Business: Georgetown vs. UMN-Twin Cities

College Search & Selection
1

<p>With the April 1st date of me hearing whether or not I get into Georgetown approaching, I can't help but think about what would I do if I do get in? With economic issues in our nation is it worth spending the extra $$$ to get the degree from Georgetown? Would it be beneficial in the business world to have an undergrad degree from G'town over Minnesota?</p>

<p>Pros/Cons:
Minnesota Pros:
*The Price
*Easier to travel home
*College Sports Scene (i.e. Big Ten)
*Good job placement in the Twin Cities Area
Cons:
*Carlson isn't as highly acclaimed in the undergrad as its grad.
*A much more "average" student body
*The feeling that I am settling if I choose to attend a state school</p>

<p>G'town Pros:
*Prestige/Reputation
*"Preppier" student body
*The oppurtunities associated with G'town
Cons:
*Distance to travel to get there
*Price
*Pretty much only basketball to get excited about</p>

<p>This is just a quick rundown of me feelings, but please any feedback would be appreciated whether on which school to attend because of degree/price or on the schools themselves (especially Georgetown, I don't know as much about the social life and other aspects of the school that I would like).</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>As for athletics, Georgetown has a nationally powerful lacrosse and the national championship sailing team so Georgetown people can sweat just as well as they do in the Big 10. </p>

<p>I think you will find that Georgetown offers a truly unique experience with students from all 50 states and probably over 100 countries. That kind of dynamic atmosphere, is something you will find at truly only a handful of schools. At most colleges, the largest 2 or 3 states provide the large majority of the student body. At Georgetown, it would probably take the first dozen or maybe more to get to 50%. </p>

<p>Washington is also a "big-time" city culturally with a top 5 opera company, major league teams in all the sports and world class free (Smithsonian, National Gallery) and unique (International Spy and Newseum) museums. </p>

<p>You also cannot discount the opportunities and campus "buzz" that comes from having the Albrights, Tenets, Lakes, Aznars, Hagels etc. teaching at the school. You have a real sense of being where the action is.</p>

<p>As for career and grad school-if you have above average grades you will get a warm welcome at all the top grad schools (that meant Columbia in my case).</p>

<p>Is all this worth the cost? I would say yes since you are not attending merely another top university, but are attending one with a set of unique attributes that very few schools anywhere can compete with. Lots of famous people have made the journey to Georgetown-check out the wikipedia alumni entry. Good Luck.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the reply :)</p>

<p>bump.</p>

4

<p>


</p>

<p>Since this is clearly a backhanded slap at my adopted hometown(s) of the Twin Cities, I'll just point out that:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Minneapolis-St.Paul has more theater seats and more professional theater productions per capita than any city in the United States after New York. Twin Cities theater companies like the Guthrie, Jeune Lune, the Children's Theater Company and others have won numerous Tony Awards for their outstanding original productions. The Penumbra Theatre Company is widely regarded as one of the nation's premier African-American theater companies, the place where Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, arguably the most important black playwright of the twentieth century, wrote and first staged his most important plays. The Twin Cities have become a mecca for acting and directing talent, rivaling Chicago as the nation's most important center for live theater after New York.</p></li>
<li><p>Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of two cities in the U.S. to support two full-time professional orchestras---the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, both highly acclaimed. (The other city is New York). The Twin Cities also support a lively popular music scene that over the years has produced such nationally acclaimed artists as Bob Dylan, Leo Kottke, Husker Du, the Replacements, and Prince.</p></li>
<li><p>Minneapolis-St. Paul is the third largest market for professional dance performances in the nation.</p></li>
<li><p>Minneapolis-St. Paul has highly regarded art museums including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center, the latter regarded as one of the "big five" museums of modern and contemporary art in the nation.</p></li>
<li><p>Minneapolis-St. Paul supports professional sports teams in all major sports (and most of its teams are better than Washington's), in addition to big-time college sports with the Big Ten Minnesota Gophers.</p></li>
<li><p>In a recent survey of America's "most literate" cities based on bookstore sales and library usage per capita, Minneapolis ranked #1 and St. Paul #3 (with Seattle wedged in between). The Twin Cities are also home to many highly acclaimed poets, novelists, essayists, and humorists, as well as a lively literary scene.</p></li>
<li><p>Minnesota Public Radio and its subsidiary American Public Media are the nation's most successful public broadcasting network, winners of 875 journalism awards, the nation's largest producer and distributor of classical music programming, and the producer and syndicator of such public broadcasting mainstays as A Prairie Home Companion, Marketplace, Marketplace Money, Speaking of Faith, The Splendid Table, and American Routes.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Washington does offer cultural opportunities, especially its free (federally subsidized) museums and numerous "imports" of top performers and productions from elsewhere. But IMHO when it comes to original cultural contributions, Washington takes a back seat to the Twin Cities in most significant areas.</p>

