<p>I've been accepted into my top three business schools.
1) Wharton at UPenn
2) Stern at NYU
3) McCombs Business Honors at UT</p>
<p>I live in Texas so tuition+board for me at UT would only be be around 16,000 as compared to the other two which would cost me around 48,000. I know that Wharton is obviously the best one, but is it worth it in the end to pay the extra 128,000 by the time I graduate? I've heard the UT Business Honors Program is just as good as many of the top tier business colleges.</p>
<p>Any suggestions? And if it matters, I come a very noncompetitive high school so maybe I wouldn't be able to stand a chance at an ivy in the first place. I was really surprised I got into UPenn.</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptances. The major complaint I've read on these forums about Penn and NYU is that people don't like their campuses. I visited Penn recently with my daughter and she didn't like the campus at all. UT business school is very highly ranked so you can't go wrong provided you are ok with the big campus and large classes and all that. But if you were wanting to get out of Texas then both Penn and NYU are very good. I'm not a business expert so hopefully someone with business school knowledge will give you some feedback here. Good luck!</p>
<p>What are you thinking you want to do post-graduation? </p>
<p>If you intend on living and working in Texas, financial industry or otherwise, stay there as UT in Texas trumps even Wharton and definitely is better than NYU.</p>
<p>If you want to do Wall Street in NYC, then Wharton is your best shot, followed by NYU. But it's not like there aren't UT grads in Manhattan. There are, but it's just a path less followed and so you'll need to be a little more of a self-starter to get those positions. </p>
<p>I don't know if you have visited either of U Penn or NYU, but there is a world of difference in the schools, in the people, in the city life of those two colleges vs Austin, and the general campus culture (there really isn't much of one at NYU and, compared to UT, U Penn will seem spiritless). </p>
<p>One upside of U Penn and NYU is that it will give you those new experiences that excites some folks, but I'd probably suggest saving the $ and use it to travel and get those different experiences via other routes, eg, maybe take a semester or two abroad. </p>
<p>One other use for those extra dollars you might save is that you could use them for MBA school.</p>
<p>McCombs is certainly well-regarded and highly ranked. However, Wharton is really in a class by itself, and its reputation among employers both nationally and internationally will generally eclipse that of both McCombs and Stern. If you want to maximize your career options (geographically and otherwise), you can't beat Wharton.</p>
<p>Of course, if you know you want to stay in Texas, or be an accountant (McCombs has long been #1 in accounting), UT may be a good option. However, even in the Texas job market, a degree from Wharton could help to distinguish you from the thousands of McCombs grads running around the state.</p>
<p>Post #5 is probably the best advice that can be offered based on the limited info. in your original post. If tuition at Penn or NYU would require you to take out substantial student loans, then you might be best advised to save that money for graduate school. If money is not a major issue for you & your family, then you might want to consider the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania as it is regarded by many as the best business school in the U.S. and is well known throughout the world. After reading your prior posts, my opinion is that you would be most comfortable at the University of Texas. The business honors program is outstanding at Texas. Attending NYU or Wharton might be somewhat of a cultural shock for you, in my opinion. I am very familiar with the Northeast, the South and the Southwestern U.S. I have also visited all three schools.</p>
<p>One additional thought: I actually went to both Wharton (undergrad) and UT (law school), and so am very familiar with both campuses. I disagree with hawkette's characterization of the Penn campus as "spiritless" by comparison. They are just 2 different kinds of experiences and atmospheres. Compared to Penn, UT's campus is ENORMOUS, in both physical size and student population. It offers a large, flagship state university kind of experience, with all that entails. But rest assured, Penn's campus offers its own unique kind of spirit in abundance, in its context as a northeastern, urban, Ivy League school, including many on-and off-campus social and cultural opportunities that are more accessible to the average undergrad than they are at UT. And Penn students generally take and show great pride in their school, even if it doesn't take the form of 80,000 screaming fans at home football games.</p>
<p>Also, I personally prefer Penn's campus to UT's, with its older, more traditional charm (lots of gargoyles, courtyards, shaded paths, ivy, etc.) and quirky and unique historic architecture. It has many lovely areas, but it's obviously not a large state university campus like UT's. It's really a matter of personal preference, and only you can decide which you pefer.</p>
<p>45 percenter,
Within the Ivy League, U Penn is as spirited as any other college. But if you spent time at UT, then you must know that the spirit regularly displayed on its campus (and among its alumni in Texas) is in a class shared by only a handful of schools across the entire country. I'm not knocking U Penn and I agree that it is closer to cultural things like the Philly Art Museum, but comparing UT and U Penn on spirit would be like comparing U Penn and Wilkes College on spirit. It's not close.</p>
