Best way to apply for Finance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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I forgot about this piece of the puzzle.

EA decisions will PROBABLY be released Friday, January 26, 2024. That’s just my guess based upon recent history.

The 1st admission date for Ross BBA will PROBABLY be Friday, February 16, 2024. That’s just my guess based upon recent history.

What’s does that mean? If you submit your RD app on or before 2/01/24, then it’s highly likely Ross will not have had the time to review any RD Ross apps by the 1st Ross BBA acceptance date of 2/16/24 (speculative).

That 1st Ross BBA acceptance date of 2/16/24 (again, just my guess) will probably have a huge chunk of Ross acceptances. And then you’ll be waiting for a Ross acceptance in the mid-March pool or mid-April pool.

Ross BBA in RD is not “mission impossible,” but it’s going to be “mission VERY difficult.” Which means, I’d say wait until you get there and apply as a internal LSA-to-Ross transfer, better, but not great, odds IMO.

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  1. What if your D doesn’t like Economics as a major? This is one of the primary downsides of secondary admit business programs (assuming she doesn’t get Ross DA) that are highly selective. One thing no one has mentioned is that admission to Ross for sophomore year is holistic…meaning admission is not entirely in the student’s control. Students with 4.0 GPAs may not necessarily be accepted because the class has to have a diverse composition in terms of gender, intended Ross major, race, etc.

    1. Do not rush any applications. There is no benefit to submitting an RD app well before the deadline. Have your D do the research on Ross apps here and here.

For the non-Ross finance path question, your D can minor in business at Ross if she’s in LSA, but she can’t minor in finance. She can get a financial analyst job from LSA majoring in econ, as others have said.

IMO it will be much more difficult to get a financial analyst job if she majors in something other than Econ, like Environment (I assume you mean Env Sciences) in LSA. It’s a numbers thing, as well as having access to the correct clubs one must be in at Mich to fully access recruiting opportunities. Said differently, it would be relatively easier to major in something other than Econ (like Env Sciences) at schools like Dartmouth, or Bowdoin, or Middlebury and end up in a financial analyst job than it would be from Michigan. Does she have LACs on her list? What are her safety schools?

Lastly on another thread you said your max budget is $40K. As an OOS student, Michigan won’t get close to that budget. IMO Michigan is not worth the parents taking loans to fund the difference every year.

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I concur with most though may quibble with some details in this post, but I wholeheartedly agree with this point. If you have a $40K budget, Michigan isn’t the answer for an OOS student.

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I thought the name was familiar. Thanks for punting out the other thread.

@HankCT - is this list still active ?

When you say your parents can afford $40k - is this what the schools say they can afford ?

If, for example, they are full pay, are you willing to take our $200k in loans. You say for the right ROI but the answer is heck no. It would strangle you financially. I’d go to UCONN vs Harvard to save $50k in loans - even for finance.

IU is a teeny tiny chance. Same with UF although it’s gonna be within loan reason. And maybe Miami if it’s Ohio. No other publics.

Btw - is the SAT still 1380?

Thanks @Mwfan1921 maybe @HankCT you can update the thread ( I put the school choices below) and not just with budget but what NPCs like Dartmouth show because just because one has a budget doesn’t mean the schools will agree.

Indiana Kelley School of Business (qualify for auto admit with gpa/sat)
Virginia Tech
One more TBD

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
  • Match

Wisconsin
U Florida
Villanova
Miami

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According to the OP of this thread…this is the parent posting.

If IU is affordable, then your daughter can apply freely to anywhere else, as she is auto accept there according to your other post. Great news!

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Thought so but other thread said ‘parents can afford $35-40k.’ So more in the third person.

Nonetheless - they’d need big merit at IU to make it affordable to $40k. But could get under $50k for sure or has OP already stated it’s affordable.

I wish them luck but hope they have a stronger SAT and demonstrated need given the privates on the list.

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The student has a 1510, as clearly stated in the very first post on this thread.

