Business Major School Suggestions

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I am currently a junior in high school looking for recommendations on what colleges I should apply to as a business major. The only highly ranked business school I can think of is Indiana (Kelley) that meets my stats. So, I am asking for your recommendations on safeties, targets, and reaches for college with a major in business in mind.

Stats:

  • 3.17 UW GPA, 3.71 W GPA (will be GPA on transcript)
  • Have taken all honors course throughout high school
  • 1490 SAT
  • Before junior year I had a 3.32 W GPA. I wasn’t a very mature person and I decided to put more effort into my studies. This commitment got me a junior year GPA of 3.7 UW and a 4.37 W GPA

Extra-Curricular’s:

  • Participated in fall and spring sports every year of high school, will be a captain next year
  • Involved in three service clubs and one business club
  • Worked summer job for past three years culminating in 750 hours of work
2

What state do you live in?

What is your budget?

Are you looking for general business, or something specific like accounting or actuarial sciences?

What math class will you have senior year?

3

I live in Illinois and go to a well regarded high school. Budget thankfully isn’t an issue for me. I am looking at a major in finance. My math class senior year will be pre-calc and trigonometry.

4

If IU is affordable that will be a good choice for you because you fulfill the direct admit criteria…so that’s likely close to a safety (although they do like Kelley applicants to have calc, AP Calc, or AP Stats). I recommend you apply EA. Does that school appeal to you?

If not what are you looking for in a school beyond a finance major? Size, geography, setting, etc.

UIUC Geis would probably be a reach for your stats. Does your school use Naviance? That is very helpful to search for schools with finance majors (and you can define other criteria), as well as for categorizing schools based on the scattergram data. You can check IU’s scattergram there too.

5

Hey 21undecided21,

Finding the best fit school is always a big task. I have been in college advising for 6 years and I do focus on helping business-minded students find the right fit.

I guess I have two questions to get started.

What is the end goal with a finance major? There may be schools you want to look into that will have a great minor that will accompany that finance major.

What types of internship opportunities would you want while in college and what type of support would you expect from your college?

Just curious, I may be able to help.

Look forward to hearing back from you.

6

@Mwfan1921 the OP doesn’t satisfy the IU Kelly Direct admit criteria.

Earned a cumulative GPA of 3.8 on a 4.0 scale in high school. We will use the highest GPA that is sent to IU Admissions from your official high school transcript. In most cases this is the weighted GPA.

7

Thank you for the correction. I was stuck in the past when the Kelley DA gpa requirement was 3.7.

If OP does apply to IU, they should immediately file the Kelley petition, as they meet the test score criteria, but not gpa. https://kelley.iu.edu/programs/undergrad/admissions/future-freshman.cshtml

8

We went through the business school search this year for S20. Your GPA will be the tough sell for top schools. Your SAT is very competitive. Do you have any location or schools size preferences? That said, if you’re full-pay that’s probably a hook going forward because of the damage done to budgets because of Covid. Your GPA is the wild-card.

Gies would be an obvious choice. You need a few safety schools that you would be happy to attend. SMU might be an option.

Here’s a good place to start.

https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2019/12/20/wharton-again-tops-pqs-best-undergraduate-b-schools-of-2020/5/

9

The P&Q ranking linked above places Indiana-Kelley at #33.

With a 1490 SAT & a sub-3.20 GPA, you may face some challenges at the top ranked business schools. Being a full pay student will help, however.

OP: Are you sure that only your weighted GPA of 3.7 will appear on your transcript ?

What is the Math score of your 1490 SAT ?

SMU, Fordham, Villanova, Univ. of Richmond are a few to consider. Lehigh University for finance is another.

Also, BU, BC, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest University, & TCU.

10

Thanks for the replies! I have been researching colleges and have referenced the poets rankings and Naviance. I have come up with eight schools that I really am gravitating towards which are Indiana (would need to petition), SMU, Santa Clara, Tulane, TCU, Illinois, Syracuse, and Bucknell.

11

Regarding Tulane, it will be a reach for you (and pretty much everyone else). If you can afford it and you really want to go there, I would apply ED as their overall acceptance rate is 13% (2019). It’s an extremely popular college but pricey.

12

Take a look at the University of Richmond.

https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2018/01/17/10-undergraduate-business-schools-watch-2018/3/

13

Take a look at the schools on this list. Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Penn State and ASU all come to mind with your stats.

https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2017/09/11/wharton-tops-u-s-news-ranking-undergrad-business-schools/2/

14

BU, BC and Wake are highly unlikely with that GPA. Even if the weighted is the only thing listed on the transcript, all those B’s (and likely some C’s) will stand out like a sore thumb.