<p>hawkette, I guess it depends on your definition of "spirit." Similar to the discussion in the big-time national spectator sports threads, there are many different kinds of campus "spirit," attitudes, and atmospheres. If by "spirit" you mean only big-time spectator sports pep rallies, tailgate parties, and nationally significant games then yes, UT has "spirit" that schools like Penn could (and would) never hope to match. However, there are other kinds of "spirit"--and social life and activities--available on campuses like Penn's that are less abundant or accessible on large state university campuses like UT's. It's true that Penn's location in Philly offers an incredible array of off-campus cultural, entertainment, recreational, and dining opportunities. However, Penn also offers an amazingly diverse panoply of on-campus organizations and activities catering to many different ethnic, cultural, intellectual, and social interests which, because of Penn's smaller size and the greater geographical diversity and intellectual depth of its student body, provide a "spirit" that's less apparent on larger, more diffuse state university campuses such as UT's. There are many different kinds of vibrant spirit on college campuses, and the type of spirit associated with big-time spectator sports doesn't even begin to cover them.</p>
<p>thanks for the relly great advice guys. i love cc!</p>
<p>i plan to major in finance and do something in investment banking. i say bankING and not bankER because i don't necessarily want to be an ibanker and work the crazy hours but would like to do something similar of the sort even if it means lower pay. and I would really like to work in texas after i graduate. </p>
<p>from the responses you guys have given me, i'm leaning more towards ut honors instead of wharton. it's just the fact that i would be passing up one of the best business schools in the world that is still giving me doubts about my decision.</p>
<p>I'm by no means negating Penn's Business program is in a class by itself, but I think you're completing negating the very types of spirit that you think Penn has when dismissing large public research universities like UT. By virture of having 38,000 undergrads from a state with a population as diverse as Texas, and something like 5000 international students, there is literally a club, social outlet, or other special interest group for everyone at a school the size of UT. If you're comparing cultural/intellectual resources available directly on campus, it needs to be pointed out that UT has a library on campus that neither Penn nor NYU can come anywhere close to matching - the Ransom Humanities Research Center is considered by many scholars as of the greatest libraries in the world. (NYU of course has nearby access to the NYPL and Morgan). UT also has the largest art museum on any university campus, with a vast collection of art from antiquity to the Renaissance to the cutting edge, and one of the top performing arts center complexes on any US campus. No, it's FAR from just, as you say, "big-time spectator sports pep rallies, tailgate parties, and nationally significant games "</p>
<p>I live in Austin and am into McCombs as well. But you really cannot pass up Wharton. If you ever were to change your mind on where you want to live or what sector of business you want to pursue, Wharton will set you up regardless. McCombs fits with accounting, and also for a future in Texas/Southern business, but it really is not recognized as highly across the nation. Go to Wharton, many people, myself included, would kill to have that kind of opportunity.</p>
<p>JWT86, I think you misunderstood the point I was making. I am very familiar with the UT campus (went to law school there), and agree that it possesses some phenomenal cultural assets, as well as numerous academic and extracurricular offerings. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of the school.</p>
<p>But my statement was intended as a response to hawkette, who called Penn (where I went to undergrad) "spiritless" compared to UT (see post #5 above). Additionally, hawkette has expressed in NUMEROUS threads on CC her preference for big-time national sports programs, and her belief that schools that don't have them are deficient as a result. In that context, I'm confident that hawkette was referring to Penn's lack of a national sports program (and the associated pep rallies, tailgate parties, etc.) when she said it was "spiritless" compared to UT, and was not using that term to compare the cultural and extracurricular offerings of the two schools. Accordingly, the point I was trying to make to hawkette was that there are many different kinds of "spirit" that a school can have, and that a big time sports culture is only one particular aspect of that.</p>
<p>Clearly, UT has many different facets to its "spirit," with its big-time sports program being only one of those. But schools like Penn also have a many-faceted "spirit" that is just as vibrant in its own way as UT's, even without the big sports component. So, although I may not have expressed it as well as I should have, what I intended to convey is that big sports programs alone do not determine whether a school has "spirit," whether that school be UT or Penn or any other; and that Penn has a strong and vibrant spirit that is unique to it and, while different from UT's, is not inferior to that found at UT (contrary to the clear implication of hawkette's "spiritless" comment).</p>
<p>You and I are on the same page, as we both believe that a school's spirit consists of many more dimensions than just the caliber and support of its sports teams.</p>
<p>If the OP wants to do INvestment Banking, i.e. most likely NYC, you would be a fool not to attend Wharton. Mccombs is good, but for IB it is not close...of course you can point to people who went into IB from Mccombs, but for connections and recruiting by the firms that play at the highest levels, e.g. Goldman Sachs it will be very hard to if you don't come a typical feeder school...these people (read: Hawkette aka anti-IVY ;) are really causing you to make a BIG mistake. For liberal arts UT vs. Penn vs. NYU fine I will listen to the arguements, but for IB...IB...IB...which is all about pedigree you will be in for a tough time.</p>