Hi, I’m new to the forum and need help in making a college list for Senior in high school. Interested in business schools with finance and economy major. SAT 1510 and 3.97 GPA, 7 APs Till junior year and May be 4 more APs in senior year, rank top 10% of class. leadership positions in clubs and extracurricular activities. Checked the US NEWS but was wondering all IVies don’t appear in top 10 not sure why. Please advise which ranking to be followed and are ivies within reach with the scope and GPA.
Business may not be available as a major at some of the prominent colleges of which you’ve mentioned an interest. For an indication of the strength of the economics programs across schools of various types, you could consider these analyses:
Thanks for rankings link. Can you all chance me,based on credentials in my original post, I’m not sure about my chances on getting in Ivies…
nyu and uva both have great business programs that you could consider applying to with your statistics and extracurriculars!
Hey! Could you take a look at my college list. I’m an international student applying for a Biomedical Engineering Major; GPA: 4.0 with good extracurriculars
UPenn
Boston University
Northeastern University
UMass Amherst
Drexel University
IIT
Thanks,
Added UVA TO LIST,
So far more college list for finance undergrad
UPenn
UC Berkeley
UT Austin
NYU
Indiana University
UVA
Still I feel I need to add some more colleges, can anyone help to add good finance undergrad schools?
The schools on your list are highly ranked and you would be competitive but they’re expensive. Can you afford $60-75,000/year? What’s you’re in-state option? You need a few safety options.
Look into the University of Richmond, @dreamiv2020.
hi I am in a similar boat to you looking for finance/ economics in undergrad. I have a 36 ACT, top 10%, 13 AP’s + 6 next year. I think all of your colleges are pretty much reaches, as they are with me, with UT Austin and UVA maybe a bit more target. Add some more safeties if possible: mine are UFlorida, UPitt, PennState, Villanova, Indiana, and Fordham. Most of these will offer merit aid for me which is my I chose them. If money isn’t a problem, your list seems pretty good with Indiana being a solid choice (you’ll prolly get merit aid of max 11k so about 40k per year COA if OOS).
@merc81 why do you recommend richmond? I asked in another post for some good finance safeties and everyone said Richmond… but I’m skeptical to the amount of merit aid I would get and whether its program is worth it (ranked 87 for undergrad business by us news) I ask because I just visited. It’s a small school, pretty but not much to do and everything is spread out.
I would say IU is a safety and UVA and UT are “reach” targets unless you are in state.
IU Kelley is a guaranteed admit (with scholarship) due to your ACT and GPA.
UVA OOS numbers last year were 33-35ACT with a 19% acceptance rate and I assume that will be more competitive following a National Championship in basketball. Also, to get into McIntire, you apply during your second year for admission the next year. Average GPA has been a 3.7 at UVA for acceptance to McIntire.
UT is skewed heavily toward in state admission with only 8% of the class being OOS so acceptance there can be really unpredictable.
I recommended Richmond partly because of its undergraduate-oriented scale, @tchit87. For an opinion on its business program other than that available through USN, you can consider these comments from Poets and Quants:
I hope this reply helps you too, @dreamivy.
https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2018/01/17/10-undergraduate-business-schools-watch-2018/3/
@ chmcnm, my safely are Texas A&M, UT Dallas,
@tchit87, how you get merit scholarships, I’m in Texas so UT Austin is kind of target still, how you picked up your safeties , looks like they all are in different states, are u in PA. How did you decide about those colleges, based on some rankings? I saw top 15 colleges ranking, are you considering those as well. How many colleges u applying.
@merc81, I’ll look into Richmond.
I’m still wondering, does ivies don’t have good finance undergrad programs, though it hard to get in with my stats…
@ Cavitee, UT Austin is instate for me, in UVA , how hard to get in 2nd yr, same as UcBerkley…it’s hard if you don’t get in
Have you considered SMU in Dallas ? You should be given consideration for a merit scholarship.
Also consider the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Look at Poets and Quants undergrad business rankings. Finance is usually part of the business school.
If you’re interested in Economics then your list might change. Econ is usually part of Arts/Sciences at most schools. Some schools with good Econ programs don’t have a business school and vice versa. Some have both.
You’re lucky to have so many great in-state options. You probably could add SMU and Rice to your list. I believe Rice only offers an undergrad Econ degree and no business school for undergrads. However a top notch graduate business program.
Most top economics programs offer courses in areas such as corporate finance, financial economics, international finance and financial econometrics. Complemented by significant coursework, or even a major, in mathematics, you may be able to create the equivalent of a finance major even though you will not have taken designated “business” courses. If you’d like options designated as business courses, then, within the Ivies, look primarily to Penn and Cornell.
BC, Villanova, Wake Forest, Lehigh, UNC-CH, Georgetown
@Publisher, thanks, yes I gave added both SMU and Ross business school to list.
@merc81 thanks Added Cornell to list,
@ chmcnmI’m not sure about other ivies and doing Economy and selecting courses, will need the do more research
@rickle1 thanks, I’ll do more research on these, are these based on some rankings, if you can share
They show up in most of the business school related rankings (Money, Forbes, Poets & Quants - my personal favorite). I’d add Notre Dame. In addition to great academics, these schools have excellent alumni reach. That’s very helpful with job search in uber competitive fields.
On a personal level, we took a close look at many of these (visits, discussions with B School leaders) and S attends one. Very accomplished kids that are “going places”.
Thanks rickle1,
now challenge is to shortlist from my list and us news top 15 below
Safety
SMU,
A&M,
Reach
UPenn
UC Berkeley
UT Austin
NYU
Indiana University
UVA
Ross business school
Cornell University
BC,
Villanova,
Wake Forest,
Lehigh,
UNC-CH,
Georgetown
2019 U.S. News Ranking: Undergraduate Finance Programs
2019 Rank School
1 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
2 New York University (Stern)
3 MIT (Sloan)
4 University of Michigan (Ross)
5 University of Texas (McCombs)
6 University of California-Berkeley (Haas)
7 Indiana University (Kelley)
8 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
9 Boston College (Carroll)
10 University of Virginia (McIntire)
11 University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)
12 Ohio State University (Fisher)
13 Cornell University (Dyson)
13 Georgetown University (McDonough)
15 Fordham University (Gabelli)
15 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)
How to decide among all these good college options, just visited UT AUSTIN, Georgetown, UVA ONLY.
No plans to visit others till after applications done, any advise? Thanks
I would suggest not being so focused on the rankings list. Try to define what would make the best overall experience and within that, choose schools that have great finance programs. For example, S had no interest (for whatever reason) in attending an urban school so that took Penn off the table. You could argue that’s a mistake because it’s such a great finance school (maybe the best), BUT he didn’t want to spend 4 years in Philly, so no Penn.
He refined a “fit list” after visiting different types of schools and then ultimately applied to strong / top B schools within those parameters.
My greater point is, there are lots of great schools (on and off the lists you’ll find). Focus on what you want out of your college experience and choose schools that afford the best chance of accomplishing your goals.