5

<p>Anyone with opinions regarding the schools as opposed to the cities?</p>

6

<p>FWIW, US News ranks the Georgetown and Minnesota undergraduate business programs tied at #21. I think that's a fair assessment as to how they're perceived among academics, and probably by business employers---both very strong programs, but neither at the very elite levels. Unless Georgetown is giving you enough money to make it cost-competitive with Minnesota, I personally would find it very difficult to justify spending the additional tens of thousands of dollars on a program that is likely to be of comparable quality and comparable value on your resume. There are other reasons to favor Georgetown: many students find DC a fun and exciting place to go to school, there are some benefits to being at a smaller school, and in certain circles the Georgetown nameplate carries more prestige value---though again, I think that's less true in business than in some other fields (and frankly there are a lot of academic fields where Minnesota is stronger than Georgetown, or at least closely competitive with it). But at the end of the day you need to decide how much those things are worth to you, and whether your money (or your parents') is best spent on them.</p>

7

<p>That's a tough choice, and it really comes down to what you want out of your college experience. They have very similar business programs, and they're both in the heart of world class cities with TONS to offer. G'Town caries more prestige in general, but UMN is a well respected school as well with many highly ranked programs. UMN would also probably be cheaper.... but it all comes down to what you want. You have the facts, now it's up to you and your parents or whoever to decide. And I feel your pain, I'm in a similar situation (with UMN as one of my top choices as well haha) and I know how hard it is to decide. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

8

<p>bclintonk: Minnesota is really ranked that high for business? In Businessweek its undergrad ranking was in the 50's with G'town right around 20. Do you have a link?</p>

<p>AT9: Yeah of course Minnesota will probably be cheaper, but I keep hearing how "amazing" G'town is. But of course it all depends next week if I even get into G'town.</p>

<p>Thanks you two! I'm thinking it's probably smarter to go with the cheaper school since I do plan on going on to grad school.</p>

9

<p>^ The US News link would work only if you subscribe to the online premium edition, for which you need to pay, but here's their 2009 edition top 25 for undergrad business:</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
4.8156</li>
<li> Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
4.6192</li>
<li> University of California--Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
4.4475
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI
4.4366</li>
<li> New York University, New York, NY
4.3038</li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
4.1725
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
4.1704
University of Texas--Austin, Austin, TX
4.1836
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
4.1776</li>
<li> University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
4.0672</li>
<li> Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
4.0286
Indiana University--Bloomington, Bloomington, IN
3.9542</li>
<li> Emory University, Atlanta, GA
3.9368
University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
3.9192
University of Wisconsin--Madison,Madison, WI
3.9044
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
3.8546</li>
<li> Ohio State University--Columbus, Columbus, OH
3.8008
Purdue University--West Lafayette, West Lafayette, IN
3.7974
University of Maryland--College Park, College Park, MD
3.791
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
3.7519</li>
<li> Georgetown University, Washington, DC
3.7326
Pennsylvania State University--University Park, University Park, PA
3.7421
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN
3.7325
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
3.6507</li>
<li> Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
3.5866
Babson College, Babson Park, MA
3.6166
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
3.5765
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
3.6169
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
3.6498</li>
</ol>

10

<p><a href="http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool_2009/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool_2009/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I don't see Minnesota anywhere on the list, Gtown is #24</p>

