We recently took a tour of the biz school and came away impressed with the students and their presentation. One mentioned that 20% of all Apple employees come from SLO, which I found hard to believe. They also mentioned 100% placement for accounting majors, but I doubt my son is interested in accounting. Would appreciate thoughts on the biz school for internship opportunities as well as job placements for non-accounting majors. Son is also looking at SMU and Brandeis, which even with merit aid, are significantly more expensive options. Thanks.
My son is a ME, but his roommate is in the bschool. He enjoys it and has, by choice not by need, an advising job within the college. He chose Poly from out of state.
As for Apple, 20% seems high! but they do hire a lot of Poly grads. They have multi-week networking sessions on campus at least once a year, maybe more.
In my opinion there’s only one, maybe two bschools worth a significant premium and that’s for the network not the education. That’s Harvard and Wharton. Take that with a grain of salt though. I’m not a business major and those connections are largely upper east coast. Again, JMHO.
Hi there, the statistic about Apple is a bit inflated. However, I believe that Berkeley is the only university with more hires at Apple(but they’re also more than double the student body). The Chief Financial Officer at Apple is a Cal Poly alum, so that’s brought a major push from Silicon Valley in recent years to recruit for Finance on top of engineering from Cal Poly.
Thanks for your responses. I do believe that 20% is a bit inflated. The SLO alum resigned from Apple CFO position last year. But based on the presentation, it doesn’t seem to have impacted recruitment by Silicon Valley.
SMU seems to have an amazing internship and placement record in Dallas area. Our son will probably want to return to California if he attends school outside of state, so that’s something to think about. Brandeis has better name recognition, but awareness isn’t quite as strong on the west coast I’m sure. We plan to visit SLO this weekend again, followed by Brandeis and SMU next week so son can make an informed decision. Will have to stop by financial aid office at each stop except SLO. Thanks again.
@cadave I have a senior in the bus school and have a background in business and have recruited nationally for a F100 tech company. Cal Poly is well regarded in CA and in the tech community. If your student wants to work in CA I see no reason to pay a premium for Brandeis or SMU. My son started his own company and received investor funding and has been running with a staff on payroll for 2 years while at Cal Poly. He Runs up to the Bay Area regularly – has had help from Poly alums there. Jobs and internships are not difficult to get–either in Finance per his friends at Poly.
Thanks @Dadfan Our concern about SLO is that its located in a remote location, although the town is beautiful. Another concern is if our son finds business is not his calling and wanted to change majors, it would be quite difficult at SLO. Has your son been able to balance his biz classes with liberal arts courses at SLO?
Changing majors at SLO is not as hard as the reputation holds. All that’s required are a few forms and a specific GPA threshold.
Thanks @NLinsanity we will ask how to change majors when we visit tomorrow.
http://advising.calpoly.edu/change-major
There you go. It includes links to every colleges specific requirements.
@cadave is the concern about location related to business recruiting or that your student prefers urban environment? If the former – no concerns plenty of companies recruiting within easy drive of LA and Bay Area. My student was into exploring lots of different business disciplines (finance, marketing, entrepreneurship) and taking software programming courses and was able to do so as the Business Major has room for lots of open electives – if your student prefers to fill them with Liberal Arts courses—should have no problem doing so.
@Dadfan Sorry for the late reply. We just go back from visiting SLO, Brandeis and SMU so didn’t get a chance to check the board. Our concern is that son would prefer a more urban area. I think as far as internship opportunities and job placement after graduation is concerned, we’re satisfied with SLO. What we’re not quite sure is if he’ll be able to grow as a person as much as if he’d gone to a school with a different culture than what he grew up with. Thanks all for your input. I appreciate it.
The college experience (and thus indirectly growth as an individual) is largely determined by what the student puts into it regardless of where they go. A cloistered student at Harvard will have far less to show for their time than an active engaged student at Podunk U. In the final analysis, he should go where his gut tells him to go. They are all good and no school is without its drawbacks. Good luck!