@2inschool2 - everything is cyclical and within it, so is pay and opportunities. Some years/cycles up, other years down. It’s not going to die off. There will be lucrative opportunities for the strong/smart.
Berkeley had a good undergrad business program in Haas. Princeton also sends alot of undergrads to the top business schools every year. The majority of top business firms including Goldman, Boston Consulting, Blackstone, JP Morgan, Warburg Pincus etc. will only hire graduates from the top 5 or 6 business schools and undergrads from top 10 US News colleges.
Wake Forest definitely has a great business school. My friend’s sister graduated from Wake and got a job straight out of graduation in Dallas at Goldman Sachs. Wake’s academics are quite rigorous and grade deflation is rampant. However, if you’re determined and hardworking you will succeed, although that probably applies to all of the colleges you are looking at. My friend’s sister landed her job because of a summer internship that she excelled in, so look for schools that have programs in place to match or help students find meaningful internships.
@Alwave My son was similar to you, seeking a top notch business school but one that was more collaborative rather than being cutthroat. He’s headed to Notre Dame to start school in a couple of days. ND just gave us a totally different vibe. Everyone we talked to that was attending ND or that was an alumni reinforced the same thing. People attending/attended ND view themselves as part of a family and will do whatever it takes to help each other out. That’s part of the reason why the ND alumni network is so strong.