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Oh yes. Thanks. Think I saw it but once I saw the old thread I went back and looked.

Hope OP (or their student) applies to schools that will get to budget sans loan or at least with minimal loans.

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So many seniors are super overwhelmed in the fall with AP/IB courses, high demand clubs and sports. If UMich was her top choice she should have focused on that as one of her priority apps for EA. If you have younger kids I’d approach the application process differently on the next go round. But I get it, we are all learning as we go and we can’t go back in time.

My D24 was very interested in Ross after our campus visit. Admissions made it very clear that if you aren’t admitted to Ross you are not allowed to apply again. They also stressed that transferring in later is next to impossible. Once she saw the portfolio requirement for Ross she decided to apply to LSA because she’s also interested in data science. There is a business path in LSA, I believe it’s a minor so she thought she can do that. The biggest sticking point is cost. Umich isn’t known to give much if anything so keep that in mind. Also it’s true that SO MANY students apply there from competitive HSs. If you look in Naviance you can see the stats. Last year our HS had 60 students apply and only one was admitted. That was a big change from previous years where usually 10-15 are admitted. This year over 70 students applied EA so far. This will give you a good idea of the competition and may help you determine other schools to target. Good luck!

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All good info. Appreciate it. U Mich was not her top choice. It wasn’t even on her list (it was on mine). But she changed her mind late in the process. Part of the reason she didn’t get her application in on time for EA.

So many seniors are super overwhelmed in the fall with AP/IB courses, high demand clubs and sports

Not so much. I know what you mean, but there are a few things that are notably worse than others. Chess club after school for 2 hours isn’t the same as a 7 PM game that has a 60 minute travel time, where kids have to be at the school at 3:45 pm to check in, get there in time for an hour warmup, 2.5 hour game, getting home at 10, being physically destroyed and exhausted, and then having to do 3 hours of homework until 1 AM. For that alone, kids who are top tier academically who also do that should be given extra special consideration by colleges. They probably aren’t, but they should be. Even sports like track, less demanding at our HS, fewer hours required, no weekends, and kids could miss practice if they had big tests or homework. Soccer and football, those kids get benched if they miss practice for a test. Coaches don’t care. The issue here though was more than it wasn’t on her list initially.

She also doesn’t have a clear 1, 2 and 3 school. She wanted to see where she could get in among schools she likes, and then with that list, go from there. I envy the kids who are certain of their #1 and #2 choices - but I even wonder if they truly know. So much of it is based on the kid, and random events, more so than a particular program. Just reading about how many kids read about the UC San Diego “colleges” and picked one based on the literature, only to find out they are miserable with their choice because it was different than described.

The Ross thing with the portfolio is a bummer. We weren’t even aware that was the situation since it wasn’t a school on her list initially, and it’s pretty much the only school we’ve seen that asks for it. It will certainly attract the kids who are always “super prepared”, even if not the most talented kids. She will apply for LSA.

As for affordability, it’s going to be a process where we look at merit (in some cases there will be none of course), value for the cost (alumni networks, program quality, job success rates), college loan options, and how much fin aid we get with 3 kids in school across CSS privates and FAFSA publics. No way to really know now. I have been surprised with each kid what has come back from those processes.

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So, I may be crazy here, but I am not one who is entirely opposed to loans. For me personally, I took out substantial loans, and it was the right choice easily. In 1998 I graduated with a CS degree and almost 45K in loans (which was a lot for the time, probably akin to 80k now). I had to spend an extra year in college to switch to that CS degree and left with two degrees. But it was fairly easy to pay back the loans given the career choice and I had them knocked out in about 5 years.

Do I think it’s wise to take out 120k in loans to be a social worker going to a low ranked state school? No chance.
Do I think it’s wise to take out 120k in loans to go to Harvard for a pre-law degree or Johns Hopkins for pre-med? Very well could be, since it may be peanuts in comparison to what that career path will pay.

