Best schools for undergraduate finance majors

Parents Forum
1

<p>I am not in love with rankings, but then again...</p>

<p>Which school are ranked highly for undergraduate finance majors?</p>

<p>US News lists Penn, NYU , Mich, Berkeley, and MIT. Indiana says it is ranked 7. Which schools am I missing?</p>

<p>Does any other body rank finance departments?</p>

2

<p>You are missing the Longhorns. They are probably ranked as high as their football and baseball teams ... or is it the basketball team.</p>

3

<p>Here's the USN "gospel"</p>

<p>Undergraduate business specialties:
Finance </p>

<ol>
<li>University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)<br></li>
<li>New York University (Stern)<br></li>
<li>University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * </li>
<li>University of California–Berkeley (Haas) * </li>
<li>University of Texas–Austin (McCombs) * </li>
<li>Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (Sloan)<br></li>
<li>Indiana University–Bloomington (Kelley) * </li>
<li>Ohio State University–Columbus (Fisher) * </li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University (PA) </li>
<li>U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) *
Univ. of Southern California (Marshall)<br>
University of Virginia (McIntire) * </li>
<li>U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign * </li>
<li>Pennsylvania State U.–University Park (Smeal) * </li>
<li>University of Florida (Warrington) *
University of Washington *
Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison * </li>
<li>Boston College (Carroll)<br>
Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (Krannert) (IN)* </li>
<li>University of Notre Dame (IN)
Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)<br></li>
<li>CUNY–Baruch College (Zicklin) *
University of Illinois–Chicago *
Univ. of Maryland–College Park (Smith) *</li>
</ol>

4

<p>Xiggi, I love that list.</p>

<p>My son might try to go to Texas. Do you think a California kid can do well there?</p>

<p>Do you have friends that go there? Dumb question. How do your friends like it there?</p>

5

<p>I have several friends at UT-Austin. My friends all love it, but remember they are Texans. I think that Austin is a hit-or-miss with little in between. It is a great college town but is also a small town with a very large school smack in the middle. Sports and night life reign supreme. (A bit of Iron Chef, here!) </p>

<p>Parking spaces and housing in the immediate vicinity of campus are hard to find and pricey. With its success, UT has also problems of overcrowding and the various honor department cannot make you forget that there are 50,000 other students there. However, it seems that -for its gargantuan size- the administration works well and I have not heard any complains. </p>

<p>The school is not for everyone but I think that this applies to every school in the country. For your immediate question, I also believe that UT offers a very strong business school -it also has a Business Honor Program. Since those programs are not part of the automatic 10%, chances for OOS are a bit better. The Business Honor is, however, extremely competitive with average SAT 300 or 400 points above the overall school. The business school is better for finance, accounting (Number 1 in the country in UG, Graduate, and PHD programs) and MIS than for marketing. </p>

<p>Lastly, unless a student is loaded with credits, taking summer classes will probably be needed to graduate in four years. Again, that is the plight of large and relatively inexpensive schools.</p>

6

<p>Thanks, Xiggi.</p>

7

<p>dstark -- If you broaden your search to include applied math, math-econ, and other majors useful for finance, you might also consider other colleges that are located in financial centers. For example, my S's at Columbia, which has no undergrad business or finance major, but as a sophomore he is already going to interviews for internships that he basically stumbled into because his friends have already done them and asked if he might be interested. He hasn't even declared a major yet, though he's a quantitative guy. My sense is that they look for smart, quantitative kids, and not necessarily for finance majors.</p>

8

<p>Sac, you are right about broadening the subject matter. (My daughter might end up a financial mathematics major). </p>

<p>You are also right about looking at schools located in financial centers. I see NY, Chicago, and SF as financial centers. Boston? Anymore?</p>

<p>I think my son is going to want to take finance courses and other business courses more than applied math courses; although, there is an overlap.</p>

<p>I could be wrong. :)</p>

9

<p>Charlotte in banking...</p>