<p>Number of companies recruiting at Georgetown: 143
Number of companies recruiting at Minnesota: 95</p>

<p>Mean base salary after graduation- Georgetown: $ 55,913
Mean base salary after graduation at Minnesota: $ 49,169</p>

<p>I'll be attending Gtown in the fall, so I'm a little biased, and while I will admit that Minnesota has top-notch theatre and arts scenes, Washington DC is far, far from a cultural cesspool. If he was deciding purely on the arts scene, than Minneapolis would indeed have a slight edge, but this far from the most important factor. It's kind of a moot point because DC also has a thriving arts scene that rivals many top notch cities.</p>

<p>That being said, I think, as an aspiring business student, it's easy to tell that DC offers tons opportunities in the way of internships and employment. I don't know about Minnesota, but Georgetown has an incredible record of scoring their students top internship positions, and it's one of the major reasons students select Georgetown over other elite schools. In fact, many bankers are now saying that, in the wake of the recession, Washington DC has become the new financial capital of the United States.</p>

<p>Both are good, and you really can't go wrong, but if you're truly intent on pursuing business as a career path, I think Georgetown holds the advantage.</p>

11

<p>I think Minnesota is an excellent choice, but it really depends on what kind of experience you want and of course finances. Minnesota will give you the "Big Ten" experience and Georgetown will give you a diverse urban truly world city. Taking nothing away from the Twin Cities, but DC is where many of the world's power brokers congregate. However, I would not borrow more than 5K per year to go to G'Town (20K total) because Minnesota is a GREAT public university.</p>

12

<p>


</p>

<p>You need to go to the second page. Minnesota comes in #55 overall in the BW ranking. On the other hand, once you break down the individual categories, not all the comparisons are favorable to Georgetown. Minnesota comes out a little ahead of Georgetown in the "student survey rank" (#66, to #72 for Georgetown). Minnesota also gets As for "facilities & services" and "job placement", both categories in which Georgetown gets Cs. On the other hand Georgetown gets an A for teaching while Minnesota gets a C. Georgetown's lead in this survey comes from slightly higher starting salaries (not sure whether this is adjusted for regional cost-of-living differences), slightly higher test scores, a higher "recruiter survey rank" (though neither school is stellar on this score, with G'town at #51 and Minnesota at #84), and a slightly higher academic quality rank (G'town at #12, Minnesota a nonetheless highly respectable #27).</p>

<p>Combine these clearly mixed survey results with the US News ranking and I'd still say it's an awfully close call as between Georgetown and Minnesota for undergrad business. Given the cost differential it would be pretty much a no-brainer if I were making that decision.</p>

13

<p>As usual, my advice boils down to telling a student to go to the college farther from home, if admitted to more than one. In other words, I would flip one of your "cons" into a pro, and one of your "pros" into a con, for each college. It's a good thing to be away from home at college age. (I was a commuter to the U of MN, and got my first serious away-from-home experience after college graduation, when I lived abroad. I should have done something like that at a younger age.) </p>

<p>I live in Minnesota, and used to engage in business that brought me to DC for more than a month of each year, in all seasons of the year, and I like both cities.</p>

14

<p>bclintonk, I wasn't handpicking statistics, those were just some of the first I saw, and l think we can both agree that they're both great business schools. You're right in that the starting salary is probably a moot statistic in light of DC's sheer costliness, but I will still maintain that Washington DC offers larger business prospects than the twin cities. But, like I said, you really can't go wrong.</p>

<p>By the way, as far as finances go, Georgetown meets 100% of demonstrated need, and while this is far from a free ride, I've heard that they cap loans at around 3-4,000 per year, so the financial aid is, in most cases, very good.</p>

15

<p>University of Minnesota- Twin Cities easily.</p>

16

<p>The Businessweek rankings rely heavily on surveys which seem to swing somewhat wildly from year to year thus putting into question their accuracy and usefulness. GTown used to place better on Wall Street. With that greatly less likely at this time or if you don't care about WS placement go with UMinn.</p>