Business degree vs Harvard

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm currently a sophomore at high school here in England, and I am being recruited to play college football in the States (football, not soccer). </p>

<p>After playing football at college, I want to go into coaching/scouting, eventually hopefully becoming a head coach or gm, and if that doesn't work out I want to go into the business side of it, with the eventual aim of becoming an Athletic Director. </p>

<p>I have a 3.95 GPA and I am attending the 5th best school in the UK.</p>

<p>My question is, with my career goals, but also thinking about jobs outside of these if they do not work out, such as Management Consultant or IB, would it be better to attend a college like Harvard, which has a lot of prestige, but a lower level of football, and it doesn't offer business undergraduate degrees so I would have to take something like maths, or would it be better to go to a good business school, like UVa, USC etc. Or even to a school with a good sports management program (my ideal major) such as UMass or UMich.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for any help!</p>

2

<p>UMich would really offer a great football program with excellent post-career opportunities, especially if it has your ideal major. That said, you can’t really go wrong. A harvard degree is hard to pass up.</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, what position do you play? I didn’t know they recruited from England.</p>

3

<p>Michigan’s business school is also just as good or better than the ones at UVA or USC.</p>

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-overall[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-overall&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Still Harvard is Harvard. You don’t need to have a business degree from Harvard to succeed in IB or consulting. Harvard is easily the biggest target out of the schools that you have mentioned.</p>

4

<p>I would highly suggest looking into the University of Pennsylvania </p>

<p>their football team is the best in the ivy league and the wharton school of business is usually regarded as the best in the world</p>

5

<p>Boston College
Vanderbilt (no business school)
Wake Forest
Stanford (no business school)
UC Berkeley</p>

6

<p>Wow, I had no idea that high school students in England played American football! And that American colleges would recruit from there. How popular is it ? I know the Patriots played an exhibition match at Wembley this year and it was a sell-out.</p>

7

<p>OP, you’re either from Harrow if not London-Ashtead, if I may base it on your post.</p>

<p>If you want a different experience living and studying in America, I’d suggest you look at those top schools in California or Florida. </p>

<p>Florida has U of Miami, but your stats could get you to a much more prominent schools in the West Coast such as Stanford and UC Berkeley. Avoid USC because it isn’t that prestigious, so if you’ll be coming from a school like Harrow or Charterhouse or Westminster and such schools, it’s a huge drop off in terms of prestige. It would be like graduating from Eton and heading to Brunel for university.</p>

<p>If you want to be in the Midwest, Northwestern, Michigan, Chicago, and to a lesser extent, Notre Dame, are fantastic schools with national recognition. But going to the Midwest and East Coast wouldn’t really be any different from going to university in the UK, so follow where the sunshine is!</p>

8

<p>Pat1120: UMich is very attractive to me because of the football facilities it has in conjuction with one of the best academic settings in the world, so its a toss up between football+the major I want or going to Harvard. Do you think going to Harvard will give me any sort of comparitive disadvantage in terms of finding a job in football as a coach or scout because of the lack of a sports management degree and the lower level of football?</p>

<p>Also I’m a 6’3 230lb OL/DL/TE/LB and to be honest, they dont really scout here, I’ve really just tried to get my name out there through NCSA and emails and that…</p>

9

<p>BeanTownGirl: Yeah its getting pretty big here, we’ve got a big university league here now and the Patriots actually played the Rams as a Rams regular season home game this year. We’ve got two games coming to England next year hosted by Minnesota and the Jaguars, who are both losing a home game for it…</p>

10

<p>I see a lot of NFL coaches like Bill O’Brien (offered hc by browns) and Jason Garrett who went to Ivy League schools (without sports management degrees) so I don’t think going to Harvard would give you a disadvantage compared to UMich.</p>

11

<p>Really though what I’m trying to ask, would it be better for me, as I want to work in football as a coach or scout, to go to a school with a top football program such as UMiami, UMich etc. where I will play top level football, and get the sports management degree I want, or go to Harvard where football is lower and I cant get a business degree, but it’s Harvard…</p>

<p>Also, a lot of the jobs I have researched from coaching to athletic director pretty much all say that they prefer a “sports management or related business” major, so how much would not having this stop me?</p>