We wouldn’t be looking to borrow that much, but how much will depend on the school and the track. This one of my 3 kids is extremely clear headed about careers that pay and those that don’t, so I don’t see a scenario where she goes off to be a financial analyst and switches to philosphy :slight_smile:

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The hedge funds love philosophy majors.

Not to nit-pick, but you definitely picked the wrong discipline to prove your point! It is one major where the name on the diploma (philosophy at Berkeley or Princeton is not the same as philosophy at U New Haven or Framingham State) is VERY meaningful.

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An in state public can be a better choice than Johns Hopkins to keep the gpa up. I also think many top students have the hustle of EC’s, based on my kids and their friends, 3 seasons of varsity sports, club teams, school play, choir, dance, clubs, all honors/AP’s. I’d see mine for a 20 minute dinner break after varsity sport before club sports and dance, 6 hours of sleep tops. It was pretty brutal but good preparation for college.

FAFSA is getting rid of the multiple child “discount” (I’ve had 3 in a few years and never received any FA except some subsidized loans instead of all unsubsidized). My kids could stay in state but needed merit for private or OOS.

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Ah, if this is the career path for any of your kids, you may want to reconsider this stance and read more on the application factors for med and law schools.

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We have seen the same trend. Large Midwest (not MI) public with great college placements. Historically about 50 of our students were accepted and 25 enrolled per year. For the past two years, acceptances have been around 30 and the enrolled number has been about 15.
And no one is getting into Ross. Kids that are looking for finance are going into Financial Mathematics in LSA.
Michigan used to be the safety for our top kiddos. It is not post-Covid.
What part of the country are you in, if you don’t mind me asking?

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It worked for you - congrats - but CS is golden. Finance is not so much although UM does well overall of course.

Pre-Law and Pre-med - and you have more expensive schooling - I’d be going where the stats got me for low low low $$ - but that’s me.

Your GPA and test scores, plus work experience, etc. will dictate your school admissions - in my opinion.

There’s a whole other thread on that subject in fact right now - but I think you’re just giving examples - this isn’t your kid so I won’t link it.

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Philosophy type major here who has had an OK finance career. Thank goodness I wasn’t as “clear headed”:grinning:

I would take a quick look at the academic majors of the CEOs of major US banking operations. Many if not most are humanities majors.

Here is a start:(Bank/Name/School/major)

BOA Moynihan Brown History
GS Solomon Hamilton Poli Sci
JPM Dimon Tufts psychology
Jeff Handler Rochester Economics
Sant Riley Princeton Romance Lang.
HSBC Roberts U Texas Economics

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Be curious to see how this goes, considering if you have 1, or 3 kids, but the same EFC, how can you suddenly pay triple? Wouldn’t put it past this (highway robbery) system though.

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We are in CT (HankinCT), so a few hours from both Boston and NYC. A bit of a crazy area. My middle got a full ride offer from Mich State a few years ago, but she turned it down (it was her second choice) for something in Mass that was a bit more after merit. The MSU admissions person told me he focuses on a few areas of the country that they treat differently, Fairfield County CT, Boston area, Northern Jersey, Manhattan, a number of other hot spots. He said kids high ranking from there they treat differently than high ranking kids from the rest of country.

I’m going to go with mostly “blowing smoke”, but I do think there is some merit to the fact that it’s a high achieving area with very smart and competitive kids abundant in the area, concentrated. We see a number of kids each year going to Michigan, Notre Dame, etc from our HS. Not a ton mind you. Usually see the Ivy level privates taking 1 from the graduating class.

We have an increasing number of top ranked kids choosing to go to UCONN instead of much higher ranked schools, for the money. My daughter applied to UCONN, but is kicking and screaming to find almost any other option. She just wants out.

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The previous system favored parents who had kids closer apart. For example, family A with two kids two years apart had a lower EFC for the years in which both kids were in college, and therefore paid less in total than a similarly (financially) situated family B that have two kids four years apart. The new system addresses this issue.
I know it seems unfair to families like A but the previous system was unfair to B. Now, both will pay the same over the course of their children’s college education.