<p>Concerning the differing opinions on Cornell:</p>
<p>AEM is simply a MAJOR within the Agriculture& Life Science (CALS)school at Cornell.
It is NOT a business school (such as Wharton @ Penn or Stern @ NYU).</p>
<p>It is a very highly rated undergraduate business program.</p>
<p>Hope this clears it up</p>
<p>Plus Cornell is relatively newly accredited and if you look in the past it has shot up the rankings more and more every year. It had a nice spike this year. </p>
<p>And ya it's a major...but simply saying it doesn't count because it's in Ag got me annoyed. But that's where u go for undergrad so w/e.</p>
<p>Figgy, I didn't put down "your school" at all. I simply said that AEM is not a business school - which is undeniably true. It's a solid business program, but isn't comparible to Wharton (which you implied in your origional post). However, in my opinion, Cornell would be better served by creating an undergraduate program in Johnson, rather than creating a totally seperate undergrad business program in an entirely different school.</p>
<p>In addition, undergrad business rankings mean very little. USNWR's ug business rankings are based only on "peer assesment" (ie, reputation). BW's methodology isn't much different.</p>
<p>sry I guess I thought ur first post was an attack when it wasn't.</p>
<p>I did say that Wharton is definitely the best. But Cornell has the only other accredited ivy league business program and I think that that says something. Having a business degree from an Ivy League school is definitely nice (not saying that that doesn't make other ones not nice). And I'm not in AEM btw so I'm not biased in that direction...altho I do go to Cornell lol</p>
<p>I think AEM is fine as it is. Why fix something if it's not broken? Moving AEM into Johnson would take away state funding, violate the original purpose the program was established for (as in it was made to be connected to CALS), and it would probably make the undergrads more mixed with the grads...which would kinda suck...especially since the school would probably focus on grads more if AEM moved into the grad school.</p>