12

<p>^ I think exposure is the key here, not so much of the school. Even with a Harvard degree, you’ll need prior experience and exposure before you could finally break into the sports management arena. Being an athlete is a good start, but Harvard isn’t really top for football. I’d rather that you get as much exposure in your field during college (undergraduate) years at schools with great football varsity programs and then attend Harvard Business School or Stanford later on. In such case, I’d recommend Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, NU, Duke, UVa and Notre Dame – they’re the Ivies for football, lol.</p>

13

<p>What do you mean by exposure? As a student athlete? And when should I do my Ms from a school like Harvard or Stanford in this case then?</p>

14

<p>“UMich is very attractive to me because of the football facilities it has in conjuction with one of the best academic settings in the world…”</p>

<p>So true Goshen24.</p>

15

<p>How does a college like UMich rank in the minds of people in terms of academics in comparison to Ivy League Schools? In my dads opinion its a whole other level,but I think academically they are close enough, and with how much better they are in terms of football, it tilts towards UMich being a better fit for me with academics and sports. Do people agree?</p>

16

<p>Goshen24, the way I understand it, your short term goal is different from your long term goal. Your short term goal is to become a coach, right? And your long term goal is to manage a football / sport team, or become a sports promoter, is that correct? </p>

<p>As a coach, the university pays you. But as a sports promoter, you will have to invest a large sum of money to be able to organize such sports events. As a team manager, you will need private sponsors for your team. The later two positions would require enormous amount of money and connections with the business community, thus are positions held by mature, often old people. To become a head coach of a football team, you’ll need connection with the sports and academic community. You don’t need a Harvard degree with a sole intention of becoming a football coach. That’s why I said, it’s better for you to attend an undergrad school with a winning football spirit and try to get as much exposure and connection in that field as you can whilst you’re at that stage. When you have gained all that yet you still think and feel that your management capability is inadequate, attending a top business school would be an option to leverage your lack of management skills and connections with potential sponsors. I just don’t know how much of that would add to what you’ve already gained then, but I sensed it that you’re a risk-averse person, and so graduating from a top school would be important for you. Those 8 schools I listed in my earlier post are all fantastic schools for football, connections, academics and school brand power in the US or world-wide. You can’t be wrong in any of those schools, specially with Stanford and Berkeley.</p>

17

<p>OP, go to UMich and play ball.</p>

<p>If you want to get beat by my Buckeyes every year ;)</p>

18

<p>Michigan would be a great option and it’s not a step down from someone who came from a school like Eton and such.</p>

19

<p>I would agree with RML’s recommendation: “I’d recommend Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, NU, Duke, UVa and Notre Dame – they’re the Ivies for football, lol.”</p>

<p>Personally, if you want prestige and excellent football, Stanford should be a top the list. Stanford football was #6 in the nation this year and they have been consistently strong as of late. Their prestige and academics are not short of Harvard. </p>

<p>I would say Michigan and Notre Dame would be your next two best picks. Both excellent in football and strong business programs. Especially UM’s Ross.</p>

<p>UCLA and Northwestern don’t offer business degrees - you could still major in Economics, but they also aren’t exactly the most powerhouse football programs (though they are still pretty strong). </p>

<p>Berkeley, Duke, and UVA are all lower on the football programs - they haven’t had much recent success and they don’t carry big names in the football world. Though, they are strong in terms of academics. Haas (Berkeley) and McIntire (UVA) are top 5 business programs. </p>

<p>UPenn (Wharton) and Harvard should be considered with the above group. In my opinion, Berkeley/Duke/UVA aren’t particularly good in DI football, so the Ivy league football wouldn’t be THAT much of a drop. Meanwhile, Wharton and Harvard carry more prestige than Berkeley, Duke, and UVA. </p>

<p>To the question you asked earlier, I think University of Michigan is a step lower than the top Ivies, but it isn’t very much lower. You wouldn’t feel like there is a lack of prestige; Ross is definitely a top 5 undergrad business program in the US.</p>

<p>I’m really not quite sure if being a part of a top business program would suit your interests more or graduating with an excellent degree. Stanford and Mich would give you both, though.</p>

20

<p>"OP, go to UMich and play ball.</p>

<p>If you want to get beat by my Buckeyes every year"</p>

<p>In the meantime the OP was looking at the best schools for football AND academics, so…</p>