Hi – son accepted at Miami Ohio (history), Univ of South Carolina (biz), Clemson (biz), Elon (biz) and Auburn (biz)? Not sure how to direct him on where to go when he asks my thoughts. Looking for med-big school, lots of school spirit, good reputation post-grad for jobs, etc. Elon is the outlier.
Any thoughts welcome!
What’s biz?
biz schools
You mean big schools? No such word as biz
I mean undergraduate business school programs – i.e., Harbert College of Business at Auburn U.
Biz is short for business program
I would go USC Columbia, Elon, Auburn/Clemson/Miami OH.
What’s your net cost at each?
Did he get honors college at any of those?
MYOS1634, in that order??
Yes.
USC Business is very strong. (You don’t mention if he tried for one of the “cohort” programs so I’m guessing he didn’t, but it’s still a really good business school with strong industry connections and rigorous foundations that make it respectable in many markets including outside of SC.)
Elon has superb networking opportunities and career placement.
Clemson and Auburn are good, but not as good as the above for business; Miami is noted for business and history is good, but if he wants to study business going there for history sounds a bit counterproductive (although history is a great field of study and he could get a business certificate).
The matter of getting “honors” anywhere also matters - USC has a top 10 honors college, truly elite; Clemson also has a top-notch honors college. It’d tip the scales in my opinion.
Finally, you have the matter of value: what’s the net price at each?
Check out Farmer’s School of Business at Miami. It is very impressive and has an excellent reputation.
Miami is amazing… Certainly one of the top 5 prettiest campuses in the county. Great academics too. But compared to the others, not big time sports & a relatively snooty student body. So it’s great, but different from Auburn, Clemson, & S. Carolina ( & apparently u didn’t get into biz school there). While there might be a difference in quality of biz schools at Clemson, Auburn, & USC, I’d have no qualms about choosing whichever of those 3 is cheaper.
US News, Bloomberg, and Forbes publish business school rankings.
Here’s Bloomberg’s for undergraduate programs:
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-best-undergrad-business-schools/
USC and Clemson didn’t show up on the Bloomberg list (unless I missed seeing them). Elon was ranked #48. Is the Bloomberg ranking simply incorrect?
I would not use the Bloomberg rankings for any decision. The rankings were so embarrasingly off this year that Bloomberg has said that they will no longer rank undergraduate b-schools. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Does-Villanova-really-have-a-much-better-business-school-than-Wharton-.html
If I were looking at this I would probably first take out the outlier that doesn’t meet your stated criteria (Elon). Then the decision is does your S want history or business. If he wants business (which I’m guessing is the case since it is the vast majority of the applications) then you have 3 alternatives Clemson, Univ. of SC, and Auburn. From those see what is most affordable, which environment he prefers etc.
@happy1 The Bloomberg rankings are looking pretty accurate right about now. :-?
Maybe Wharton isn’t everything it claims itself to be??? :^o
IF you agree with the methodology that bloomberg uses, feel free to use them. As with any ranking, you should always see the methodology behind it to see if you agree with it. For example, USNews uses a system of self-assessment to judge business schools (way less useful than bloomberg IMO)
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/undergraduate-business-programs-methodology
“The U.S. News undergraduate business school rankings are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty members at peer institutions.” - And that’s somehow supposed to be reliable? Especially when it’s on a scale of 1to5?
Princeton Review, USNews, Brookings, Bloomberg, PayScale, etc all use different means, and neither can be conclusively proved as being more valuable than others.
BTW, why is Elon an outlier?
@Mastadon
–I don’t think CC’s College Search and Selection page is the appropriate place for political discussion by my personal opinions of Trump as president aside: 1) he was successful as a businessman and Wharton is a b-school not a political college; and 2) nobody should discount any college because they don’t like one high profile graduate (for example do you want to say Harvard isn’t a top tier college because Ted Kaczynski went there?). And BTW Wharton is not one of the OP’s choices.
–For the record I don’t think any rankings should be the sole decision maker as to what college is best as other factors as important as well (ex. affordability, fit etc.) . A solid ranking can help a person understand what tier a college falls in, but that’s about it IMO.
–Certainly if the OP analyzes the metrics of the Bloomberg ranking or any other ranking he/she should feel free to use them in the decision process. But I thought it was worth pointing out that the group releasing the survey felt the results were flawed.
@philbegas
The OP used the word “outlier” I would assume because Elon is the only private school and it may not have the level of “school spirit” that the OP seems be looking for. But Elon would be a fine choice if the OP could be happy with the attributes of the school.
I stand by my belief that they only said the results were flawed due to the negative criticism they received. But, many dead horses have been beaten beyond recognition on CC due to these arguments, so I just try to emphasize the importance of seeing the methodology 
I think Elon is probably the best business school, but it’s not a huge difference between it and the others on the list.
@philbegas We will have to disagree on this. Based on my 35+ years of working in the business world, I find these rankings flawed (not only at the top but all the way through). I also find some of the metrics used in conducting the ranking problematic. (Note that I’m saying this despite the fact that my S’s alma mater came out very very well on this survey.)
@philbegas The comments below highlight many of the problems I have with the Bloomberg survey. https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pulse/commentary-todays-bloomberg-businessweeks-business-ranking-byrne